Giovanni and his helper Joe spread 18 tons of red rock on my driveway and did an excellent job. Thank you

I would not recommend this team to anyone I know for the price they are charging clients. They oversell and underdeliver and are not honest people. I am deeply disappointed with how much we paid for the value delivered. Giovanni lacks professionalism, integrity, transparency, and reliability. He does not stand behind promises and was keen on trying to land maintenance services. Doing our landscaping was supposed to be a non-essential "nice to have" happy project and it was so far from this. We went way over budget (got sucked in by the sales pitch) and later dreaded every minute of working with him. Giovanni often 1) forgot details discussed or pretended to forget, 2) circumvented questions, 3) intentionally and knowingly misled, 4) used every opportunity to upsell, and 5) bad mouthed other contractors. We worked with 5-7 contractors during the pandemic on large house and landscape projects and this was by far the most frustrating project. Giovanni is extremely skilled at selling, withholding information, and misleading. We thought we could trust him and we were sadly mistaken. Before the project he made many promises. He told us he guaranteed all his work and his plants. He told us stories about all he did to help his clients "for free." In reality, after he was finished and it was clear we were not going to purchase maintenance services from them, he dodged contact and dismissed questions. We had plants in poor shape because of the location he picked to plant them. We know this because some of the same plants were thriving in areas with different amounts of light. For example, he had planted at least 5 gardenias bushes. The ones he originally planted in the sun were turning yellow while the ones in the shade were fine. Instead of offering to replant or replace them, he told us it was no longer his responsibility. He charged us 2-4 times what each plant would actually cost to inflate materials costs, rather than adding under labor or service charges because those were already exorbitant. There were some plants we didn't explicitly ask for, but he would nonchalantly ask for our approval without disclosing the price and then later invoice us $200-300 for them, telling us "we wanted them." There were plants we said we wanted, which he indeed purchased early on and stored in our backyard. However, he put them in a spot without sun for several weeks while the team dragged on with the project, and so all the plants died. By the time it was time to do the planting, he didn't replace the ones we wanted that had died. Instead he purchased other plants, ones we didn't like and didn't say a word about the dead plants even though we knew they had died. The plants were probably no longer available in stores because the season had passed. I asked if he was going to get replacements and he responded with "Oh you wanted those?" We have since replaced all of these plants. They dragged the project on for several weeks longer than what they originally said it would take, not showing up for many days without notice. When they closed on another project, they rushed through finishing up our project in a few days so they could move on to the next project. This last part was what we cared the most about and wanted to be more involved with, which I had voiced from the beginning (choosing plants and the placement for them). They failed to tell us the hedges we picked were extremely slow growing while we were weighing the different options presented to us. While choosing, they convinced us to pick the smaller pots to help us "save money." I realized now he was trying to get a higher margin off each plant. They would need a lot more of the smaller size to fill the area and they were able to charge us more per plant to stay within an allocated budget (about 50-60 individual plants alone). Planting privacy hedges was probably the most important part of the project and what kicked off us wanting to do our landscaping in the first place. If they had disclosed this information upfront, we would have never agreed to these hedges. Giovanni didn't disclose the info until the project was done, when we explicitly asked him how long it would take for the hedges to reach our knees. It was then that he pointed to his shins and said it would take 3 years for them to get to there. It's been over 3 years later and these hedges are still laughably under a foot tall, a few inches above ankle height. My guess is that Giovanni goes into a project with already a ballpark amount that he wants from the client, no matter when the project may include and he will manipulate his way through that project to ultimately get that amount he wants whether it's by fudging numbers or through "unexpected" change requests that were actually discussed from the beginning during the quoting process. read more

Pro: Easy to schedule estimate appointment on website. Con: After agreeing to send me an estimate. No response. No email. No estimate. No nothing. I called and emailed and still waiting. Unprofessional. If you wanted to decline the job please provide me with the courtesy of informing me. Even if I was contacted now, I would decline. The entire consult was a waste of time. Time that I could have used to find another landscaping company. Sad. read more

