Farallon's garden looks okay albeit over-planted and over-irrigated, resulting in continuous waste…read moreof water. After talking to one of their employees who were arrogantly opinionated on the subject, we decided to stay away from them. This company has to learn how to be humble first before anything else. Disappointing!

Over a 6-month period we searched for the perfect contractor and finally hit the jackpot. Don't…read morewaste time interviewing pretenders and engage the best. Fr0om our initial on-site interview we knew there would be on need for another interview. Mathew arrived on time and shared a vision for our project. We were only looking for a backyard transformation but once we knew this was our guy, we added a front yard upgrade. Started and completed as agreed. No cost over-runs. Clean-up daily and when completed. monthly maintenance reasonable. Bottom line this experience has changed our world. We are out every day experiencing the transformation of our wonderful back-yard to a life-changing experience. Thank you Farallon Gardens. You are the BEST!!!

We hired Wildwood Landscapes to completely redesign our front and back yards, and we couldn't be…read morehappier with the results. From the initial design consultation to the final walk-through, everything was handled professionally and with great care. Elliot was fantastic to work with. He truly listened to our ideas and incorporated them seamlessly into a plan that was even better than we had envisioned. The entire team from design to construction was skilled, friendly, and respectful of our property. We especially want to call out Gabe for his exceptional craftsmanship. He and another gentleman built a couple retaining walls in our front yard that are absolutely incredible. We have met several neighbors because they want to stop and talk about the wall.

Wildwood redesigned our front and back yards. They let us be as involved as we wanted to be:…read morewhatever we wanted to really get into detail on was great, and whatever we wanted to be hands-off on, they'd just handle for us. The plant selections were great, all the hardscaping was really cleanly done, great materials used all around, and overall the design was fantastic. We've worked with a number of people over the years, and no team has been as high quality, communicative, and proactive as Wildwood. The whole experience was fun and low stress and the result is beautiful and functional.

Fiddlehead Gardens did excellent work. I needed a gardener and met Racheal Perry while she was…read moreworking in the garden at a friend's house in SF. She was doing a great job there so I asked her to come and give me an estimate at my house close by. She got in touch with me a few days later to set up an appointment. I hate to do gardening work and had gotten very lazy and needed a lot of help. I have a backyard deck with two very large planter boxes full of dying and out-of-control plant growth. I also have two planter boxes lining my driveway that needed a new irrigation system and a lot of clearing out done as well. Racheal arrived at the initial appointment on time. She is very pleasant and has a lot of experience and knowledge. She obviously loves what she does. I received a fairly priced written estimate by mail within a week. And Racheal came up with a smart way to do the irrigation system in the front of my house that solved a big watering headache. I was very pleased. A couple of weeks later Racheal and Cate came to my house and did a fantastic job. They were on time, hard working, polite and fun to talk to and did all the work as expected (which took a full 8 hours). There was a lot to do and afterwords my deck/yard and front planter boxes looked great. They hauled away a big truck full of plant debris - good riddance! I am very much looking forward to entertaining and hanging out on the deck during the summer. And knowing that Fiddlehead will be doing monthly maintenance, I know my deck will be in good shape. I am also looking forward to seeing the new plants grow. Thanks Racheal and Cate!

I can't say enough good things about Racheal and Fiddlehead Gardens. She took our modest-sized…read morefront planter beds (and our modest budget) and crafted a plan that turned them from an eyesore into a tidy and easily maintained space. She was also the only one (!) of the landscape architects or gardeners I called who assured me that she herself planned to work onsite throughout the entire job, supervising her staff and attending the fine pruning of our unruly apple tree personally. Her attention to detail also deserves a mention: the irrigation system she designed is a marvel, with miniature sprayers positioned perfectly for the various plantings. She even took it upon herself to tidy up our overgrown agapanthus, despite it technically not being part of the work order. A five-star experience from beginning to end.

Matt Hornby and his plant expert, Martina, created a fabulous front yard for us. Matt and all of…read morehis employees who worked on our project were skilled, talented, and all-around nice people. I absolutely LOVE my front yard and I often see people stop to admire it. Each time I'm out there, at least one passerby stops to compliment the landscaping. Matt added depth, height, and a very natural look to our plain flat space. The way he incorporated "moss rocks" and created hills makes it look like it's been that way forever. He listened to what we envisioned for paths, shared options, costs, and advice about different materials, and installed paths that are just perfect. Martina listened to what we liked in plants (specific plant requests as well as color preferences, textures, etc.) and her choice and placement of the plants in our space is just artistic. It really does take someone knowledgeable and talented to choose appropriate plants (drought tolerant, deer resistant, butterfly attracting, colorful, beautiful, hearty, etc) and lay them out until they are in just the right places to then be planted. We've had our yard in place now for just over a year. I absolutely love watching the changes in each plant and in the landscape as a whole as the yard fills in. Many landscape contractors I contacted immediately responded that our project was "too small" for them or couldn't be done with our budget. But to US it wasn't a small project! Matt Hornby was willing to take a look, listen to what we wanted, and let us know what amount it would realistically take to create our front yard. He was great at keeping to our budget, letting us know if new requests we made would add expense and how much it would be so we could make an informed decision. The project got done in a small amount of time and we have been thrilled with his (and his team's) work every day since. We are very much do-it-yourselfers, but we could never have created a front yard as lovely as Matt Hornby created for us. I'm very happy we hired someone for this project, and I'm very happy it was Matt Hornby we chose.

