Gill came recommended and several people at work said they'd heard good things about him. Our experience was mediocre at best.
We started with 4 planting beds that were a mess, as well as some fruit trees that needed to be planted, and needed irrigation help. Despite discussing all three of these with Gill in exhaustive detail, his crew only really seemed to care about the first two (and didn't care too much about those, besides).
We were happy with the beds, for the most part, except for the fact that the soil under the pine needles was left in huge hard clumps, the pine needles were left in a very thin layer, and there didn't seem to be any logic to where he planted some things. When we asked why a rosebush had been transplanted to a spot directly next to another bush, as opposed to centered, he said "I don't know". I expect a rationale for what his crew was doing for the kind of money I was paying him. He didn't always have it.
A heirloom rosebush with a metal tag went missing - apparently his crew discarded it despite the fact it was in the beds and tagged and had been discussed. His crew broke a hose fitting while doing the work and Gill seemed unfazed by this. Deep footprints in the soft soil were left from his crew across our beds when we did the _first_ walkthrough.
I spent a lot of time explaining my irrigation needs and how I wanted to be sure that when he left my irrigation system was optimized for the new layout. He said he would do it but he didn't and was clearly irritated that I expected him to do what we discussed.
He put an irrigation head on a 2' riser for no good reason and it looks horrible. I'll likely have to remove it myself. When I asked him about it he said "I thought it would need to cover that area but I guess it doesn't." What the change did do is irrigate my neighbor's yard and spray their siding.
We talked about where to plant the fruit trees but his crew put them on property we don't even own. Nuff said there.
In the end, I paid him just to end it. Gill's customer service attitude stinks - he never took any responsibility for the failures or shoddy work. I would not be writing this review right now if he had apologized for the oversights and made a conscientious effort to correct them but he pushed hard for payment, which I withheld until the job was at least close to being properly done.
Not recommended. read more