Don't waste your time... Was referred to them from Encinal Nursery in Alameda. When you call their number they point you to their website where they encourage you to send a message, or book a consultation. I conveniently booked a consultation, happy about that feature. I received a immediate confirmation email. It was about a week out and the day before I received another confirmation email. They were supposed to show up at 8am. By 8:20am nobody had showed up and I was getting a bit worried. I called the number, and nobody picked up. I went to the website and sent a message. I got a response back saying that something came up and they needed to finish a project. This is so unprofessional. No phone call, no heads up, and I bet if I never reached out I would have never even gotten an apology or explanation. If this is a reflection of their service and how reliable and responsive they are I would save yourself time, money and headache and stay away. read more

Giovanni and his crew were awesome! I too was referred by Encinal Nursery from a friend that works there. We completely remodeled our front yard for greater space for our kids and pandemic socializing as well as our tropical themed backyard. Everything turned out better than expected. Despite the other reviews of his lack of communication, my experience with Gio and his crew was the opposite. He was super professional, very communicative, honest and very flexible in changing the initial plan design up and the most articulate landscaper I probably know; really knowledgeable of the plant world and knowing what plants to plant, where in terms of light & watering schedule. He has a pretty robust turnkey maintenance, upkeep program afterwards to keep my yard looking brand new. He's super busy for a reason! We've gotten several compliments on our yard and asked who did our remodel. I would whole heartedly recommend him to anyone looking to remodel their yard. read more

Giovanni and his crew completely relandscaped our backyard this summer. New plantings, irrigation, a fence and paver patio and walkways. Everything is good except for the Pavers, from the very beginning the polymeric sand has washed out between the pavers. Giovanni came back once to fix it. But it is continuing to wash out from just normal rainfall. He won't respond to our emailed requests to correct the problem. He does not stand behind his work as he promised. For this reason I would not recommend him. read more

Giovanni's team just wrapped up a project at our home and we couldn't be happier. Our yard looks great and we're looking forwarding to spending many hours in it for years to come. He and his team were professional, hardworking, and had a great attention to detail. Partway through the project we realized we wanted to make some design changes. Giovanni was happy to accommodate and gave us a fair price on the change order for the additional work. He has a good eye, so I definitely recommend seeking his input. As of this posting, the only non-five-star reviews plainly admit they never worked with him! I guess that's a thing? Anyways... I can echo all the praise in the reviews of his *actual* customers. Surviving as a small service business in Alameda can be brutal but Giovanni's team have been making happy customers for years. He's a pro, his prices are fair, and his work is excellent. Full stop. read more

My wife and I have enjoyed the smart, hard work of Giovanni's Landscaping crews for the past several years. During that time we have received countless compliments on our gardens and landcaping. Nothing better than coming home from work and seeing that Giovanni's Landscaping has been by for their usual great lawn service. Giovanni is an honest and hard-working professional, a thorough communicator, and someone who follows through on promises made. Also, he takes a personal interest in the health of your property and offers advice and guidance above and beyond the call of duty. His pricing is fair and he goes to great lengths to care for all plantings on the property, even going so far as to replace at no charge those plants that have for some reason or another failed to thrive. I can't imagine that there are many, if any, landscaping companies in the area that offer the level and quality of service that one receives from Giovanni's Landscaping. I recommend them enthusiastically and without hesitation. Tom read more

Chris R. Alameda About three years ago we had Giovanni and his crew Re-do our back yard consisting of tearing out and replacing an old deck and brick patio, putting in a drip system and adding ornamental plants. He also shored up a section of fencing and ran a water line to the back of our lot, a true convenience! He also added a flagstone pathway with Mondo grass between the stones. They did a wonderful job and we've been enjoying it ever since and have gotten many compliments over the years. Recently we had them back to Re-do our vegetable garden. They hauled out top-soil and replaced it with pathway finds which they tamped down and leveled. They then installed the raised beds which we had acquired and filled them with a great planting soil mix. Once again, a wonderful job! We've been getting compliments already! In all his work Giovanni has shown the ability to execute our vision for these projects and has improved on that vision as well. Giovanni and his crew are experts in all phases of landscaping. read more

