G&L Design Building & Landscape Inc

The job started with several conversations about what I was looking for and a few versions of computer renderings of different options. I was also given a list of plant materials and several options for substitution. Once we agreed on a design, an contract was written up with several key categories making up the total cost. We scheduled times and only had delays due to weather (extreme heat). During the job, I changed my mind about a few details and also asked for some adds. We worked those into the job without a problem. The result was exactly what I was looking for.

We first met with Liz, the landscape designer, and contracted her to do a design plan. She listened well to our needs and came back with a plan that we really liked, particularly the design of the lawn terrace. She provided helpful options for our design dilemmas, such as replacements for our gravel patio. She offered options at various price points to give a sense of the range of options. In the end, she came up with ideas that we would never have thought of on our own. The crew did great work. I feel very comfortable with the quality of the work, particularly the retaining walls (including french drains, waterproofing). Dee, the owner and contractor lead, made some good changes as the plan was implemented, such as incorporating a bench along the lawn terrace and removing unnecessary stairs. They gladly accommodated two changes we made along the way (changed retaining wall materials from timber to cinder blocks, enlarged size of paver patio area). We had a few issues getting the new irrigation system working 100%, but Dee was on top of the issues and fixed the items promptly. He was committed to making sure we were 100% satisfied with the final results. He said they will come back after 90 days to replace any dead plants and fix any issues, if any. Overall, I would gladly work with G & L Design again and recommend them to others with their landscaping projects. We couldn't be happier with the end product.

I contracted with them after hiring a landscape designer, Liz Duer. She said she normally sends her clients to G & L to do the work. Sharon, the contact at G&L was very responsive by email throughout the process. There were portions of the design that were not followed. The landscaper, Dee, said that it was due to practical application or code regulations, the design element needed to be altered/corrected. Some of this was done without prior consultation with us. I would have preferred that they asked where to put the sprinkler hardware (which was not included in the design) before arriving at the decision that it be by the front entrance (in plain view). I was more proactive with the rest of the process and was able to communicate my preferences on elements not spelled out clearly in the design. If I had concerns or questions, Sharon would let Dee know and he would drop by when mutually convenient. Dee made experienced recommendations for certain changes, which he addressed ahead of time. I appreciate that he recommended not to add brick toppers on the seating wall and to consider artificial turf in the front yard since we were already installing it in the back yard. We went with his recommendation and were very satisfied. The crews that were contracted were professional and seemed experienced. We were pleased with the work. The plants used seem less than Landscape Vendor quality. There was leaf damage on many of them. I pointed out some dead and dying plants, but Dee said that he had added extra plants, and that he made sure I received all plants budgeted for, so I replaced the dying plants myself. Some of the roses are suffering white mildew and I don?t think it occurred on site as it started almost immediately after planting. The dirt brought in for the landscaping had so many weed sprouts; some weed species we didn?t have before, but I don?t know what is the normal method used by landscapers. Some of the plants in the designer?s site plan were not available and substitute palm plants were brought in. I would have liked to be involved in the choice of the replacement plants than an informative email telling me that the substitution was going to take place. There should be better communication with the design landscaper so that things placed on the contract are not promised and changed up later. Dee was very cooperative on negotiating the price difference on the contract due to the added/changed work, including items on the original contract that were not installed. Overall, I am happy with the final result there are just these few things, as I mentioned above, that keep me from saying Excellent. I would hire them again and am considering using them for the maintenance yard work as well.

Went well. I did not go forward with the renovations, however.

arrived on time, did the job

It went very well. The company was on time...on budget...and good for answering questions and follow-up visits. The plants they chose and installed are perfect.

They didn't set up the sprinkler properly and the water wasn't getting to the flowers. They system was too complex for him to deal with. They were punctual. The sprinkler stopped working.

It worked out well. There was no issue with scheduling the appointment.

They did not do a great job. I made a complaint about an off colored sprinkler head they put in my yard and nothing was ever done about it.

