If I had a choice not to give this business any stars, I would. But since I have to select a star, I chose the minimum rating! This was the worst waist of money, time & effort I've ever spent. I tried to support a young minority business, but this was the worst mistake ever! For this to be a "Landscaping" company they surely don't seem to know a lot about landscaping. I took a chance on hiring this service, based on a mutual relationship with a licensed electrician I hired, who has been doing great work! This is why he's still doing more work for me. This landscaper told me that he can re-vamp my rock bed, get rid of all the grass & weeds, plant the shrubs and flowers I wanted in certain areas & guaranteed the grass & weeds will not grow back. He even stated that if they did start to grow, he would take care of it! I emphasized to the owner that I did not want to have to spend a lot of money to have the beds redone again & how I could not be the one to maintain them, due to my allergies. He assured me that I wouldn't have to redo the job & he will ensure to maintain the bed so the grass & weeds would not grow back again. Below is a short list of the many issues I've had with this company:
1. The person I spoke to about doing the job (the owner) does not do any of the work. He was always on his phone, sitting in the truck, or running errands. It's okay to have someone else to do the work for you, but the ownership of ensuring the job is done right, rest in the hands of the owner. He never would take full ownership of his employees mistakes & take the necessary steps to ensure the work is done right in timely manner.
2. Apparently one of the workers he hired, seemed to have just come home from jail/prison (discovered through the conversations with him). This was not very comforting being a single female homeowner.
3. I had to tell the workers not to smoke while working on my property. This should be a standard rule, unless they asked the owner of the property if it was okay.
4. My neighbor also informed me that when I wasn't home, they were being very loud using foul language & carrying on terribly.
5. I informed the owner that there were some annuals already planted beneath the existing bed that should be kept. Well he threw them away!
6. The initial job did not have enough rocks in place to completely cover the area. The owner assured me that he would bring 4 more bags of rocks to fully cover the beds. Eventually he did...several weeks later. He also did not put any liner down as my research has indicated that you should lay weed-resistant fabric on the ground to prevent the weed growth (http://m.wikihow.com/build-a-rock-garden-with-weed-prevention)
7. He planted the rock bed 1st & the shrubs/flowers later. Well the professionals at the nursery informed me that the shrubs/flowers should have been planted first & then the rocks placed around them. Well they did it backwards and ended up having dirty rocks on top, just as the nursery said would happen. He also did not plant the shrubs & flowers according to the instructions. They were too close, and I later discovered that the roots were not planted deep enough. They even covered the flower beds with rocks, after I even explained to the owner that you have to ensure to leave enough soil area for the plants to grow & not cover them with the rocks, which will stunt the growth.
8. It took them two weeks to come back & replant the plants. I later discovered that they did not move all of the roots (after seeing 1 starting to grow through the rocks). I had to dig up that root & replant it in the area where the other flowers were placed.
9. It wasn't noticeable at first, but I later discovered that they left a huge gap in between the red bricks that served as the outline for the rock bed. The gap was not big enough to simply insert another brick. The space should have been filled with the bricks going back towards the house. If there was not enough brick to fill the spaces, the gap should have been left at the end near the house, not the front of the porch where everyone could see it!
10. Worst of all, the main thing that I didn't want to happen began to happen in less than a month of the initial rock bed job...the grass & weeds began to grow through the rocks! I reported the issue to the owner and he never came back to fix the problem. He kept giving me one invalid & unacceptable excuse after another! I finally just pulled as much of the grass & weeds up as I can & covered the rock areas with weed & grass liquid prevention, hoping that it helps...all while having a constant allergic reaction to the grass.
Overall, I wish I had not made the choice to support this young minority business. My advice would be to use someone who is more stable, seasoned, takes more pride in their work & believes in providing exceptional customer & professional services! DON'T WAIST YOUR MONEY, TIME & EFFORT on All Around Services! read more
