There were some good things about my experiences with Austin Lushscapes, but there were also some extremely terrible things. I will do my best to explain them both with limited words.
Everything started out well. The communication between him, my husband, and I was there, and his arborist did a wonderful job clearing out the forest in our backyard. But then it went rapidly downhill.
On the day that just the drainage was meant to installed, Michael and his crew arrived with all the grass we had ordered and plants to put in the flower beds. He said that the grass came in early, so we would just do everything now. My husband and I went with it, despite the fact that we had counted on the projects being spread out for weeks as Michael previously told us due to our need to budget after buying a new house. We were excited for our new yard!
I immediately noticed that the plants Michael and I had discussed for the flower beds were not the ones I was seeing on the driveway. When I asked him about this, he said he couldn't find what I had asked for, and had gone to 5 different nurseries to even find what he had. Why didn't he call and discuss this with me? Ask me what plants I would want instead in the beds that I am paying him to do? What he ended up installing I hated, and was nothing like what we previously talked about. He also failed to make beds around our two trees in the front yard as I requested. He originally offered to redo the beds for free, but I turned this down because I felt my lack of communication about my displeasure with the plants he choose put me at fault. Now I wonder if he would have even carried this offer out in the long run.
That day, Michael also informed us that due to the amount of debris and bricks in our backyard that were revealed once the leaves were removed, he would have to charge us more for the demolition, about an extra 1500 or so. Okay, understandable. But he also VASTLY underestimated the amount of grass we needed for the backyard. About 1/4 of the backyard has grass at this moment. Michael claims he thought there was more grass in the backyard under the leaves and debris, and that he had to use more for the front yard. I just don't understand how someone can underestimate the amount of grass needed that significantly.
Also, we ended up having some major issues with our irrigation system. Because my husband and I had agreed to a before and after video of his work on our house, Michael was going to fix our irrigation system for free. This turned into a massive project. Michael kept his word, but torn up some of new grass in the process, and left massive piles of dirt in our front yard. When asked about this, he claims we told him the inspector said that our irrigation system was fine. NO, we did not. Our inspection report states he didn't test it due to the condition of the backyard at the time of inspection. There's no way we told him that.
When Michael left the project after finishing what he could, it was with the promise of getting back to us about the quote for the rest of grass, the fixing of the flower beds, and the beds around the trees. His instructions to my husband about watering the yard was "keep it swampy" and when asked for anything more specific, he was unable to give us anything more specific and just stated that "when he had new plants, basically if I'm not sleeping or working, I'm out watering." So, we watered like crazy.
Fast forward to now. After having not gotten the quotes for weeks, most of the plants in one of the beds dying, finding out some of the plants he planted were annuals and not perennials like he charged us for, and not hearing from Michael despite trying to contact him upwards of three times to discuss these things and other issues, we decided to give up and find a new landscaper in the spring.
We heard from Michael yesterday in an email. He had gotten a new email account and our emails had been sent to spam. No real apology for anything. Stated whoever we had talked to did not know plants, but the person we talked to owned a nursery for decades. And decided to add this at the bottom :
"The grass and flowers need to be hand watered daily for the first 30 days, every other day for the next 2 weeks and then every third day for the next 2 weeks then twice a week with regular irrigation (or whatever your neighborhood observes for water restrictions) We discussed this the last day I was there. Then you called me and we discussed it again. If I haven't sent this in writing before I want to make sure I do it now."
NO HE DID NOT. He never, ever discussed this with us. I'm not sure if he is just mistaken about many, many things, or just outright lying to us. And I really don't understand the comment at the bottom. It has been 30 days since everything was planted. These instructions do nothing for us now.
Bottom line: I will not be continuing to use Michael as a landscaper, and I do not recommend him. read more