Dave's Organic Gardening has been a wonderful experience for our family plus extended family!…read moreDave has taught us so much about plants and how to take care of them. All naturally, it has been a fantastic ride; our plants are doing great under Dave's excellent teaching. This morning I looked up at a tree that was trimmed under Dave's advice. I realized how gorgeous it had become, perfectly balanced and happy! I am learning and loving it; Dave is so strait forward so natural, with a big heart showing all over him. Creating a garden, fruit, veggies, flowers, succulents, whatever is your fancy, you need a wonderful soul like Dave to guide you and teach you the ropes and send you on the way the be a green thumb! Genuinely written with much gratitude.

If you want the review in a nutshell, here it is: Dave's Organic Gardening did more damage than…read morehelp for our yard. He charged double what he said he would. He would go for long periods without communicating and showing up. And when we asked for clarification on bills that listed visits when his team did not show up, or for work that was never completed, he got very nasty in his communication. To read more about our experience with Dave, please read on. We had high hopes for Dave's Organic Gardening. We hired him after doing extensive landscaping, and our previous gardeners were doing blowing and mowing, but very little active maintenance of the yard. We agreed to pay him double what we had previously been paying, and he promised that he would get the yard in great shape. He and his team began by replacing plants that weren't doing well, and he encouraged us to use his "tea" to get the plants going. Despite the agreement on $300/month for the maintenance, he began regularly charging us $600+/month. We initially thought that the high rates would go down as soon as the yard got in shape, but the huge invoices kept coming. To make matters worse, he wouldn't arrive at a regular time each week, which made it difficult to communicate with him on site. In fact, he would go weeks without showing up (as our lawn soon began to look like a meadow of weeds). One major element that needed help was irrigation, and he promised to get the irrigation of the front and back yard figured out. I gave him access to our irrigation system, yet he only worked on a small portion of the yard (neglecting the irrigation across the majority of the yard). Many plants died as a result. After months of neglect and infrequent visits (yet continued invoices that kept arriving), we canceled our relationship with him. Here is a quick list of the reasons we are so unhappy with Dave's Organic Gardening: 1. Some of the plantings that we paid for at the outset were never ordered and planted. 2. Many of the plants that we laid out to be planted in particular places were planted in the wrong place. As a result, some areas are crowded with plants, whereas other areas are empty. 3. A large percentage of the plants that were planted with the expensive compost tea died or are still struggling mightily. In fact, most of the plants that he installed are now dead. 4. We were charged for items in the invoices that were never completed. For example, we needed our vines trimmed, yet they were never done. Even so, his invoices listed these tasks as completed. 5. Irrigation on the yard was only partly completed, yet we were charged for all of it. 6. Regular maintenance was charged for but not provided (e.g., lawn was 2' tall), but invoices kept coming. 7. Dave encouraged us to mulch the garden, but the mulch job was super sloppy. When they installed, they just covered the yard with it, ignoring design elements like a pea gravel border. Worse yet, he charged a lot for the mulch, but we were removing trash and ceramic bits out of the mulch for months. 8. We had to re-do all the pea gravel landscaping that was buried under mulch. What makes all of this worse (the sloppy work, the dying plants, the exorbitant prices) is that when we asked him to elaborate upon the invoices, especially the ones that came in months late and included dates when he and his team weren't there (my wife and I were home working throughout the pandemic), he was--as others have said--really nasty. He starts out very nice, but he can quickly turn very unprofessional. Since we let Dave go, we hired another gardener, who charges a fraction of the rate, works very efficiently, and has helped our yard recover from the damage that Dave did.

I have used Arthur many times over the past five years. He has sourced many plants for our large…read moreproperty . They were top quality and are all thriving. He is very kind and experienced. We strongly recommend Arthur. Mary C

Our front yard had become overgrown and unattractive and Art and crew (from design to build) did a…read morefantastic job repositioning some existing trees/plants and adding new plants. Art has a great feel for design layout and with his experience in his family nursery; understands where plants should be positioned and what plants to use. I can't tell you how many people have stopped by to tell us how great our property now looks. In addition to the actual landscaping; he and his crew built a new fence, installed low voltage lighting and enhanced the existing irrigation system. I would highly recommend Art. He finished our project on time and on budget! Paul and Jerri Smith, Ojai, Ca

Knowledgeable and hard working, he knows his stuff. Fernando is a gem. He fixed my sprinkler…read moresystem and got my yard cleaned up and ready to thrive. Highly recommend.

Fernando quickly diagnosed our irrigation problem when previously others failed. Fernando charged…read morevery reasonable rates and we would not hesitate to use his services again.