We continue to be impressed with Giovanni and his team of hard working, detail-oriented people. They did such a great job on our fencing and revision of our back yard that so many people ask us for a recommendation. And it is important to note that they always appreciate a recommendation: they came back unexpectedly and cleaned up my entire yard, giving it a much needed face lift for the outdoor season. He is busy, though, so you need to be patient in scheduling and getting quotes. But once they are on the job, they are committed to getting it finished to your specifications. read more

I'm generously giving two stars as I've never actually seen Giovanni's work. I requested a quote and finally got a response after several days of trying to schedule a visit/estimate for quite awhile. Eventually, I was able to make an appointment with him, but due to a family emergency, I had to cancel (in plenty of time) with a request to reschedule. We did reschedule for yesterday (7/18) at 8:00 am and confirmed with Giovanni, but he never showed up, never called, nothing. I called and left a message asking if I had the information wrong, but again, no response. I guess it must be nice to have that kind of healthy self-esteem that you can blow off potential customers (i.e., $$$), but I've got two other fencing professionals lined up for estimates. read more

awesome work and work ethic!!! great work, very conscientious!

Had my property professionally landscaped 2 years ago by a local landscaper who retired one year after the job was done. Most of the plants survived and were growing at an uneven rate. Before winter arrives, I needed someone to come in and shape/trim everything back to control the growth. Started asking around and Giovanni's name kept coming up. So I thought I's give him a try and I'm glad I did. Not only did he and his crew scape everything back, they also fixed some of the irrigation problems I was concerned with. The plants look better and the irrigation changes work so much better. Giovanni realy know his stuff. Looking forward to having his crew maintain the lawn and plants so I don't have to worry about it anymore. Nice Job!! read more

Giovanni designed and installed my backyard landscaping a few years ago. He stripped my garden of all plants and started with a blank slate. The design was exactly what we envisioned and the plants included both Giovanni's recommended choices, as well as our favorite plants. His crew also installed a drip system so the garden is always well hydrated. Last summer I had Giovanni recreate my front yard as well. He worked within my budget and was able to create the sort of garden I had in mind. It is the talk of the neighborhood and I've been asked repeatedly by passersby about the plants and who did the design. Neighbors on the block actually imitated my garden in their own front yard. The sincerest form of flattery... Giovanni also provides garden maintenance. His crew has never broken any of my drip watering systems (a common problem I've had with other maintenance crews) and are courteous and respectful. Not only do they "mow and blow", they also replenish the bark and plants periodically so the gardens always look fresh and happy. You will be very happy with Giovanni's work! read more

We live in the Oakland Hill's and Giovanni has kept our lawn and garden looking like a showcase, the Neighbors are always impressed. Most importantly Giovanni and his crew provide full service from lawn maintenance to lighting and irrigation. Thank you Giovanni for years of service and emergency responses from broken irrigation to fallen trees. Megan read more

We've been clients of Giovanni's Landscaping for about a year now and highly recommend their comprehensive service. We recently decided to replace some bushes lining our front entry path. Our front yard was transformed with complementary landscaping and enhanced irrigation. Giovanni and his team took care of all the details. They are reliable and a pleasure to work with. read more

Giovanni and his team planted and maintained beautiful courtyards for me at my Alameda townhome! The products they use are safe for pets who happen to roam and the prices and service fantastic! read more

Giovanni and crew did a great job in my backyard, installing a drip system and at no-extra cost he repotted some plants and mulched around the borders. They were very courteous and professional, clean up was excellent. read more

Good landscapers, knowledgeable and stay in touch to answer questions. I have gotten many compliments on my front yard which they installed. read more

I am very happy with the work Giovanni's Landscaping Co. did for me. They trimmed 9 trees in my backyard- Camellias, Spire Apple Trees, a Tulip Magnolia, and a Bougainvillaea. They also sprayed my trees with an Agricultural Oil to help fight pests, and fertilized my trees. Giovanni listened carefully to what I wanted done and the work was exactly what we agreed on. The work was done on time. His guys completely cleaned up my yard after the work. My yard looks so much better now- more open, light and tidy. Giovanni's said that they will return in about 2 weeks to spray the apple tress again and fertilize at no additional cost to me. I will definitely use Giovanni's Landscaping Co. again in the future when I need help with my garden tasks! read more