COASTAL SAGE GARDENING

It's been over 10 years that I've used Coastal Sage for my yard service, and we've had our issues. In the past two years, service has gone down. The gardeners took major shortcuts, rarely reported as scheduled, and have provided consistently diminishing quality of service. I have dogs and agreed to scoop the yard before service, so schedule should have been important to the gardener. Instead, they avoided areas and worked around dog droppings when they came three days early without notice. As recently as 5 years ago, my monthly service fee of $100 covered care of front and back yard two times per month. Slowly, the gardener started focusing visits on only one area (front OR back). I talked with owner John Noble, arranged to pay more for service to both areas each visit, and then continued onward -- reminding them a few times I was contracted for both areas when the gardener skipped. There were also several months when the gardener only came once in the month but I attributed it to rain, weather, holiday -- thinking they would make up the work later but they usually did not. When the growing season started, apparently the gardener didn't like additional work and started leaving anything he needed to move in front of the door. Ultimately the gardener left a metal frame leaning on a inward-opening door, and my young child was injured when he opened the door to go into the backyard. Replacement gardeners that John assigned do a worse job with yardcare but at least did not leave booby traps. I have bi-monthly contact with John and always seem to convey dissatisfaction. I do not recall the new gardener has yet worked on the day contracted, despite several confirmations from John on the schedule. I just received a Notice of Violation from the city about plants encroaching on sidewalk. It is time to find a reasonable yard service provider, and Coastal Sage Gardening is not it!

I corresponded with John by email and set up an appointment at our house to discuss the job. I took time off from my job to be at the house at the appointed time. John never showed up, never called, and never emailed to say why he did not show up.

Coastal Sage Gardening has performed our routine yard maintenance for about seven years. John and his crew have managed to find a happy medium to my husband's love of growing fruits/vegetables and my desire for a "clean" yard. Our yard is complex with multiple levels (slopes) and varied areas, including ivy, fruit trees, pine trees, a Eugenia tree that drops too much fruit in the fall, ice plants, fish pond, play areas, decks, pets, etc. We've evolved to an annual contract, which gives us discount if we pay in full in advance. We've used Coastal Sage to remove giant pampas grass, trim trees, conduct "dump runs," and perform all the yard chores my husband dreads. John and his crew are extremely knowledgeable about local trees and shrubbery. They are always careful with my husband's beloved fruit trees, even when to me they look like dead sticks that need to get removed. The folks at Coastal Sage always recommend a natural approach, so I don't have to worry about chemicals... they have offered great suggestions when we've considered adding new plants.

OUR EXPERIENCE WITH JOHN WAS VERY GOOD. HE WAS A LOT OF FUN TO WORK WITH AND CARED A LOT ABOUT OUR SATISFACTION. HE AND HIS WORKERS WERE PEOPLE THAT WE FELT COMFORTABLE HAVING AROUND OUR HOUSE ALSO, EVEN WHEN OUR KIDS WERE HOME AND WE WEREN'T.