Kitson Landscape has been an exceptional landscape company for the 20 years that I've known them…read more They service our HOA and many other places in town. For many of those years, I had been the liaison between my HOA and the Kitson crew. The crews I've seen over the years are always respectful and hard working. When we asked questions about what type of trees we could plant that have certain characteristics (e.g. some flowering, not heavily deciduous, not a lot of fruit droppings, not too tall to block views, etc.), the owners of the company provided a great list of suggested tree candidates for us to review. If I recall correctly, the management at Kitson has advanced degrees in horticulture, so they have a wealth of information about so many plants and trees. Coming up with a list of trees fitting the characteristics we wanted is simply not something I could have done and there is no book containing a list of trees. It's only someone who has a vast knowledge after seeing a variety of trees in their growth habitats who could formulate such a list with those specific characteristics. I once wanted to donate some of my own money to re-landscape around our HOA pool and I chose a palate of drought-tolerant plants (from the Goleta Water District's drought tolerant plant display). Sarah (at Kitson) offered to draw up a sample landscape design to lay out those plant types in various locations. She was very helpful and, in retrospect, I realized that many "landscape architects" are now charging big $$$ for simple landscape designs. She didn't even charge us for her landscape design, which wasn't a trivial thing to do. The Kitson foreman, who comes out weekly with his crew is such an amazing person. He's like family to us. So diligent and always cheerful and can solve vexing irrigation problems or breakages. He's also so very patient if fussy neighbors make demands. I'm well-connected in town, so some of my clients also use Kitson and I have heard no negative comments from these clients about Kitson. So I'm quite surprised to see a few bad reviews here. Could it be competitors trolling? This just doesn't make sense! And the one nasty review about Kitson using Round-up is quite odd. I believe Kitson doesn't use Round-up currently. They use something else that is super benign. And even when they used to use Round-up, we have fruit trees in some areas and Kitson's foreman was very accommodating: "No spray near the fruit trees." Ironically, as it turns out, all the anti-Roundup hype in the news lately may actually be way overblown. Google for the following article on-line: "EPA-science-could-torpedo-roundup-lawsuits." And perhaps the guy who posted about Kitson's blowers at his office building needs a lesson in the "corporate pecking order." Your office landscape company (in this case Kitson) probably has a contract with your management company and/or the owners of the office building. They decide what type of parking lot method is employed (blowers or labor-intensive sweeping). Blowers are the most cost effective way to "sweep" an office parking lot. If there are enough complaints about blowers to the office management company, then the owner/manager has an option to forbid the use of blowers and pay for more expensive broom cleaning of the parking lot. Surely they don't want to pay for costly broom sweeping of your parking lot, so the lowly employee/tenant in an office building like yours needs to contact your office management company with their concerns. The landscape company workers will do what the office building owner wants them to do per their contract. So, of course, the workers at the landscape company will ignore your requests because you're not on the contract. This problem would exist with any other landscape company where someone who is not their boss is telling them not to do what's in their contract.

Professional, consistent and reliable. Management is very responsive when I have any concerns or…read moreadditional needs for service. The Irrigation specialist is the best!

To add to my previous review, Grace designs restored our entire garden . It was destroyed by the…read moredebris flow; every single plant except the trees. It was all about working with our insurance company. She did an excellent job with our insurance company, as well as working with all the other contractors who were involved. Within 8 months our garden looked like nothing had happened. She is a dream to work with, and exceeded our expectations!

Sent her an email about a complete house design and pool project and never even got a response. I…read morechecked with my architect and said he didn't have a favorable experience with her on another project. I really like her designs but if you can't get it in the ground it does not matter.

Nicco Herman was simply dishonest and unresponsive throughout the project (which he didn't finish…read moreat all after months of delay). He gave us an estimate time period of about 5 weeks for doing very basic landscaping on our yard, and then he barely showed up so the whole project dragged on and on for 5+ months and ended up unfinished before we had to let him go to stop wasting everyone's time. When he came to work, he was always chatting through earphone and texting on his phone. Then he would leave his tools, and piles of muds around for weeks, making it hard for our family to walk around. Sometimes he would tell you he is coming on certain day, and then never showed up that day without any communications! It was just extremely frustrating to work with him. We just wanted an honest time estimate and clear communications. Not to exaggerate, but my 13 year old could do better job -- in fact we have had enough frustration with this guy that we are now finishing his job on our own! We are reporting him to the SB county for fraudulent business.

I'm writing in response to the 1-star reviews by : Sam L, Kelu H, and Clara H…read more These are all the same person, giving multiple bad reviews for the same project, trying to reduce Nicco's ratings. Clara was the person who hired Nicco. I am a concerned neighbor who knows that Clara regularly yelled at Nicco, calling him names and threatening to fire him from early on during the project. She refused to pay for the whole estimate after the work began stating that it wasn't what she thought the job was worth. She began bullying him right from the beginning. Refused to pay for her deliveries, and constantly asked for more than the original agreement. I just wanted people to know to be careful when deciding to work for such a person. They will regret it.

Javier can not be recommended higher. He came to evaluate a small lawn repair job at my house,…read morespent about an hour analyzing the situation and presenting me with options. When I decided to hold off on doing a larger job, he told me exactly how to do things myself, DIY-style, without charging me a penny. He is a knowledgeable professional but also a great human being who cares about the community and isn't just in it for profit. If you want an honest partner who truly has your interests in mind, go with Javier.

Finding a good landscaper in Santa Barbara proved quite challenging, half of them were ridiculously…read moreexpensive and the other half so flaky it appeared they didn't want the work. Javier and his crew were quite the contrast. Javier was up front about the work and pricing, his crew were efficient, hard working, and very easy to work with. They took the redesign of our back yard from concept to reality with grace and professionalism. Javier was open and transparent with us at every step of the project, and his crew finished ahead of schedule and under budget. We could not be happier with the results, and would hire Del Monte Landscaping without reservation in the future. Highly recommended.

James and his team just finished a landscaping project for us and we couldn't be happier. In every…read moreconversation, James was a clear communicator, never pushy, always presenting options, and always cost conscious. He laid out a plan and stuck to it every step of the way, while always keeping me in the loop. He worked with my budget and my rushed timeline. He's the kind of guy who takes pride in a job well done and a satisfied customer. In this world where everyone is trying to make a buck, he's the one you want in your corner. I had such a good experience working with him that i replaced my gardener with James to manage all of our ongoing gardening and landscaping needs. Highly recommend.

We have finally found an excellent landscaping company that has reasonable rates! James and his…read morecrew first refurbished the landscape and it has needed less work since then, and looks good. We appreciate their honesty and great work.