GREAT AMERICAN GREEN

It didn't. The project never really got off the ground. Nearly 90 days were spent trying to get this project started and completed using the Great American Green company. The following is the timeline of this attempted project. All dates and scenarios are part of the email record that I have kept. Initial contact was made in early April, 2016 requesting an estimate for 3 raised planting beds, plantings, and work to extend the front porch and add new steps. Finally contacted by Jim on 4/15 telling me that they are in their “busy season” and that only work of $5K or more would be considered. I told him I believed the work met that level but he would have to tell me if my assumption was correct. Made an appointment for 4/20 at 3 pm to review the work. We met and on 4/22 I received an email with 6 points describing the work. I responded that the 6 point review was OK, with minor plant selection changes as of 4/22. No further communication was received until 5/4 when I emailed Jim to inquire how the plan was coming. 5/5 I received a proposal for the hardscaping and landscaping with 2 photo shop photos attached. This is important since that is the only time I received any elevation drawing or plan at all. The porch estimate was not included. 5/7 emailed Jim to see about a deposit and porch estimate. He responded on 5/9 saying we would meet on Friday, 5/13 with him and the project manager to sign docs, pick up $2K deposit. Jim didn’t show but Jay Aldrich, the PM, and another gentleman showed up to see the porch. Jay did not have the docs and I did not give him the deposit. The evening of 5/13 Jim emailed apologizing for the confusion and he sent me the agreement for the landscape/hardscape work. I signed, sent it back and mailed the deposit check. It's important to note that a MONTH has elapsed and not one shred of work had been done. On 5/20 I contacted Jim to see if 1) he got the check, 2) when will I get the porch estimate, and 3) when will the hardscaping begin. He responded that 1) he got the check, 2) Having a company meeting on Sunday, 5/22 and will get porch estimate then and also schedule the hardscape at the same meeting. Finally got the porch estimate on 5/24 and told that work was scheduled for the week of 6/6 but precise start date was TBD. I received the porch agreement on 5/25 and signed and returned the same day. Amount of that work was $1,350 but no plan or elevation drawings were attached. I heard nothing the remainder of the week and on 6/2 contacted Jim to get the schedule. On 6/6, Jim responded that Jay, the PM, would be at my place at 4 PM 6/6 to start the project. Still, I had no plan or drawings or anything to show the work to be done. Jay showed up with his site manager and proceded to measure the drainage pipe needed, the pavers required and discuss the project in general. He said that although the project was to begin "tomorrow, it was being pushed out since 'I don't write the checks' ". On 6/8 I contacted Jim to inquire what was happening with the schedule. He called me later that same day asking me to measure the additional drainage pipe required and the additional pavers for the beds that were discussed with Jay and measured by him. I responded by voice mail and email that Jay had taken the required measurements and that since I did not have a plan or site elevation drawing, I had no way of adequately measuring the additional needs. I also stated that "if this project is not to your liking or does not fit in with the company goals, let's just agree to call it quits. If so, I would expect that there will a return of our initial deposit with no harm, no foul". The next day, June 9, I received an email from Jim telling me that "Per your request we will refund your deposit. It will processed soon". At no time did I request that the project end. I put it to Jim for a company decision. He turned it around and intimated it was my decision. Not True! Now started the month long ordeal of getting my deposit returned. Every time I contacted Jim, I was told that Darryl DuLong would send it out "this week", since he was the only one who could write the check. That message content was sent to me on 6/20, 6/27, and again on 7/1. I did finally get in contact Darryl on July 5 and he said that it would be sent out "this week". On July 8, when nothing arrived I again contacted Darryl and finally drove out to their office to pick up the check. My intent when this project ended so abruptly was to just take my deposit back and walk away. But then I considered just how shabby Great American Green treated me and how I had to continually push for the return of my deposit, I felt it necessary to insure that anyone else who is even remotely considering using this company think twice. They are difficult to work with, acted very unprofessionally, and as someone who has been a project manager for nearly 30 years, I can safely say that without a plan, the project would have run sideways in a flash.

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cost A Darryl did work for us last year but it ended on a poor note. There were two reasons for that and it had to do with miscommunication. I did not expect to call him again. But I did. And we worked out the communication issue. That is because so many landscapers just want to put in what they already know and move on. Darryl is different -- he actually comes over after you discuss things to walk the property and envision what needs to be done. So while we were asking for just this portion to be done, he looked at the whole picture -- in this case a very long shaded drive with a lot of overgrown vines erc in it. He came back with a plan for the whole drive which cost a lot more than I expected. I had given him a budget of $5,000. However it was well thought out and we actually liked the ideas he had. We could not do it all so we did the first portion. That included a lot of clearing, a small (very small) amount of grass for which we will now need to purchase a push hand mower. as we have no other grass, over 700 pachysandra plants, several large boulders, a weeping willow tree, several variegated iris, a bench and a few other things. Still to go -- Australian tree ferns, Beech trees, oakleaf hydrangeas, cotoneaster, mountain laurel and several other things that will wait for another time My goal is to have someone I can work with a little at a time -- someone who will come spring and fall and add to the landscaping every year. I can't do it all at once.

