Anna Harrington Design

We signed on to Angies' List $699 Big Deal and got a detailed landscape plan from landscape designer Anna Harrington. She was extremely knowledgeable about drought tolerant California native plants and water conserving landscape design, and produced a detailed scaled drawing which she discussed with us, adjusting it to our preferences and desires. The plan involved removing 6000 sq. ft of grass, installation of 445 new drought resistant plants, installation of 1200 sq. ft. of walkway, drip irrigation system, 60 cu. yd of mulch and landscape lighting. Anna worked with us and the competitively selected contractor, Landscape West, over the full extent of a multi-week construction project involving site-related modifications and plant material availability adjustments to the original plan. We couldn't be more pleased with the final appearance of our new landscape, and with Anna's skill and knowledge. We would strongly recommend her to others seeking drought tolerant landscape design.

We have a small garden area and wanted to remove the lawn and install drought tolerant landscaping. We intended to do a lot of the work ourselves but wanted our yard to look professionally done. After discussing what we wanted Anna did a beautiful drawing. It is a beautiful design. We went over the plants and where I could find them. Once I got all the plants in Anna came back and placed them for installation. Anna is very professional and was always prompt to my calls and emails. I enjoyed working with her and would do so again in a heartbeat.

We had a very disappointing experience with Anna Harrington. We hired Anna to prepare a landscape design and upon completion, she introduced us to her recommended contractor, Amit Jacob Harel of 4Seasons Remodeling & Design. The purpose of the landscape design was to keep the project on budget and clearly identify the scope of work. However, ?her? contractor presented one price, and through carefully worded contract clauses, set us up for overages of $7,800 (23% of our contract). In addition, Anna bizarrely inserted herself in the middle of our dispute with the contractor when the hydro seeding portion of the contract did not work. Even when the contractor agreed in writing to refund us our money, she convinced him to change his position to ?I have fulfilled my contractual obligations?. Our yard is filled with weeds and virtually no grass. We will now be taking legal action to collect our money. We are perplexed by Anna?s staunch support of her contractor which demonstrates she does not care about her customer.

I really debated writing this review, and before I did, I looked to see what others had written about Anna Harrington Design. Apparently there are NO RATINGS for her at all, so I'm scratching me head, wondering how and why I decided to use her. That mystery aside, I hired Anna to help me develop a landscape plan for my large backyard. We had two very pleasant meetings and two or three brief phone conversations. I was surprised and somewhat annoyed when she presented an early plan based on so little discussion, and very few questions about how I wanted to use the various areas of a very large yard. A little more time, another meeting for and additional charge, and the final result is hugely disappointing. I had expected so much more detail, more imagination, more options, but for 1,600. I got what looks like a page right out of a child's coloring book. Not even a single elevation. She basically just mixed a few of her plant suggestions in with most of my ideas and called it a day. So, the the bottom line for me is that there is VERY LITTLE VALUE in her service.

After using a garden center designer, and then hiring a landscape planner with a preconceived and inflexible design agenda, we met Anna Harrington at a Garden Show. Within five minutes she had already given us three good ideas for solving the hillside conundrum in our backyard. We asked her to come over to the house and try to come up with some way to solve the problems of a long, rectangular 'bathtub' design backyard with an intractable hillside of invasive plants. She suggested dividing the long rectangle into four parts; one with a patio coming off the french doors, one with a succulent garden to be viewed from a bay window, and another garden with South African native plants. Anna also suggested that we create a faux stream bed or river with rocks and grasses on the hillside - a project to be completed over a number of years. She drew a design that was detailed enough for the paving contractor to follow. After the hardscape was completed and plants were purchased, we invited Anna back to help us with the final plant placement of plants. She has a keen eye for design. The backyard is now aesthetically pleasing and a place of relaxation and calm. We couldn't have done it with out her!