I enthusiastically recommend Matt Hornby for landscaping, particularly developing a plan for an…read moreunderutilized yard. Last year, I interviewed several firms to re-landscape our back yard and initially didn't hire Matt because he felt that he could not accomplish all that we hoped for within our budget. We went with someone else, who then came back with a bid that did not meet our goals AND was twice what we could pay. So I went back to Matt, impressed by his honesty. Together, we came up with a plan that did fit within our budget and met all of our goals. He went way above the call of duty--finding us a micro-sized play structure that we could squeeze into our tiny lawn, wading through mud and rain to get the contours of the yard just right, and carefully preserving a large arbor that was original to the house. In the end he installed hardscaping, put in irrigation, plus worked with a plant specialist to pick out flowers that have proved hardy and low maintenance. Our yard is now a magical place, which gets comments from everyone who visits our home. We spend so much more time outside that it feels like we've put an addition on the house. We recommended Matt to some friends who had a similarly outstanding experience.

We hired Planted Earth to redo our backyard and driveway. Prior to hiring them, we interviewed 2…read moreother landscape designers and Michael was the only one who had a vision for our yard. We had also seen Michael's work at a neighboring house. The scope of the project included a new driveway, drainage, deck, patio, fence, and project managing the installation of a prefab shed/office. The design phase was smooth and we had a good idea of what the end result should be. Michael and Ann presented multiple ideas and options with different price points. They also took our concerns into account when we weren't sure of certain design aspects. The build phase was less clear. We didn't always know what was being worked on for a given week or how long it would take. We had weekly sync ups to address concerns and ask questions but time estimates weren't their strong suit. We also had issues with Planted Earth's billing/accounting where they would accidentally double charge or not see a previously paid invoice. These issues were always corrected with an email but it was extra work on my part to double check things. Generally, Michael is reasonable and worked with us on invoicing issues. During this time we had a permitting issue that wasn't Planted Earth's fault. The city of Oakland was understaffed and generally incompetent. Michael and Ann gave us updates on our permits and personally visited the permitting office to move things along. In the end it sounded like Michael finally convinced the clerk to take 5mins to do their job. I'm not sure another designer would have been as persistent. Overall, we are happy with our yard and glad it's finally done.

My family and I feel as if we've been through a traumatic experience with Michael McFadden -…read moreowner/operator of Planted Earth Inc. My hope is that you watch out for the red flags that I ignored and that this review helps one family to think twice before working with Mick. We hired Mick to replace our driveway, pour a new back patio with tile and install a steel pergola over the patio. Mick's bid came in very high and he assured me that he likes to be "up front" so that there are no surprises. I thought I was getting quality and for some reason I originally trusted Mick to deliver. I made a huge mistake. For us, he appeared arrogant, threatening, disorganized and amateurish. If you only need a few rocks moved around, it could work. After the second installation of the back patio tile (first one needed to be ripped up) and the failed sealing of the driveway and the misaligned posts on our new pergola (see photo), I ended our expectation that Mick would ever finish the job.

Quick response and lightning-fast estimate. Two days later, 2 strong, personable folks arrived on…read moretime and diligently completed my gardening cleanup, exactly as I wanted and fast, for a fair price. They managed the green waste, taking it out to the street in proper bags for recycling. I couldn't be happier! I have 4 more projects for these great neighbors (this business is hyper-local to my West Oakland home) and I'm so glad and grateful to have the help while keeping my dollars at work in my own neighborhood. Highly recommended.

Very pleased with Hoes and Ditches' approach to maintenance - they really care about making an…read moreovergrown space look tidy, fresh, and new again. My back yard looks so much better. As soon as they finished the job I thought "Why didn't I do this months ago?" High-quality work and thoughtful communication, 10/10, would recommend :)

Kevin, John and their team did a wonderful job of trimming my bushes and trees. They also met with…read moreease the challenges of clearing and trimming border plants and clearing months of inattention in both my front and back yards. (debris, weeds,leaves) The service was prompt, very efficient, and a very pleasant team to have in my yard, I am appreciative to have now scheduled monthly maintenance with Kevin, John, and team. Submitted by Donna L.

Kevin responded promptly after I left a message. He came to the house the next day. I showed him…read morethat I needed. I asked Kevin to clean up our front, side, and back yards. They were overgrown with weeds and some dead leaves from the rainy season. Also, the bushes needed trimming. He scheduled to do it only a few days later. His crew of 4 arrived on time and worked hard. The results were transformative. I am planning to have them do regular maintenance. Thanks Kevin!

Ecopacha did great work to complete our retaining walls. Their team work is excellent. Each worker…read moreseems to have his own rule and skills to complete one big project. They were neat and well organized. I would recommend EcoPacha and would ask more projects in future.

Great service. Nice people and good communication. Contacted them on Yelp and the next day they…read morewere available.