As someone who knows almost nothing about gardening, I went looking for a gardener after purchasing…read morea house with preexisting gardens. I knew I needed more than a landscaper, I knew the sumac and poison ivy weren't supposed to be there, and I knew I needed an expert to help me out from there. Ruth walked with me through the grounds and gave me her ideas about how to make the space flourish and prosper. She clearly cares about the health of plants and the environment. She was respectful of my perspective and desires despite my lack of knowledge, and also respectful of the amount of time, money, energy that I could put toward the garden in the near future. She laid out a plan for both the immediate future and some long-term ideas about the best options for my property, including moving some plants to places that are better suited to them. Within a week of our first meeting, her assistant Kree was at our place to take out the sumac and other weeds. Kree was similarly friendly and knowledgeable, even ringing my doorbell at one point to educate me about a particularly unruly invasive on my property (black swallow-wort). If I knew someone else in a similar situation, I would absolutely recommend Ruth.

Ruth is great! extremely knowledgeable about all plants, weeds, etc. She has transformed my garden…read morewhich was in extremely poor shape with something that I am now feeling tranquil in. And she is just getting started with planting. She is a delight to work with as well. Suzanne--Winthrop

Faith transformed our yard into a beautiful garden. Then we learned she also works with a wonderful…read moreconstruction team, who we hired for a large window replacement project (over 40 windows). They did a fantastic job, from initial estimate through final punchlist. We recommend them without reservation!

Faith Michaels and her team are knowledgeable, wise, compassionate and experts in their field…read more This is the first time I wrote a check with a smile. So many of our neighbors walk by our lovely garden and appreciate the beauty that Faithful Flowers created. We are forever grateful.

They asked me several times if I wanted recurring service. The first time I had to track them down,…read moreI gave on the third visit. I paid extra to have the hedge trimmed, they cut a small part of it (see pic) and told me they'd come back in the morning to finish the job, but never showed up. I have waited for over a month, it is clear they'll never show up to finish the job. Very disappointed, they seemed like nice guys when I first met them.

The guy did bad mowing service and grass clippings are piled on lawn and driveway are blowing…read moreclear. The service is not reliable for scheduled service. They skip the service randomly without any notice.

After several failed attempt to fix up our pudding-stone-filled garden with mixed elevation, my…read morewife and I were introduced to Noah and the Restoring Roots crew. We have seen their previous project at the Old Oak Dojo and really liked the idea of a functional landscape that meet aesthetic purpose, yield edibles as well as fitting in the native eco system. Noah is very knowledgeable of different plants and flowers so conversation with him has always been very educational for us amateur gardeners. He has also been very accommodating from the consultation. He listened to our needs and concerns before coming up with a customized plan that fits our property and budget. The project includes a low dry-stack retaining wall, plants that would help stabilizing the soils since we live on a hill, perennial flowers/plants that support each other and blooms at different time, and irrigation etc. The installation was under a short deadline so that we can have our wish of throwing a post-wedding party in our yard. Noah, Cheryl, and Karen moved very efficiently and accomplished the project before the deadline and within budget. The project also includes post-installation maintenance as the first year is crucial for the garden to survive. We are very happy to find Restoring Roots and will definitely consider using them for future projects.

We bought a condo in the Woodburne neigborhood of Jamaica Plain a year ago. One of our first…read morepriorties after we moved in was to deal with the backyard landscape, which consisted of some scraggly grass patches and a few hostas. There wasn't a lot of space to work with but I was sure that a little patio would fit between the house and the garage. I started contacting landscape design and build firms in March 2015. Most larger firms were already booked for spring, and when a couple of firms came out in June, they indicated that our job was too small for them to consider. Our realtor recommended Restoring Roots. From the first visit Karen was enthusiastic about the possibilities for our little space. She listened to our concerns and needs--one of the biggest concerns being that as new home owners facing a lot of projects, we wanted to consider a design plan that we could implement in stages. Karen came back to us with a detailed and comprehensive plan for our little space. After multiple negotiations with our condo association, we decided to move ahead with the patio construction in the fall and put the planting and construction of a sitting wall on hold until Spring. The bluestone patio was completed right before Thanksgiving. We are very impressed with the quality of the work and we think the patio looks great! We hope to have Restoring Roots back in the Spring for the next phase of the project.

Service was thorough I'm handicapped. My driveway and…read morewalkway was perfectly dry when they finished salting and I thankfully did not have to worry about falling

They were really efficient in my snow removal of my driveway and porch. The price was very…read morereasonable. I was extremely happy with their work.

We had hired an designer/architect to design this space. He charged $150/hr. 3 drawings and 3…read moremeetings later it was clear that he was not listening to us and had not even come close to what we had requested. That debacle cost us $2100. We read about Arcbazar.com and decided to try them. We submitted drawings of the space with measurements, described the project and what we would like to see and accomplish, photos of the space. We bid a low $600 for the project and submitted asking for completion in 2 weeks. Within a few days we had 10 people from around the world interested in our project. During the process we received requests for clarification or more information. At the end of the process we had 7 submissions most including elevations, renderings, materials lists and sources. All of these submissions met our basic criteria. All were impressive and beat the $150/hr guy in presentation, value and execution. You can send the designs to friends and family to help you rank the designs. We all agreed on our top 1, 2 and 3 designs. I requested and was given the contact information for our top ranked designer. We have contacted that person to modify the initial design. That is outside of Arcbazar but have to say this part of the process is also going splendidly at a reasonable price. We are thrilled with this process and will never go back. Hints: ~ You might want to allow more time for your project ~ Offer a little more money. The top guy only gets a portion of the pie. ~ Ana, in the office, is also accessible by phone for questions. Just have to work in their time zone. ~ The more specific you are the better results. ~ Our bids came from Armenia, Belaruse, Italy, France, Romania, etc So you get an international flare.

