Portera Landscape Design

I used Portera Design for my front yard last year -- it was a massive job -- so I asked them to come this year to landscape the narrow area that serves as my "backyard" on the edge of a ravine. Before, walking back there was risky because the stepping stones had broken and were so uneven that it was dangerous to walk. There also were no plants at all in that area. I love the area now; it has a lovely stone walkway that steps gradually up to my patio. The plants are lovely and welcoming and provide a much-needed screen between my neighbor's house and mine. David did all of the work by hand; the clearing alone took several days. I'm very satisfied with the job Portera did last year and this.

The crew showed up when scheduled, worked hard all day, and cleaned up before leaving each afternoon. Work was completed timely.

Have emailed him several times and at first he responded but I am still waiting on landscape plan promised 5 months ago

They did provide a sketch, but it was very minimal.

They were very responsive and kept us informed about every step of the process.

They continuously over promised and never delivered. After an extensive amount of delays I requested that they refund my money and return my documents. The refund arrived and the documents were returned. They stated they were overwhelmed with work

First, I worked with Andy Portera on the landscaping plan. After discussing our thoughts on what we wanted in the yard, Andy drafted an initial plan, sent it to me for review and then finalized it, changing it as needed to incorporate my inputs. John Paul Portera led the crew doing the work. He did a thorough job of explaining how they would tackle the project. With the amount of work and the hard, compacted clay soil making both removing old plants and installing new ones a real challenge, the entire project took about a week. The Porteras were flexible in implementing the landscaping plan, making adjustments and changes as required to improve the overall look of the yard and incorporate a couple of new items I wanted. The result looks great and I enjoyed working with Andy, John Paul, David and Clay. Andy also sent me a final plant list and a tip sheet to help me get the new plants growing well.

It went good. He came out and gave us the estimate, but we’ve not moved forward on his plans. We liked him a lot and he did a good job. He drew up plans for exactly what we wanted. He scheduled the appointment according to our schedule, which was convenient to us.

I found Mr. Portera through an Angie's List deal. He contacted me promptly and came out within a few days to meet me and to look at my yard. He sent a design to me quite quickly. He also returned on another occasion to explain his design and to provide an estimate for the work to be done. I was very satisfied with Mr. Portera's work -- so satisfied, in fact, that I would like to have him carry through with his design. I have been a little frustrated in nailing down a schedule for the next phase of the project, however. I think that the Angie's List deal brought in a lot of new customers all at once, which may have overwhelmed Mr. Portera's ability to respond to them all. I think he is extremely busy at this time and that is why I haven't been able to nail down a date to begin our job. I do hope we'll be able to do that this fall.

The young man was very professional and timely.

We eventually got the drawing, however, the vendor was slow to contact me about a date and then slow to get me the drawing after looking at the yard. I finally got the drawings, but no estimated prices were included on doing the actual work. I think the vendor was just busy and had more work than they could handle to follow up.

Andy visited my property and spent about an hour with me discussing options for my landscaping. He looked at several existing retaining walls, and discussed with me how to install french drain systems, how to create a flagstone patio, and how to build a new retaining wall. He also discussed planting options with me. He was extremely helpful, telling me both how much it would cost for his company to do the work and giving me details on how I could do the work myself (including recommending where to rent equipment). He wrote it up for me and emailed it to me the next day. If I had the money to invest in the project right now, I would hire him in a second. Very knowledgeable and very helpful-- he wasn't just out to make a sale, he was a really good consultant.

The output was drawings that looked like the work of a second grader. In the front I wanted a combination of shrubs and plants that would provide color throughout the year. In the back I wanted a gravel/stone patio. The former lacked creativity and color. The latter was priced 25% more than the lowest bidder on the same design idea. Neither design included breakdowns reflecting material and labor costs. I will not use this provider.

He came out and looked over the place and talked to me to find out the things that I wanted. It took him about 10 days to send me an email of the sketch of our front yard. He was out at the house for about 30 minutes. I had no problems with the scheduling.

I showed him what I wanted an estimate for and he gave me a hand drawing plan and told me that he would provide me with an estimate and I still haven’t talked to him. I have attempted to reach him 3 different times and still haven’t heard from him.

service is pending - will update this review upon completion of plans and/or project. Thanks.

I bought the $99.00 daily deal and Portera responded that same day. They scheduled a site visit withing a few days. Andy arrived right on time and spent an hour with me going over the issues I was having with standing water in my back yard. He also evaluated the areas we wanted to install raised beds for vegetables and herbs and made recommendations. he got back in touch later that day with a quote and we scheduled the work for the next week. The crew arrived early Monday morning in spite of the crummy weather and got right to work. They were friendly, easy to work with and I was impressed with how neat and thorough they were. They were delayed somewhat from waiting for the utilities to be marked, but by Wednesday the job was complete. They cleaned up so well and did such a nice job with the sod and pine straw that you would never know they'd dug in the yard. The raised beds are made out of 2 inch thick ceder, they leveled the area where they placed them and made sure to put landscape fabric in to keep the weeds from getting in. We are very happy with their services and will be sure to call them again when we need landscaping work done.

