LUIS RUVALCABA LANDSCAPING

After 10 gardening services in about 6 years, I went to Angie's list and found Luis. That was 2 years ago. His service is excellent. He is personally here to supervise his team, he is prompt and always responsive. I highly recommend Luis' services.

Highly recommended. Honest, knowledgeable, polite and professional.

I hired Louis to maintain my yard for 18 months while I was out of state and had rented out my house. He agreed to keep the yard in its current condition while I was gone. All the bushes were well trimmed, the lawn was green and free from weeds as were all the flowerbeds. When I returned (in Sep 08), the bushes were overgrown as were all the ice plants, the flowerbeds had weeds in them and the lawn was filled with crab grass and there were several brown spots. Whoever mowed the lawn and run over sprinkler heads didn?t replace them with something similar (they stuck out above the lawn by 2?) or adjust them. I expressed my complete dissatisfaction to Louis and asked him to rectify the situation. He trimmed the bushes and used weed killer on the lawn and flowerbeds. Louis had his workers continue to mow the lawn (they still ran over sprinkler heads) for approximately the next 6 weeks (free of charge) until all the crabgrass was dead and the weather was cool enough for him to reseed the large patches of lawn that had been affected. The yard looked much better when he was finished, but I can honestly say it was not in as good of condition as the way I had originally left it. I wouldn?t recommend Louis unless you can periodically check his work. I would rate the condition of the yard a D upon my return, but gave him a C as he did try to rectify the situation without charge.

He is always very responsive and keeps our yard neat. We have a big yard; when he comes he is always very punctual and courteous. He is great, and we really like him.

I would say that my previous gardener was a mow, blow, and go type, expect he rarely mowed and would only blow the patio. He was terrible. He constantly complained about how much work it was, he would run over our sprinkler heads with the mower (that's how we knew when he was mowing, because our sprinkler system turned into a field of geysers), and he did absolutely nothing. To top it off, in December he said he needed to do a "yearly cleanup" (read, catch up on everything that he hasn't done for the entire year), and charge me $500. So, finally, I fired him. I consulted Angie's List and saw the great reviews of Luis, so I gave him a call. He showed up promptly to give me an estimate for weekly services and not surprisingly noted that our yard required pretty basic maintenance. Our yard was left in such a state of disrepair and ruin that Luis said it would take a good 4-6 weeks to get it back to where it should be. But, he said it would be no big deal. He was right. It's been 4 weeks now, and, while there's still more to be done, the place looks better now than it has anytime in the last two years. Our old gardener was terrible. Luis is terrific. Granted, it's only been 4 weeks, so we're still in the honeymoon phase, but if Luis continues to provide this level of service, I would not hesitate to highly recommend him.

We decided to install a drought resistant garden but the estimates we got from most landscapers were above our very frugal budget. Luis came and gave us a reasonable estimate, but we decided to purchase the materials ourselves and have Luis and his crew execute our wishes. Luis was wonderful. He and his crew of two men arrived on a drizzly day, which turned into a rainy day, and they immediately dug trenches for the edging and started working on the hedge. When the rain got too heavy they just waited it out. They then installed the weedblock, installed the edging, spread the mulch, installed a path and a planter (his sense of proportion and he has excellent spatial reasoning and a well developed sense of aesthetics). Then they installed the plants where we directed them. By the end of the day we actually had a very manicured looking front yard, with a pathway and a lovely, circular planter.

Luis is punctual and fair in his pricing. His workmanship is professional and he cleans up after himself. He has a great sense of detail in maintaining my garden and supervises his staff well.

Very well. My only issue is that it took about a month from the time I approved the bid till he started the job. He's very busy, and having used his service I can understand why.

It went well and we were happy with the outcome. It ended up being a little more expensive than we had thought it would be, but he did a good job. They showed up when they said they would and got it done pretty fast. They seemed to get what we wanted and followed through with it.

Luis and his team were professional, efficient and did an incredible amount of work. Starting with a well thought out and explained estimate, Luis and team arrived promptly at 8 A.M. and finished when the job was done to satisfaction. Work was done simultaneously in the back and front yard. In the end we had a new sprinkler system and a very well tended lawn. The clean up was quite excellent. I highly recommend Luis and his team.

Luis showed for our appointment and we were very impressed with his professionalism. We scheduled the work and he was 30 minutes early with his crew. He performed all of the work beyond our expectations. His crew were very professional as was Luis. Would we call Luis again? YOU BET! They were professional in every way. They cleaned up the back and front yard so well you wouldn't have known they were here. EXCELLENT WORK. Luis even fixed a sprinkler head for us while here and no charge.

