A Passion For Gardening

Great work. Mr. Yanez and his crew have been doing my landscaping for 10+ years. They do quality work. They have removed trees, clip hedges, installed irrigation system, as well as providing regular service for my property. Several years ago they paved a new patio in my backyard. Over the years, I have contracted them to do several thousands of dollars’ worth of work. I have never been disappointed.

Pedro was great. He was on time, courteous, did a thorough job and clean up and taught some things about the trees

Mr. Yanez came by and quoted me for all of the plants I would need, he quoted me on a per plant price. He said he could fix the sprinklers and drip system and then cover the yard with mulch. Then I asked how much it would cost total with labor, and he said "I normally charge $45.00 per hour but can do it for $35.00 per hour", he even put this in writing. I agreed and he came back to start the work. I was pleased with the plants he chose and the way the work was proceeding. He worked for 3 full days and 2 hours for plant delivery, but he was not quite finished. Then, when he gave me the bill, I was in shock, $3600 total, $1200 in plants and sprinkler parts which was inline with the prices he quoted for them, but the labour was $2400 for 3 days work, he billed me for 68 hours. I have security cameras so I went back through the footage and found down to the minute when he came and left. He actually spent 24.5 hours of work total, and the labor should have been around $850.00. When I questioned him, he said that the $35.00 per hour is for him and his two helpers each, in effect $105.00 per hour????!!! I would have never agreed to that! He stated at the beginning of the job $35.00 per hour period, he never mentioned each person. The job was not quite finished as expected either, I still needed more plants, the completion of another drip system and there was yet no mulch. The drip system when turned on had no bubblers at the ends of the hoses so when I tried out the system, water was spraying everywhere, mostly on the driveway, I went out and bought the bubbles and installed them myself, but now their is not enough pressure for the bubblers to work at the end of the drip system, so he should have split the system and tested it, which he did not. As far as I am concerned the job is half done, and I get socked with a bill for 3 times more labor then what I expected. I am going to go to the State of California Contractors Board and file a complaint. This seems to be a scam.

The team did everything we asked quickly and well. Very professional.

The work was done very intermittently. There was never a commitment to return at a specific time. The turf installed looks patched together in a checkerboard fashion rather than buying another bigger piece to fill the area. The irrigation is not running properly, resulting in overwatering some areas and under watering others. I have contacted the owner to come and fix the problem, but he has not shown up yet. A word of caution: owner and I reached a price for the overall work before the job commenced and it was laid out in a handwritten document which I signed and left with the owner. At the end of the job, he tried to charge $2800 more than the agreed price, but the work was only what was agreed upon originally. I recommend a formal contract with this company with specific work and dates outlined in it. Overall the yard looks great, but the experience with follow-up on irrigation and the price issues and timeliness have made me disillusioned with this contractor. The overall price was $10,289, which made me expect better service.

Pedro and team worked hard to make the walkway even and curved, cleaned up leaves then placed and smoothed decomposed granite throughout. They cleaned up some, but left some sand and d.g on sidewalk and walkway. Overall, they did a nice job and were very responsive. I moved all potted plants back and planted some in new garden bed, as well as used stones to create some designs in d.g

It went very well. They were very professional and there on time. They were very easy to contact and schedule. They did a very good job and cleaned up after themselves. Everything went as planned and I would recommend them to anyone. The head gardener was very knowledgeable about botany, the trees, how it is best to prune them and care for them. He explained everything. He asked me for guidance on what I felt was most important .

The last time I had them they were good. They were a good outfit. The price and responsiveness was good.

I was not contacted back after several calls, text messages and emails which started on 8-20-17. I finally reached them today 10-2-17 at 7:30 AM thinking calling early would work. The gentleman who answered claimed to have never received the communication and said if I texted him the address he would stop by today. I have to share that I do not have much faith in A Passion for Gardening. As they say Buyer Beware......

The services I wanted done were accomplished to my satisfaction.

Went well. I did not communicate what tools would be needed so once that was taken care of it went well. No problems.

Getting a hold of the company was absolutely awful. I called and the individual who answered was not very clear with what they were saying and just told me to text them my information and they would take care of the rest. I did not hear from them after that text. I e-mailed and received no response either. I finally messaged them on Angie's List saying if they did not respond within two days (and this was 5 days after I had purchased the service) that I was going to collect a refund from Angie's List. They finally got back to me in a few word reply via Angie's List messaging that wasn't very clear either. Then I received a text asking if they could come on Saturday. So I said, "Sure." And then I asked what time they would be coming and I never got a response. But, I did end up getting my doorbell rang at 7:20 AM on a Saturday morning. So I threw myself together to talk with the workers. After telling them what I wanted, they got right to work. The workers that were there did an outstanding job. My backyard looks amazing from all the trimming and tidying up that they did. They did charge an extra 65 dollars for haul away of all the trimmings, which wasn't really talked about in the deal. But, I didn't really care at that point. So getting in contact with this company is an *ABSOLUTE* nightmare. But, once they finally come, they do a really nice job. So if you aren't on a schedule and you are super relaxed and chill about contracting work, then I would say go for it with this company. They do a great job once they're there and the prices are not too bad.