We worked with Liz for our design - she was great - very responsive, punctual, worked with us over various revisions until we were happy with the plans. We love her design!! Liz had told us typically after signing the contract and giving the deposit it only takes a week or so for the work to begin. Due to backup because of holidays/heat ours ended up starting a bit later than that. They did the planting but we were missing some of the plants (for our slope) that they could not obtain at start of planting. Normally I think they get the work for these type of jobs done in a few days time (no hardscape). However, ours ended up stretching to a little more than 4 weeks from initial planting to completion, which we were a little disappointed in, as we were not made aware that it was going to extend that long. Granted - we did end up adding additional work at Dee's suggestion (replacing our valve/timer for the existing sprinklers) and doing additional weed killer (at my request as I confirmed with Dee that the initial weed killer that was part of our bid wasn't done in all beds). So this took some additional time. Since completion we have had a couple issues but they have responded right away and have been very responsive. I think we are a one-off - I think there were various things that ended up causing delays in our job that are not how it typically goes for others - and I believe they are a great company. However - I would probably next time ask for an estimated end date before giving my payment during planting (about 90% of the payment was due at the time of planting). All in all we are very happy with the design and final result and would recommend the company - with suggestion to try to get details regarding start/end estimated dates of the job to not have any surprises.

Liz was very responsive + competent - came to the house, talked to us about objectives, and wrote up a plan which was then revised several times before being sent to Dror to be priced out. Once we were approved, G&L scheduled + started the job. Dror and Sharon are very responsive to email and orally when asked questions, presented with concerns and when changes are requested. My wife and I are home all of the time, so we saw the workers daily and spoke with Dror when he came to see how things were going + instruct workers on next steps. Dror came often, with a big truck to bring materials and equipment as needed, and to haul away broken concrete, roots, etc. We made several changes over the July - October 2014 project timeframe - sometimes simple things that required no change in budget, and sometimes changes at additional cost. All changes implemented correctly. Whole job was planned in good sequence + done with high quality + efficiently. G+L construction team - same crew throughout the job - is competent, efficient, friendly and very neat - always leaving the area cleaned up + tools put away so our dogs won't hurt themselves before going home at the end of the day.

After several useful meetings to discuss my vision and design options, I was provided computer renderings of what several potential solutions would look like. I was charge a minimal fee for this, which was applicable to the overall cost of the job if I chose to proceed. The next phase involved removal of a substantial amount of existing plants/shrubs. This occurred quickly with minimal mess/disruption. The only delay was due to excessive heat during a few days, which was communicated to me and I was totally supportive of. The last phase involved installing the new plants and creating a lower volume irrigation system to maintain them.

They replaced two or three sprinkler heads and straightened them out, I expected a tune-up to do more with adjusting the way the sprinklers worked. They also told me I wasn't using enough water and that I needed to water daily, which I didn't do because I have been living at the home for 20 years and have never needed to previously water daily to make the lawn green.

The final result is beautiful. High quality craftsmanship. The crew responsible for the job worked hard and went above and beyond the call. The foreman, Dee, is a man who stands behind his work.

We expected the total overhauling and re-designing our backyard and front yard landscaping would be a challenging experience. In our minds, there were so many unknowns in the work plans, work scope and work details. We've never undertaken such a project! So we naturally agonized over selecting the contractor. Even the selection process was a stressful one - making the short list, interviewing several candidates, poring over their preliminary designs and cost estimates. After all this work, our selection of G&L turned out to be a great decision in hindsight. The highest mark we give to G&L is their attentiveness throughout the process. Such attentiveness was given to us from the very start to finish by Dee, the owner-operator. With Dee's personal attention, we felt that every stage of the project was well managed and problem free. We always had access to Dee for any and all consultations and concerns - it made the whole process much easier. The other equally important strength of G&L was the experienced and considerate working crew. They not only worked hard but made sure that they left each day after a thorough cleaning and tried to be considerate to our neighbors to the extent possible.The overall quality of the finished work is very satisfactory and there was no need or promises left unaddressed. The work process and work scope resulted exactly as laid out in our contract and verbal communications. If there were any gaps, we always had Dee to discuss, which was always reasonable. This should be the way the business is conducted.

In the end we went with someone else, for reasons unrelated to G&L's performance. I would recommend them and hope we get a chance to use them in the future.

It went very well. He made suggestions that made sense. He did not overe promise and he was very clear about what he was doing and why. Very pleasant person.

