Terra Design

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Wynne Wilson/Terra Design. Ms. Wilson is absent of professionalism and I am not sure that she understands how basic principles associated with business work. For example, the terms we signed with her indicated that payment for invoices was due within 10 days. She invoiced us twice for progress payments – the first invoice was issued at the end of the first day of work (a Tuesday), and the second invoice was issued on Friday. On Friday, she demanded payment be submitted on both invoices on Monday (note: she requested “progress” payments for nearly 90% of the work when we only had one tree planted, no lighting, no installed plants, no mulch). When my husband forgot to leave the checks by the front door as was demanded, she threatened to stop work on our project (she could not “afford” to go on)! When I got on the phone with her later that day and pointed out her unprofessionalism and other issues with her work (namely, that she told us we needed to build a retaining wall mid-stream in the project when the final plan never indicated that a wall was necessary, and then reversed herself that very same day after finally looking at the area that she thought the wall should be, thereby causing an issue that never needed to exist if she had just done her job and supervised the project), she became irate on the phone with me, all but hanging up on me. She acted as if she was doing us some huge favor by doing the work that we paid her to do. Thankfully, she has an assistant (who was nothing but nice), so I was able to move forward with the project without having to communicate again directly with her. However, by the end of the project, I was so deflated that I just gave up pursuing things that were not executed in accordance with the plan (of which there were many) and I ultimately didn’t get want I wanted for my garden. Stay far, far away from Ms. Wilson, and do yourself a favor and hire someone that holds a degree in landscape architecture. I was misled as to her abilities because she was listed as a professional on a list I received through The Theodore Payne Foundation for native plants. However, now I have learned my lesson, and will only hire someone who is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers, of which Ms. Wilson is not.

Wynne Wilson gave us more than we expected. Her design skills are amongst the best in the field. We have a historical property and we appreciated her attention to detail in every aspect of our project. She provided a budget and time-line so we knew what to expect. Wynne and her team were polite, professional, and with her supervision the job was completed on time (we did of course add items along the way and our requests were always accommodated) Her crews were immaculate, cleaning up at the end of each day. We wanted to work with Terra Design as they have a reputation for excellence in design. Our new garden is a living sanctuary for wildlife and people. Each day brings something new to experience and we could not be happier. Terra Design has a very accomplished team and we could see how much they enjoy working together.

Wynne Wilson is the name of the architect. She does landscape architecture and installation. I think she sub contracts the installation. She does big jobs. Our $70000 lawn was a small job for her. We waited for her for a long time; checking on her every week to see if she could do the installation. She was busy. We got tired of waiting. So we had it installed by someone else. We spent about $4000 for the designing. She is very eco conscious and pet friendly. Everything she did was low water usage, drought resistant and non toxic for pets. She is kind of unique. Everything has a low impact on the environment for water usage.