Having worked with many contractors over the years, I have become painfully familiar with the stress the comes with feeling like I have to oversee every aspect of a project to ensure that (a) the work is completed as discussed, and (b) we don't blow past our budget. The golden question: Is it worth a bit of a premium to hand a project over to a true professional who will manage every facet of a project? In the case of working with Blue Sky, the answer is a resounding yes. KC, the project lead, is exemplary at every facet of his job. We described what we were seeking, and after a short visit to our house, he came up with a detailed plan that perfectly matched our vision. Instead of thinking, "Well, that's not quite what we had in mind..," we found ourselves saying, "We should have thought of that!" Every suggestion he made was perfectly on point, and better yet, when we asked him inane questions (which was a regular occurrence), he displayed unusual patience in answering. He also didn't flinch when we wavered back and forth on our choice of plantings, and instead carefully explained the pros of cons of various options. When we wanted to tweak a facet of the plan, he was always more than happy to try to accommodate our wishes. After the crew installed a beautiful bluestone patio, we realized that one of the stones didn't look right to us -- the color was off. KC agreed and his crew quickly rectified the issue, which involved a fair amount of work. Talk about customer service! It's clear that KC and his team take great pride in their work. It's such an unusual and wonderful experience to work with a team that continually does more than expected, and on a fixed price contract. Each time I had a question about some facet of the project, I found that KC's team had gone above and beyond and installed a top-quality solution, whether my question pertained to drainage, lighting, or electrical. I can't imagine working with a nicer team and a more intelligent, articulate team lead than KC. We were a bit hesitant to embark on this project due to budgetary constraints, but we are overjoyed that we did. Blue Sky has continually surprised and delighted us. read more

I'd give 4.5 stars if I could. Overall, Blue Sky Designs did a fantastic job, and ahead of schedule. Were they expensive? Well... you get what you pay for, and that's QUALITY WORK. Also, they pay their people a fair wage and I respect that. It was worth a small premium to know the work would be done right the first time, and if it wasn't, they would make it right, no excuses. Their employees were great. They showed up on time, were friendly, and did a professional job. You can't ask for more than that. They widened my driveway by 7 feet, extended some wooden fencing, installed a fake lawn in the back, as well as put in a putting green - both look very natural. Also, they ripped out all the existing concrete and plantings and put in a new concrete path and areas for furniture, as well as all new plantings and installed lights. One thing I will say is that, for the money, I was expecting to be shown several options. I was asked what I wanted, and, not being a landscape designer, I threw out a few things I had in mind, but was really hoping for something unique and inspired by their creative team of landscape design professionals. I was looking for someone to say, "A water feature over here, and a fireplace here, and outdoor kitchen here, and a stone wall here, and a pergola over there..." - and show me 3D renderings of several options. What I got was... what I had in mind! LOL Not actually a bad thing. Fortunately, I have good taste. Granted, I wasn't considering an outdoor kitchen or a water feature, but really just looking for someone creative to make the most of a relatively small space. They did, however, take the few things I threw out there and brought it to life, so there's credit due there, for sure. My thinking was just, "I'm not a designer. I'm looking for them to be the designer". And they were; but I was expecting more from them on a higher-concept level that I could consider and buy into. But.. I'm happy with what came out of it, so... 4.5 stars. :) My only real "complaint" would be that it was difficult/impossible to figure out what I was paying for for plants and labor, as they just provided a list of plants and a total cost. Things like this are a LITTLE fluid and changes are normal, so it would have been nice to understand the cost ramifications of removing or adding plants, up front. Several attempts at getting these numbers were only marginally successful, and nothing in writing. But, as I said, overall this was a positive experience with a well-oiled team of landscapers, and, if you have the budget for it, I would highly recommend them. read more

