Mike's Landscaping Co

They were great. We have a large front yard with a (not professionally designed) California native landscape, and a large dog friendly backyard. We neglected both the front yard and the backyard the entire winter -- nearly 5 months. Both yards were weedy, overgrown and many plants had suffered major frost damage. Green Thumb did a great job -- they know what California native plants are, they were able to thin our California poppies without decimating them, and they also pruned our sages and other plants. Great job.

He was ok and did a good job.

I was refer to Mike's Landscaping from a friend. I needed to get price quote for clean up and new sprinkler system for our rental property I recently purchased. A gentleman name Tatsu showed up and give me a quick diagnosis of old irrigation system that came with the property and get back to me with price estimate in timely manner. He was very knowledgeable about sprinkler system and gave me a nice little lecture about different type of system we can get, which was very helpful. The estimate we received contained a detailed information about the parts he would use and price was fair. Although the estimate was not the cheapest quote we got but type of parts that was proposed to use for the project (I wanted durable commercial quality parts), we thought that was worth the extra. The entire project took 2 and a half day. Everything went smoothly and Tatsu gave me detailed updates and he even fixed the low voltage lighting transformer that was acting up free of charge! Everything was installed according to the estimate. Tatsu gave me walk through of the job. I am satisfied with the job they have done. Overall, I am happy with the results and I will definitely use them for next landscape project!

They were great. We have a huge front yard bordered on either side by tall hedges grown from ficus trees and we had neglected it for quite a while. In addition to the hedges being overgrown, several volunteer elm trees had grown in the hedges and this wierd asparagus vine had also grown into the hedges. The volunteer elm trees had only been cut back by our (former) gardeners so over time the volunteer elm trees grew to 8' or so and the thorny asparagus vine made walking near the hedges hazardous. MIke's service removed the volunteer elm trees and the wierd vine -- they dug them out by the root. They then did a really beautiful job of trimming the tall hedges and the smaller box hedges. They worked very hard and did a great cleanup job, so our neighbors are happy too.

Spoke with Tatsu - hard to reach except to get a bid and on the day of the work. The bid I received was for killing the old lawn, removing the top 6 inches of dirt, replacing that soil with new, healthy topsoil. Then sod on top, cut to my irregular border. Tatsu had advised that I get Marathon 1 and had given solid reasons why. As work began, I quickly realized the top 6 inches of soil were not being removed. The crew carefully scraped the old lawn off the dirt that was already there, then began to put a thin veneer of new topsoil on top of that - clearly planning to put the lawn right on top. I asked one of the men if they were planning to dig down and remove the top 6 inches. He said yes, but then they continued to put the veneer of topsoil on the old dirt. So I stopped them, called Tatsu; he denied an agreement to remove the top 6 inches and said he'd be by in the next 30-40 minutes. He didn't get there then, but the men started to remove soil anyway. The one I spoke with acknowledged that they usually remove the top inches of soil, but that wasn't his orders today. Anyway, they started digging. They carted off 2-3 inches of soil maximum, and that's it. I photographed the small amount in their truck bed. They then continued to put a thin veneer of topsoil on, and then the sod. I never did see Tatsu the whole day, although he said he came by and knocked. He's about to come by this evening to be paid, and I believe he will want the whole $500+ for the job I didn't get. If they did half the digging, should I pay him half the amount? The men who did the work were polite, tried to respect my other plants and cleaned the patio when they were done. While the price was far below the other bid, I did not get the value I was promised. So I rated the price just "Fair."

1. Poor communication with company. Frequently called and/or emailed to request certain items to be done. Follow-up was lousy. Items I had to requested to be performed were chores that a good garderner would have already performed. 2. Overall, the quality of work performed was poor. It became apparent to me that whoever Mike used to actually do the field work were persons who had very little knowledge about gardening. I also had to tell them to cut back the hedge, cut back grasses in the winter before spring, alert me when they noticed plants were sick and/or infested. 3. This was a "blow and go" company, not true gardeners. Final straw was when they destroyed a shrub/tree that was coming out of dormancy with new blooms and growth. They cut it back and didn't even cut it back properly.