Andy Portera is a very knowledgeable, professional business owner. I saw his excellent reviews on Angie's List, and write ups about his work in Birmingham Home and Garden magazine. Andy was prompt and attentive from the start. His ideas for remedying our problem were the best we received. He was always punctual. He made several trips to our yard to view the water flow and figure out the best fix. His team is professional and does very neat, precise work.( I have never seen such evenly dug trenches!) They are polite and very good at what they do. They worked tirelessly, and finished the work in about 2 1/2 days. We are pleased with the outcome. More importantly, Andy has a wonderful reputation, and you can tell that he takes his job seriously. In dealing with Andy, you know that he will stand behind his work, and genuinely cares about fixing the problem you hire him to do. Recommend him highly!

Andy and his crew arrived promptly on Monday morning and set to work. We had had quite a bit of rain so the area for the drainage ditch was very muddy. They dug out the grass and weeds from the rocky bank and set to work on the ditch. After clearing the grass from the ditch, they ended work for Monday. On Tuesday, they completed the ditch (which involved digging much mud!!) and cleaned out the smaller flower beds. The roses and daylilies were planted and the place for the stone steps was marked off. On Wednesday, medium sized river rock was placed in the ditch and the stone steps were set. Finally the front flower beds were weeded. After a walk-thru, I asked for some additional daylilies and Mr. Portera decided that the ditch needed some smaller stones on top of the medium stones already placed. These were delivered and placed that afternonn and work was completed to everyone's satisfaction.

Andy and his helper were prompt, courteous, and professional. We have a very difficult sunlight problem in our front yard, and while Andy couldn't fix that, he did make everything look much nicer. He also honored my request to use primarily native, drought-tolerant plants. Overall, I was very pleased. One thing I wish had been addressed was how low the grade is for this area - I would have preferred for Portera to bring it above the elevation of the sidewalk. Not the end of the world, just would have been nice, especially because we had to do so much extra to bring the hardscaping above sidewalk level when we installed it.

Because of the remediation of my house, the front and side yard were in very bad shape. Since it would have taken a year or two to recover, I decided to replace the Bermuda with zoysia. In replacing the sod there were places on the side of the house and back yard that they changed the slope enough to deal with drainage problems. Andy redesigned the flower beds. That involved moving some plants as well as adding a significant number of shrubs. Stepping stones were added to a high traffic area. During the process a couple of sprinkler heads got damaged. They replaced those heads and changed out some of the other heads. They put pine straw in all the beds. They cleaned up after their work was complete. Since I like digging in the dirt, I desired to plant the perennials myself. Andy provided some suggestion for low maintenance, butterfly and bird friendly plants. The low maintenance, butterfly and bird friendly issue was a consideration in the selection of the shrubs that were planted.

My back yard was completely useless every time it rained since it stored every inch of that rain water. I called Portera Landscaping to see if they could help me resolve the issue. Andy and his team were quick to return my call, came to the house to check if there was anything that could be done to fix it. They decided on what to do and started working as soon as the weather allowed them. I was very impressed with the speed with which they completed the job and with the quality of it... They had to dig the trenches, pumped water out of them, put the pipes in them and filled them with gravel and pebbles, now it looks like I have a landscaping design in my backyard!. The whole team was very professional and took the time to explain what they were doing, how it would work and what it would mean to me in terms of maintenance. I couldn't be more pleased with the job they did (they even went the extra mile by helping me fix a small part of the yard that had hole caused by the rain), they were very efficient, very courteous and did an excellent work! I would recommend this company to anyone who needs landscaping work done!

Andy was very easy and pleasant to work with. He did everything he said he would do, and once a time was set, he and his team were always there as expected. It did take a while to get the initial estimate, but once we got started, there were no unexpected delays. I would characterize his general responsiveness to emails and calls as reasonably timely if not immediate. When the work was completed, everything was clean and beautiful. Andy took the time to talk with us about caring for our plants, and discussed their needs for feeding and water. As far as pricing, we did get another estimate and felt that even though Portera was a bit more expensive, the price was certainly fair and reasonable, and we do believe we got what we paid for in excellent workmanship and beautiful plants. We had one miscommunication in the process, and Andy worked very well with us to make sure things that we were happy with the resolution and that things were done to our satisfaction. I was very appreciative of that. We are more than happy with the end result, and when we are ready to do the next installment, we won't hesitate to call Portera Landscaping.

It went very well. I liked the workers, and I love my yard.

Overall, I rate them highly. I would absolutely use them again in the future.