I've had the opportunity to work with Blue Sky on various parts of my front and back yard. They did a fantastic job, from beginning to end. I've also has them come out for a couple of maintenance requests. Each time they've been punctual, professional, and extremely knowledgeable. Our main project with them was extensive and involved a concrete pour and redesigning much of the backyard, including a drop-in bbq with attached fireplace. Within 1 week of contacting them, we received a proposal, and within 1.5 weeks of us signing a contract, they started work. They came in ~5% over the original price quotes and completed on time. Now stop for a moment. Did you catch that ON TIME bit? If you're new to this game, this is like capturing a unicorn...nearly unheard of. Over the past couple of years we've asked them to perform some minor work here and there (tie back some plants, fix the drip irrigation because a foreign object got in the main line). It's to be expected in any big project that large items should work well, but not every plant may take root, but the vast majority should. They've been responsive to our follow-up calls and questions and come out within a week of every one of our non-urgent calls. They also made a few minor improvements for which they didn't bill (e.g. level out the existing sandy walkway), but did the work because it would make it look better. That's service for you. Lastly - they're a great group of guys (and gal) who take pride in their work. The pictures on their website tell an amazing story. No, they're not cheap, but the owner (Ken) treat his crews with respect, and they're a local small business. They may not come in with the lowest bid but I've heard too many horror stories of friends going with the lowest bidder, with horrible/incomplete results and/or upping the price every week with additional work being billed. You won't get that here. read more

We recently decided to make some significant improvements to our landscaping for both appearance and safety -- steps, railings and associated landscaping. We contacted several contractors but the response of Blue Sky's Ken Coverdale was by far the best. He came quickly, gave an estimate and clear statement as to when they could start. The crew was on time, diligent in completing the work as quickly as possible (10 days) and very professional. They were careful about watering systems. electrical conduits, etc. The job required ground preparation rock and stone work, masonry and carpentry, all done very well. The final cost was a bit below the original estimate. We have now had some major rains and everything has held up wonderfully. J. R. Elpers read more

Blue Sky did my landscaping nearly two years ago and it looks amazing. I loved it when it was new and it has only gotten more beautiful as the plants have matured. There are always at least a few plants blooming at all times of the year. In the spring and summer, there's so much color blooming everywhere that people stop and stare. I had some questions a few weeks ago so I called Blue Sky. They came out the next day and answered all my questions, fixed my sprinkler problem (operator error) and even switched out the few plants that hadn't done well. These guys are the best, I would choose them every time. read more

Expertise, quality, service and craftsmanship are all terrific. Expensive (I suspect Blue Sky only works at a high end of quality materials, craftsmanship, etc) but their attention to detail, the finished and lasting appearance, integrating existing attributes and working with us on a host of choices during the work in progress was worth it. Everyone we worked with was great to work with. One always takes a chance when working with someone new but now having experienced working with Blue Sky I trust them fully to deliver as promised. Our project was done from mid-December 2015 to early February 2016, so we have been happily living with the results for 7 months. We had a survey done concurrent with the design phase - as we suspected some of the existing landscaping and fence were over the property line and we wanted to correct that. Bruce delivered a design that covered all of our wishes (full renovation of front, side and back yards on a hill with 60 ft elevation change) as well as the property survey in about three weeks. The design was broken into four areas of our yard in case we wanted to prioritize or do less, since everything we asked for put the total well above our initial budget; it also had several options for reducing cost (eg patio on sand/gravel rather than cement). It included adding a gas line and fire-pit, electrical for patio lighting, replacing old malfunctioning sprinklers with automated drip irrigation (5 zones) and more than 200 new drought-tolerant native plants. It incorporated existing retaining walls and/or replaced and rebuilt two levels of landscape walls. Existing materials (eg fence parts and lava rocks) were re-used wherever possible. We took a deep breath and went for the whole package. Blue Sky started the following week - they estimated 8 weeks and it ended up being 10, including an add-on to re-set our leaning back fence and allowing for some rainy days. Our project manager Brent was here every day and answered all questions, asked us a lot of questions, presented various choices and kept us informed. The crew was friendly, meticulous, tidy and it was a joy to watch the care and precision with which they worked. They incorporated little extras here and there (eg trimming an overgrown ficus on the retaining walls, ensuring good drainage) to make everything look better. Bruce and Brent managed the necessary permits as well. I waited to write the review to see how the plants settled in. About 240 plants went in the ground in February when many were dormant. Within a couple of months all but three were leafing out and thriving, and Brent replaced those three with no issues.The irrigation system is working fine. The only maintenance is to deadhead and trim the plants as they are filling out. We LOVE it! We would gladly have Blue Sky back to do another project, if we had any areas left to work on. read more