Gardener was very difficult to get a hold of to schedule an appointment. Evidently, he was recovering from surgery. When he finally came, he brought a helper who did most of the work and by the way, was a very hard worker. I purchased plants from him and the plants are thriving. The gardener/contractor was short on patience and didn't seem to like to answer questions. He was irritated with me because I wanted natural color mulch and then when he finally brought it, didn't like it when I insisted on seeing it before he started to spread it.

Very pleased. Trees done well and plant went as planned.

Excellent work. They did everything I asked.

Ten of my 12 Queen palms and 6 Mexican palms were finished. The Canary was trimmed as described above. The contractor brought a truck to pack the debris in instead of the shredder that was described in the "Deal". In addition bucket truck was not available either. Too much time was spent by the workers trying to pack down the debris into the truck so it would fit. The shredder would have been significantly more efficient and the workers would have been available for other work. The owner came out with the crew and he included his time toward the contracted 24 hours even though he was selective in his work habits. The 2 of the crew worked from 7:30 to 2PM and the owner and the helper worked from 8:30 to 2 PM. So in the end, the owner wanted another $1000 to finish my yard. In 19 years of living here I have never had to pay over $800 for the entire property. A Passion For Gardening was not worth the $999 I paid. When I gave the owner a walk through of my property, he should of told me that I was expecting too much from him for that price. At least that way I could have had him focus on the most important parts. In the future, I will be very reluctant to participate in Angie's specials.

Can't say enough good things about Pedro Yanez and Passion for Gardening. Pedro is a wonderful designer as well as having an excellent knowledge of what will help each plant thrive. He cleared away all the weeds and anything unwanted. Filled in earth and fertilized wherever needed. Removed two dead trees and pruned the others to ensure enough sun for grass. Set up an irrigation system both spray and drip all on timers. Lay sod. Put in a row of hedge by the street to provide privacy. And put in a beautiful border with a wide variety of water wise plants. Pedro honored the two vouchers we had purchased through Angies List, and his prices were so reasonable for the items where we went over that we would have been glad to pay full price. His work added enormously to our houses value. Overall, he is a pleasure to work with.

Just fine and sustaining crew is punctual and works hard and efficiently.

I got the area around the mobile home cleaned up, bushes trimmed, weeds pulled. That was all relatively satisfactory except I hate what they did to one of 2 bushes - not at all graceful although it followed my general direction --I did not like that bush was fully covering front window. I really wanted it moved but was told that moving it wold cost me an additional $1000 which I thought outrageous. So they trimmed it with a flat top - very unbecoming. Yes it no longer covered any part of the window. I was surprised that my whole 8 hours were used up in the clean up for such a small area.

Work was fair and I would hire again, with stricter presence on my part.

Obviously, since we used this firm for four yards, you can see we are very impressed with this company. All of the yards are showcase quality. Pedro, whom we have found to be a high-caliber and honest individual, carries Workman's Compensation, which protects both his employees and us. Secondly, Pedro gave us a bid that made it possible to do the projects. (On one of the yards, we did time and materials, and that worked out well, too.). Bids from two other companies were unaffordable. Pedro is onsite during the installation, he loves plants (I heard that he has a horticulture degree from a college in Mexico), and the plants thrive once the project is completed. Pedro spent extra time with me going over our design, making suggestions that greatly improved the overall projects in terms of layout and plant selection. He is there when he says he is coming. Once the project starts, he brings in enough workers to get the job done quickly. It was a pleasure working with him and his entire crew. They are all so nice and polite, in addition to being hardworking. When Pedro finished with our fourth yard, we felt a little disappointed that we didn't have another yard to work with him on, since we enjoyed doing the projects so much with him!

They did good work; I'd use them again. It was a big job for one day. We did have communication issues - ESL.

It went really well. I had wanted to plant in August, but after our consultation we decided cooler weather was better. They moved a heavy tree for me and planted it, which I couldn't have done on my own. They arrived exactly when I asked and sent me a reminder the night before. I paid them $30.00 cash for the extra plants and planting my Elephant foot tree, which was totally worth it.

I contacted A Passion for Gardening via email and multiple phone messages to the phone numbers on their website. After two weeks, I had no response from the contractor. Don't waste your time with this contractor. They don't honor their special offers.

Went well. Only problem was they didn't provide much info on the plants they installed.