Our first real service was this week and they showed up as promised and did exactly as the said. It will take time for bring our yards up to what we expect but I am confident Luis and his crews will accomplish it. Luis himself promised to come by with the crew he supervises and does the work. His ability to communicate with me was excellent and I feel like this will be a long running relationship.

Excellent job. Luis is extremely fast, extremely knowledgeable, and clearly takes genuine pride and enjoyment from his work. (He whistled all through the job.) One caveat: Luis and crew also do weekly gardening maintenance, so he saves big landscaping jobs for weekends. So, he may come and give you a bid and then not be able to start for several weeks (or months in my case). But he's worth the wait. He is easy to talk to and really wants to work with you to create the kind of yard you want, on your budget.

Excellent job. Luis is extremely fast, extremely knowledgeable, and clearly takes genuine pride and enjoyment from his work. (He whistled all through the job.) One caveat: Luis and crew also do weekly gardening maintenance, so he saves big landscaping jobs for weekends. So, he may come and give you a bid and then not be able to start for several weeks (or months in my case). But he's worth the wait. He is easy to talk to and really wants to work with you to create the kind of yard you want, on your budget.

Overall, a less-than-satisfactory job. Luis did not use any new soil when planting these trees, just our old sixty-year old clay soil. Did not dig berms around the trees to catch water. Just sprinkled some fertilizer on top when he was finished. Left the job sight a mess. Did not do any proper clean up, left all the dirt that was dug up in the planting process strewn about the lawn. Had to arrange for an additional visit (at an additional cost) to clean up our yard. Although pleasant to deal with at first, when we started to have problems with his work (ie., the clean up), he became less pleasant. We subsequently hired another landscaper to add proper soil amendment, dig berms, and to correct the planting of the trees, some of which were planted a bit too deep. Luis has clearly done fine work in the past (that s why we chose him); sadly, this was not one of his better efforts.

I was very happy and they did a great job. They are always on time and answer all of our questions. The quality of the work is fantastic and they are very personable.

We were fairly satisfied. They came about 6 weeks after I contacted them and came when I wasn t there. I was out of town, but on the whole things went fine. Some of the work that I asked him to do was not completed, but I think that was because of my absence.

How would I know? They didn't call back!

Some things were done exactly how I asked, but others were not. For example, they did not trim some hedges the way I had hoped. But they were always on time, professional, and helpful. Luis even got up on the roof and went out of his way to help us. Luis was very responsible and good. He only does big jobs in my area. I would definitely hire him for a big job again.

They offer very good rates and I had a lot of confidence in their work.

Half as much work and twice as much money as any other gardener. All the reports I read about him from Angie's list were concerning landscaping. As a gardener, he does not take direction well, is sullen, and does not work the amount of time agreed on. He is knowledgable but does not perform. For example, his guys broke a sprinkler pipe and it took me 2 weeks and numerous phone calls to get him to fix it which he did grudgingly. I think because of your list, he has enough work to not care if he does his job well or not. Has a really bad attitude

This is my 2nd review of Luis. I feel bad things have not worked out, he is a nice man. I live in the hills and have a small patch of grass in the front. The front grass & flower beds have lots of weeds. From time to time I pull the weeds myself. But I feel I should not have to do this. I also have to cut dead flowers to encourage growth of more flowers. The side of our yard has ivy on the lower side and other plants on the top.The ivy is completely overgrown with approx. 15 four foot weeds. It is awful. The top area is half dead from rust on the leaves. The dead and diseased plants have not been cleared. The area needs a lot of attention. The back of our house is an upward sloped hill. We are struggling to have new plants grow in clay. In our initial bid Luis promised to mix in a little composite in the soil in this area weekly. The idea being if they take a square yard a week we will see change. They do not even go up the hill. I asked for changes in writing & verbally. Nothing helps

Left 2 messages and received a call back almost 2 weeks later. Then made an appointment for him to come estimate landscaping job and he didn't show up. This isn't an "A" business as far as I'm concerned.

HE HAD TO DIG THROUGH OLD ROOTS TO INSTALL THE SYSTEM.

HE IS HELPFUL, PATIENT, RELIABLE, AND PROFESSIONAL. HE IS JUST A REALLY NICE GUY. HE IS VERY NEAT IN HIS WORK AND CLEANS UP AFTER HIMSELF NICELY. HE ALSO DOES THE JOB PROPERLY.