Using Arcbazar was a great experience from the beginning to end! The website was easy to use and…read morethe communication was excellent. It was remarkable how easy, efficient, and non-time consuming it was obtaining these designs; no taking off work to let them in the house etc. The follow-up from Arcbazar was top-notched. We had 13 designers from around the world sign up for our kitchen remodeling project and ended up with a total of 6 designs. 3 of these designs provided excellent ideas on how to rearrange our kitchen after knocking down the wall between the dining room and kitchen to open the space up; ideas we would have never thought of! Our first choice ended up being the design submitted from France! We love it! It has a bit of a European feel to it; beautiful, welcoming, cozy, and very functional. After the kitchen is completed, we plan to use Arcbazar again for a basement remodeling project.

Joe, the owner, and his team of landscapers are great communicators. They performed beautiful work…read moreat my abode by creating a winding bluestone path, clearing the site, adding mature bushes and perennials, and mulching the entire area. My property looks terrific!

From the owner: Landscape design, construction, and maintenance: Walkway…read moredesign/construction Retaining wall design/construction Terrace design/construction Driveway design/construction Deck and patio design/construction Pool design/construction Fountain design/construction Outdoor lighting design/installation Sculpture installation Tree and shrub installation/maintenance Groundcover installation/maintenance Perennials and Annuals plantings/care Turf installation/maintenance

We first became aware of The Narrow Lane through a cold call when we were looking for a landscaper…read morefor our front yard back in the fall of 2024. We contacted a number of companies and it was The Narrow Lane and Jeremy that we seemed to connect with. A couple of months later, right after Thanksgiving, we were the proud owners of a beautifully landscaped yard. I will admit that I was dubious about putting in all those mature plantings at that time of the year but Jeremy assured us that they would be fine and he was right--we had an amazing Spring of blooms and the excitement of experiencing new plants appearing in the yard. The quality of work and attention to detail caused us to go back to The Narrow Lane again last Spring to do a total renovation and redesign of our back yard. While we were impressed by the quality of work and attentiveness to detail that we experienced with the first project we were absolutely blown away with what Jeremy, Matt, and The Narrow Lane were able to deliver for the backyard. It is truly a work of art and we are so happy that not only did we re-engage with The Narrow Lane for this project but that we gave them complete control over the design and implementation. Neighbors now stop by to explore the yard and we are known in the area as "that house with the amazing landscaping". Based on these landscaping experiences over the past year we have now also contracted with The Narrow Lane to maintain the gardens and yard during the growing season as well as to provide us with snowplowing and shoveling in the winter. I will admit that they are not inexpensive to work with but the prices are totally justified by the quality of work, the care and attention that they have brought to everything that they do, and their continuing care that they bring to our property. We have found everyone from the company that we have engaged with to be consummate professionals that bring a new level of care and respect to the properties they take on as projects. If you are looking for an exciting and complete re-imagination of your property and then professionals to maintain it throughout the year you can't do better than The Narrow Lane.

I wanted to recognize and acknowledge Nicole who has been going above and beyond with my moms…read moregarden in Newton Centre. From day one, Nicole displayed her genuine and unmatched level of expertise, with deep knowledge, to get my moms garden into a more glowing and very much appealing condition I was a thrilled with the spring cleaning, and above all the colorful planting and she mastered all of the details that were discussed from A-Z We are all wowed and so truly impressed with the high quality work as she has a commitment to ensure deep satisfaction My mother and I both trust her and the company as she puts her best interests forward and creates very promising results. I look forward to many more memorable creations and I have Nicole to thank for.

Christie Dustman and Company helped with the design of a friends garden and did an incredible job…read more I was so impressed that I hired her to consult with me for my established garden that has been written up in 8 magazines. I gave her my thoughts and right away she came back with some suggestions that made total sense to me. I got right to work implementing her suggestions and I'm completely happy with the new design features. Christie is super easy to work with, listened to what I wanted to achieve, and delivered wonderful suggestions. I'm very lucky to have had her help and now my gardening friends all use her.

I would highly recommend Christie Dustman & Company. The initial one-hour consultation was fabulous…read more- we brainstormed various ideas and then I was provided with a sketch showing proposed planting areas with specific plants/tree types. The idea of building a 2-section funky fence near my patio served two purposes, one to screen my patio area from my neighbor's backyard, and the other to save me money from having a higher, longer fence along the property line separating me from my neighbor. I also loved the concept of adding some bluestone stepping stones into the existing patio (made of pavers) and extending the stepping stones into the yard to lead someone from the patio into the backyard. The trees, shrubs, and plants continue to thrive years later. The variety of textures and shapes is lovely.

potted up does some things well. They are very reliable, for monthly maintenance. And they do a…read moregood job. You can tell when they have been there. Their fall and especially winter seasonal plantings for the garden containers were lovely. The issue is that you pay dearly for it. The monthly invoices include high charges that are difficult to fathom (several gardeners and several hours spent on seemingly minor tasks in a small garden; despite the garden being very small, charges for filling and disposing one or two garden refuse bags; plant charges that seem high and they do not provide receipts to justify their charges and even became indignant when I insisted on reviewing them). I can't speak to other gardens they've done, but I thought our garden design and result was mediocre, and given the high cost, that felt even more disappointing. Eventually potted up and we had to go our separate ways as we couldn't justify the cost for a small garden for a two unit condo association. I would consider them only if you can set clear budget limits (or have no limits on budget).