I contacted them about a possible job to use them for. After discussing further, Liz explained my job is not exactly what they do. Rather than leaving me with that, she was SO nice in going another step & letting me know she might know of another company that could help me. I so appreciated her referring me to someone rather than just saying, "sorry, we don't do that" & leaving me to start over. People don't do that anymore & it's really too bad. If I could, I would use them!

They did a fair job overall but were not as through as I would have liked... Some things were overlooked that I then had to go back and deal with myself later.

I wasn't so happy with them. I paid them $600.00 just for a landscape design. I thought the price was way too high for what I got. I thought the design was very basic and not what I thought I was getting. I basically got a product that I think I could have produced with some moderately priced software. It was a basic template of my yard and some renderings that just kind of overlaid structures and plans onto a photograph of my yard. I'm pretty sure I could have produced that myself. There was no specific information and what I really wanted was information that would include at least square footage area, height, width. There was no measurement on any of the design. To me, it wasn't really a design. It wasn't anything I could shop with. It wasn't anything I could take to a contractor and ask how much it would cost to do the work because there was no information about materials, amount of materials or even the basic space that would be covered. When I asked for that, I was told that that wasn't included in the design and that was only for the contractor. What I concluded about them is that they leave the design service to lure people into the contractor so if you pay for design, all of that critical specific information about your yard is only shared with their contractor and they purposely don't give it to you. You can't even get the estimate from their contractor 'cause you don't have anything to work with so you just have to take them at their word that building a wall this high should cost this number of dollars because they don't tell you how high the wall is.

I used them through a big deal on Angie's List. It went very well. They did what they told us they were going to do. They looked at the sprinklers and made some suggestions. They made sure everything was working properly. There wasn’t any attempt to upsell. I didn’t feel like they just used the deal to get in here and then do more work. They ended up doing more work, but not because they did a hard sell on us. The sprinkler tune-up was about $59. They ended up doing some tree trimming which was around $300. I would absolutely use them again in the future.

My husband and I decided to completely redo our back garden. After much research with other companies and viewing many ugly and blah ideas we chose G and L Design. It was a very intensive project. Giant ficus trees with very invasive roots had to come out, along with the roots. Much concrete had to be removed. Most of the old soil had to be replaced. Most of the plants needed to be removed except for a few hydrangeas and roses. We also had drainage problems along the side of the house which were affecting the integrity of the foundation. G and L Design helped us develop a beautiful and comprehensive design and also addressed serious problems. After doing an excellent and clean job of demo the fun part started. Dee, the owner, took us to a stone yard where we found exactly what we wanted: beautiful golden figured sandstone. We wanted much hardscape for entertaining yet for the space to be lush at the same time. Dee's excellent landscape architect Rick took us to nurseries and helped us decide on beautiful trees, shrubs, flowers and herbs. Dee has permanent employees; he uses no day labor. His workers are skilled. Each large slab of stone had to be cut by hand. It was put together like a beautiful puzzle. The stone cutter was an artist. It was a joy to watch him work. We have an upper yard and a lower yard. A beautiful stacked stone curving wall was created along with very pretty large half moon steps separating one area from the other.$ New drip irrigation systems and lighting were installed. The drainage problems on the north side of the house were addressed. The trees and plants are terrific. Wherever your eye lands there is something lovely to see. As the project progressed we obviously ran into some challenges but Dee always had a solution. When I wanted to make some changes there was not a problem. We are so happy with this fabulous addition to our home we are using Dee to redo the front of the house next. If you're looking for a fair company and talented people look no further than G and L Design.

They never showed up. I was contacted by phone by the landscape designer and she was rude to me. She told me that she didn't think they would be interested in doing the job because it was "smaller than jobs they normally do."

Scheduling was good and they were fairly quick. I am unsure of the thoroughness of the work because they were so quick.

They were okay. It seems like the head guy who came out had a work team who did it and he told them what to do and they walked around and did the thing that they were supposed to do. I felt like the head guy was perhaps not that knowledgeable about what we wanted but his team looked like they had done all of this before and managed to do this all just fine. That was great. It seems like at the beginning it was not all clear that he knew what was happening. But when the guys came out they did a great job and they were done and it was fine.