I rarely leave a review like this, but after months of emails, photographs, multiple return visits,…read moreand repeated opportunities for JR's Landscaping to correct this job, I feel other customers should know about our experience.
What makes this especially disappointing is that we were repeat customers. JR's Landscaping completed a large project for us last year and did a very good job. That experience is exactly why we trusted them enough to hire them again this year.
Unfortunately, this experience could not have been more different.
We paid $2,563 for this landscaping job, and our concerns are not simply that we "didn't like" the finished product. We have an extensive photographic and written record showing the instructions provided, the work performed, the condition in which the property was left, and our repeated attempts to have the problems corrected.
Our agreement included work involving our raised garden bed, removal of mint, fresh loam, a heavy-duty weed barrier, mulch, edging and weeding, as well as relocating bushes and other landscaping work.
We were extremely specific about what we wanted.
In fact, before the work began, I went so far as to number the individual bushes and photograph where each one was supposed to be relocated. We also clearly identified plants that were NOT to be removed.
Despite that, the crew removed plants they had specifically been instructed to leave alone.
The most upsetting of those were my deceased mother's poppies.
I had explicitly communicated multiple times that those poppies were to stay. They weren't simply landscaping plants to me. My mother adored those poppies, and they held tremendous sentimental value.
When I arrived at the property, the crew had dug them out and put them in the trash.
Workers retrieved what scraps they could from the trash pile, and I was left hoping that perhaps something would survive so I could preserve even a small piece of the beautiful poppies my mother grew.
Money can replace mulch, loam and landscaping. It cannot replace something sentimental belonging to someone you have lost, particularly when the company was explicitly told not to remove it.
Unfortunately, that was far from the only problem.
Our photographs show areas where bushes were removed and the property was left with bare and disturbed soil, leaves, debris and unfinished beds rather than being properly restored. Tom had an employee fix this issue.
Landscape edging and debris was left crooked, displaced and out of alignment. Rocks and other material were left rather than being properly cleaned up. Some of the mulch was extremely thin or nonexistent in areas. Weed barrier was left visibly exposed. Tom had an employee address the edging as well.
And unbelievably, their trash was left lodged in one of our trees.
These aren't subjective complaints about whether we personally like a particular landscaping style. These are visible conditions that we photographed.
The raised garden bed became another ongoing problem.
The mint was supposed to be removed, fresh loam added, and a heavy-duty weed barrier installed. Yet after the initial work, we questioned whether the mint had actually been properly dug out.
We contacted the owner and provided photographs of the problems. To his credit, he personally came to the property, saw the condition of the work, and asked us to send him photographs documenting everything that needed attention.
We did.
On June 12, we were told someone would be sent to address the issues.
When I continued questioning whether the mint had actually been properly removed, the owner checked with his crew.
On June 23, he acknowledged in writing that his crew had not completely dug out the mint in the raised garden area and said a crew would be sent back to take care of it.
We gave them another opportunity to fix it.
Weeks later, we were still dealing with the same problem.
On July 13, we were again told someone was being sent over to dig out the remaining mint in the raised garden bed.
Once again, we gave the company an opportunity to correct the work.
The person who came back spent much of his time walking around on his phone, picked/pulled mint from the area rather than addressing the underlying issue as we understood it was supposed to be addressed, and moved mulch back over the area.
Now the mint has fully grown back.
The weed barrier that was supposed to help prevent this is visible throughout portions of the garden. The mulch is practically nonexistent in areas, and the raised bed was not filled with loam to the level we had discussed.
So after the original crew, the owner's personal inspection, photographs documenting the problems, and multiple subsequent visits supposedly intended to correct the work, we are essentially back where we started with the mint.
