My husband and I used Nicki and her crew in November of 2023 to complete four different projects in our backyard and cannot believe how wonderful everything turned out.
Nicki transformed the NW corner of our yard from rip rap rock that was uneven and ugly to an evenly spread Apache Brown landscaping rock with a decorative yet functional drainage swell. While laying the rock her crew also used our existing decorative nursery block to create two separate tree wells for our existing trees to ensure they continue to thrive and they match the wells already established for existing trees. Nicki also helped us replaced a sagging wire garden fence that was being used as a trellis (similar to chicken wire) with a sturdy steel 4" grid garden trellis (two sections of 9'l x 6'h) that included an oversized archway (4'w, 8'h x 2'd) that is all set-in concrete footers for our grapes to flourish on.
On the NE side of our backyard Nicki's crew helped by taking out dead and compacted grass along with the corresponding irrigation (approximately 810 sq ft). They lowered and leveled the spot and reworked the irrigation for the remaining grass. After that was complete, they laid a border to separate the new area from the remaining grass and laid a K pattern boarder of stunning Tierra Norte pavers that had an organic shape to fit the flow of our space.
Nicki's design skills were put to the test on the project we gave her on the east side of our yard. We had a large concrete slab that had been poured a few years ago that we wanted to have covered and turned into a mini oasis for us to enjoy our spa. Nicki walked us through materials, dimensions, colors, plants, irrigation and even thought of lighting when that hadn't occurred to us. The result of her expertise is exactly what we wanted and even more! We ended up with a large, sturdy ramada (15' x 22') that was painted by her team to match our house colors (HOA required) that will last us for years to come and stand up again the Vail-gale force winds. She helped us decide on a functional height for the ramada that will allow full use of our spa but NOT overpower the space along with a pitch to the roof to ensure that we don't have standing water. She recommended we reuse the look of the new grape trellis on three of the four sides to keep the yard looking cohesive and recommended the prefect low care, highly fragrant and fast-growing vines to help with our oasis feel. Because I do not have a green thumb and was looking for easy maintenance, she even helped get irrigation in place for our new vines branching off our existing system.
The final project was replacing a worn-out wooden double gate with a new steel frame and fresh boards. Nicki worked with me to make sure that we had a color that we liked; that also wouldn't upset our HOA. She helped design the gate to be the same height as our block wall to maintain a more consistent look from the front and more privacy in the back.
Lastly, she and her crew did a few extras. They took extra rock from the Apache Brown and refreshed the entire backyard, leveling and blending in the rock to make everything look and feel like one space. They power washed a few spots in our backyard where their bobcat had left tire marks and our driveway to remove their tire marks and left over residue from the rock delivery. They used a couple of extra pavers to frame our three irrigation boxes to ensure they don't get buried under rock. One of her employees, Marc, even cleaned out/organized our irrigation boxes to make everything more accessible. Marc also touched up a few rough spots on the steel trellis work with a grinder to make sure our kiddo wouldn't accidently get cut or scrapped.
Nicki was communicative through the ENTIRE project. She worked up multiple quotes for us with different ideas and materials prior to us even starting the project. She made multiple trips to our home to make sure that the work was being done the way she expected and was a true pleasure to work with. We have already recommended her to our family and friends. Her team was respectful of us, our family, fur babies and home. Her crew always cleaned up their supplies and kept our gate secured (dogs and a kiddo who like to explore) at our request. Marc was a true all-star by staying late to make sure that what was supposed to be done to stay on or ahead of schedule was always done. Marc also took pride in his work and truly made sure that the final touches on everything looked just the way Nicki expected.
Nicki and her crew had a very fair price for all the work we wanted done, and they even completed the job PRIOR to their expected completion date.
TLDR: Nicki is awesome, Marc has pride in his work and Eco systems has great prices! read more