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I had Blue Sky do my landscaping in 2014. The job they did was done well enough and I was satisfied with their work, if not their customer service. However, recently I decided that I would provide a friend with a referral to their business and I'm surprised and unhappy about what I heard. During our project, we fostered several dogs and we have a few dogs of our own. Evidently, this was a source of aggravation to Ken and/or his crew, because while he was providing his estimate to my friend for her job in San Francisco, he mentioned our dogs as a frustration (and lamented at the prospect of her two dogs also being a frustration). In addition, at the end of our landscaping project, he and his crew installed gorilla hair mulch in the beds all around our back yard. While the use of materials was not cleared with us, and we didn't like the look or texture of it, the reason why we wanted to bring up our concern was because it was causing a very strong allergic reaction for my spouse, who can get asthma and need emergency care. We were told that we could hire someone to come and turn it under or that eventually it would settle in. That was correct and my spouse coped with the few months of suffering. In fairness, we did have another change order that my friend didn't mention him bringing up (although who knows) because some rock was installed in the side yard without clearing the materials with us first, and it was not at all what we wanted. It had to be removed and replaced with pea gravel. I'm sure that easily could have been an additional source of frustration to Ken. I wanted to put up this review because, while the quality of the work was fine, the customer service was a bit lacking. But worse than that, I'm embarrassed now because I actually gave Blue Sky a referral to my friend, and Ken did mention to her that he was not happy about her dogs either, and he proceeded to bring all of this other stuff up to her as well. Very, very unprofessional, Ken. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. When I gave her the referral, I did give it with the caveat that we had a few issues. Now I know that my instinct was correct and maybe I should have just not made the referral in the first place. Stephanie Johnson read more

Blue Sky Designs recently redid my entire property. I found them after observing their beautiful work at a friend's house. Ken sent me a plan withing 3 days after I contacted him and Juan and the crew started work shortly thereafter. Within 3 weeks I had a beautiful garden. Being an avid gardener. I was impressed with all the soil preparation the crew did and the quality of the plants. Juan is a genius in putting in a water system plus doing extra little things like painting a drain pipe to match my house and finding the perfect stone slab to put Buddha on. These are people who care about the work they do and they do it to perfection. Joan B. read more

We worked with Blue Sky to design a back yard scape that took the yard from blah to WOW. On that, I give them 5 stars. Unfortunately, the great service ended when we paid the final invoice. We noticed that the plants didn't seem to be thriving, and requested that the Company come out to take a look. They did, and things seemed ok, though it was hard to tell because of winter... the plants are draught-tolerant. When Spring came, we noticed that several trees died and the plants were not thriving. We didn't touch any of the settings, and noticed that the sprinklers never went on and the drip system was not working. After several interactions, they came out to take a look and said the pressure to the system was too high and they had to put a valve in to regulate the pressure. This is something, in my mind, that should have been checked and regulated at installation, and certainly after our first call. I was also told that I should have taken some steps to take care of the new plants... that was NOT GIVEN TO ME at the time of installation! Then, to add insult to injury, I received a bill for almost $1,000 for Blue Sky to correct work that they should have stood behind to begin with. Buyer beware! read more

We hired Blue Sky Designs to install plants, trees and irrigation for a complete landscape plan outside our 5000 square foot home in Pescadeo. It was the last project for a home renovation lasting more than two years ( so we are really familiar with the good, bad and ugly of contractors and construction.) The thing that stands out most of all is their ability do excellent work independently. We did not have to "babysit" them for one minute. They take pride in their work. The management and execution of the project was first rate stem to stern. We could not be more pleased with the outcome. read more

WOW. What do I say? I employed Blue Sky Design to provide ideas and landscape my backyard. Phase One comprised of rototilling and grading dirt. Phase 2 was placing pavers around my new Hot Tub. The crew was on time and worked diligently. They worked a Saturday and Sunday. Pavers came out fabulous! Phase 3 will be additional pavers for a table and fire pit along with plantings and mulch. Blue Sky did an excellent job of keeping the job site clean after each day and leaving things better than they found it. We look forward to having Blue Sky finish the plan we have developed for turning our backyard in to a showcase!!! read more