A Scape Artist

I had such high hopes for A Scape Artist, given the positive reviews, but I should have paid more attention to the negative ones and early warning signs. Like one other reviewer said, it took forever to get a quote from him. As the other reviewer suspected, once work began, it was slow and incredibly frustrating. We had disputes over charges, to the point where he would add costs for items added, but 'forget' to take off items removed. Then, when we were close to the end, her 'forgot' to include mulch in the quote, so it was another $1500 to mulch the unplanted areas. The worst part is, 6 months into the garden, I'm realizing what a bad job he really did. The watering system is far inferior to what he replaced, the paths were constructed so they flood in the winter and my house is surrounded by 'moats'. The bocce court turns into a lake for 3 days after a rain (there is no drainage), and the backyard is still mostly dirt since the groundcover he recommended never grew in. I told him I needed a 'kid proof' design, and he built paths with no boarders so now mulch and gravel are completely intermixing (despite his assurances that they wouldn't). Matt Guarascio, the owner, was almost never there, and his crew was left to figure out things on their own. I think they did substandard work on irrigation and drip systems (they initially installed a sprinkler system on my deck area, rather than drip between the deck stones, which, thankfully, he did replace when I expressed concern that my deck furniture would be watered whenever the sprinkler's went on, but it just made no sense to start with). If the job were cheap, I'd be OK with this, but I paid a lot of money for a garden that I expected to 'work', only to find out I need to redo most of the irrigation, paths and grassy areas. It's been incredibly frustrating and I encourage you to look elsewhere if you're looking for landscape work.

I think Matt's portfolio is great. His work looks very creative. But I took months and months trying to get a quote out of him and he really lacked responsiveness. To me it was an indication of what it would be like to work with him. I talked to two of his references and one was glowing but the other confirmed my experience. They were happy with the work, but he was really frustrating to work with.

The original job looks fabulous, great and did a wonderful job with everything he did. I did call him about six months ago just to come out and redo some other things. I think the total plants that he updated and got me another tree and stuff like that were about $400. He did all of that because I was such a great customer and he's just a great contractor. I know there are a lot of contractors that don't do that. Once the job is done, I'm kind of just done, but he's definitely not like that. He always answers my calls and questions. I pay him for his time because he's such a great person, but he's always available when I need him. He's very reasonable in his pricing, he's very committed to one's job and very easy to work with. I had gotten other quotes that were higher and lower, but his quote was more detailed in terms of what he was offering. It was very reasonable for the amount of work and how long he was here for. The quality is excellent. He has a good craftsmanship. He's very reliable and excellent. He's very responsive, punctual and professional. I would use him again in the future.

From beginning to end he was always attentive to my needs and his attention to detail is phenominal. Matt and is crew were very professional and met my deadline. He still answers the phone when I call with questions.