GARDEN ARCHITECTURE

This was a complex job because a large area was involved. We wanted only planting, no "hardscaping.' (the firm might be better at that). Robert Trachetnberg, the owner, came out and told us in glowing terms that we could have swaths of color, reds, purples, blues, going up our hillside. He then arranged for a supposed plant expert, David Lindberg, to plan the details. (Robert is very charming and a good talker, but he forgets what he has promised and doesn't listen very well, we discovered eventually.) The first step was to have a crew remove existing undesired plants and weeds; this job was only half finished, when the crew probably suffering from the heat, left. We assumed they would come back and finish, but they didn't. I had to remove many additional weeds and plants myself. After David made a drawing that revealed very little about what he intended to plant, and had no obvious swaths as we had expected, we decided to pay for a more extensive plan. We expressed in some detail what we expected; many of these were details we had also emphasized to Robert. However, the plan didn't conform at all to what we expected. Parts of it seemed more or less ok, though the whole thing consisted merely of circles with scientific names of plants, making it very hard to envisage the whole layout and even approximately how it would look. Some of the greatest detail and most expensive plants were indicated for an area that could barely be seen from any reasonable vantage point, while areas that meant much more to us got most cursory treatment. We had specified certain plants we particularly wanted, but they were not in the plan. A number of plant types in in the plan we didn't want. David didn't take kindly too our requested changes. Also, even after some reductions in the plan, the estimated cost was way above what Robert had originally suggested. Robert came back; we went offer the whole plan and made further changes that would make the cost less than twice the original offer. We trusted that David and Robert had taken into account our desires, for instance that certain areas would remain as they had been, and so on. Robert specifically told us that he would oversee every subsequent step personally. The plants were ordered. When they came, we could see some were too small. It was time for the planting, and it turned out Robert was on vacation. He told us later he thought he could supervise adequately by email! Of course he couldn't. David was supposed to supervise on site, but he also was mostly not present as the large crew worked. they didn't know where plants were to go. When he was here, David had the plans he had drawn up with him, which we had gone over with him and modified with great care, but David never once referred to the plan. He basically said we should tell the workers where we wanted the plants. But we couldn't communicate that well with them, and when he did he only indicated a very general area. We had emphasized we wanted color and a sense of order.We got nothing of the sort. The plants that were supposed to shield the undesired view were just not big enough; it would have taken them years to grow enough. We had to go out and buy much bigger plants ourselves. We had an existing irrigation system that they modified, but they failed to test the modified system, almost killing many plants in a part of our garden they hadn't touched. Against what experienced nursery people had told us David insisted certain plants would do well in the shade, They didn't, and some have died. The landscapers also covered the hillside with a reddish mulch they had never shown us samples of. It stands out very prominently and we hate it. They told us they would plant small colorful plants in front of rocks on the hillside to make the rocks visually "pop." Instead they planted ferns that have already grown higher than many rocks, ruining, rather than adding to the natural beauty. We had a rush plant that we liked, and David suggested we should have more of them. But he ordered the wrong kind of rush, one that looks nothing like what we already had. The list of problems goes on and on. It was just a disaster. We probably should have refused to pay them, but we were so worn down at that point we did pay. In truth, we're thinking of suing to get at least part of our money back. We probably will have to hire a new designer to fix the mess.