Darryl, the owner, was very impressive and knowledgeable. He has a great eye for detail and is creative. The reason we went with him was that we were referred him and because he offers a 1 year guarantee on his plants/flowers. At times, he was slow to respond but ultimately did what he said he would do. We would work with him again. If you are new to using a landscaper, be sure to understand your guarantee. The plants must completely die before they will be replaced. Also, the amount of straw used was minimal at best. We had to go back and add straw behind him because it was such a thin layer. I imagine that to be true with all landscapers. We are, however, still confused as to why he advised us against using a weed barrier. Our weed problem is very challenging to manage. We often wonder if we should have insisted on the barrier.

Most of it went really well. We had had some stone steps installed a couple of years ago and wanted to show it off. We had very tall shrubs in front of it and we wanted them moved and a stone bench and walkway installed. We talked with 4 companies but Daryl was the only one who said a walkway in the traditional sense would not be good. He came up with a different style of walkway -- what he called ruble which was 4 ft long by 5 ft wide stone with dwarf mondo grass planted in between the steps. We liked that idea so we hired him. He did think outside the box and that creativity was important to us. There is a lot that he did that we really liked. We liked the stone walls and planting that he did. We liked a lot of what he did in the backyard. He originally wanted $10,000 for the job but I did not want to spend that much so he put together a plan that fit in the budget I had set . He came over with a pencil drawing and a contract. In hindsight that contract should have been left with us to review carefully and think about the size of the plants but we did not do that. I believe he should have pointed out that there were some really small -- 1 gallon azaleas -- he was placing and that it would take years for them to achieve some size. Until then, that area would not look balanced. He used the smaller plant to stay in the budget but, if we had realized that, we would have opted for a larger shrub and spent the extra $150 - $200. When you are spending $7,500 a couple of hundred dollars more is not that big a difference. We had said that we wanted the hardscape finished but plants could be added later, if necessary. We signed the contract on the spot because we liked what we thought he envisioned. Moving the shrubs to other areas of the yard went fine. We liked the stone walls and some of the plantings there -- it created a much more finished look to the back of the pond we had built. He did put 1 gallon azaleas here but there were enough other trees and shrubs that it looked fine to do so. We have a sloped backyard with a stone path that was a little steep and he reset it so that there were actual steps which we like better. He envisioned a belt of pacasandra separating levels of the slope and all of that is great. He moved a shrub that he thought competed in size with a Japanese maple we planted last year and put Gumpo azaleas in front of it. It looks good. We like the backyard. In the front to the right of the bench and walkway he left a lot of plants we had and moved some shrubs. It looks ok. Probably could use some organization a little but we did understand that some of this could be addressed later in order to keep us on budget. What really bothered me was the left side of the walkway which had a boulder he installed -- and I like that very much; a few Nandinas that we had planted and are mature and were left -- again that is fine. But in front of this he placed 8 1 gallon azaleas and I did not like that -- there was no variety or color and they looked dorky -- way too small for the area. That was all he put there. Again, if they had been sized right for the area we would have been ok and knew that next fall or spring we would add to it. One can plant part of an area knowing that more needs to be done and that is ok if what is planted looks good. I took a photo and went to a nursery for some ideas that night. They had none and just told me that it would take 2-3 years for the azealeas to have a decent size but anything else planted in that area would make it look worse. Not what I wanted to hear. When we tried to tell him we were unhappy, instead of trying to work something out with us the first words were that it would cost us and he would do whatever we wanted to do. I already knew that if I changed out the plants for something larger it would cost more. But the way he said he would do whatever we wanted him to do really did not help as it did not feel to me as anything other than I was ruining his vision and masterpiece. He may not have meant to come across that way but that was what it felt like to me. What I was looking for was some solution and other ideas to fix the problem. I also was concerned that all there were were azaleas and that was boring -- there needed to be some variety but I did not know what. I wanted him to give us some ideas. That did not happen. Instead, we told him to leave it and we took them out over the weekend and put a few other items there -- it is not complete but it does look better and we will put some other things there probably in the fall. We are going to try to plant the azaleas somewhere else. The other issue was the mondo grass and the walkway. We talked about it and told him we wanted it to extend maybe 2 feet on either side of the walkway. We thought that was understood. Instead he laid it out how he wanted it and left it there for a day or so. He didn't say anything to us and we did not realize we were supposed to look at it and tell him again that that was not what we wanted. He also used a different color mulch for that area which sets it off but that is not something we would want to keep up with and I feel it was unnecessary. In summary I do like that he will think outside the box and come up with interesting ideas. However, I also think he does not understand that the customer may not completely understand the ideas on the front end with just a pencil drawing and may find as things progress that it needs some changes or tweaking to make the customer happy. I think there needs to be more flexibility on his part to adjust when the customer is not liking something and that he shouldn't say that will cost more as his first response. I really wanted to be able to work with him in the future as there are more things that we would like to have done. There is a question above which asks if we would use this provider again and I wish there had been a maybe answer available. Because maybe that could work but there would have to be more discussion and agreement and perhaps smaller jobs that are added onto as it progresses.

Darryl, the owner, came out and met with us multiple times to discuss our wants and needs. He is extremely knowledgeable in his field. He offered great ideas and was quick to educate us about proper drainage, care for plants, identifying low maintenance shrubs and flowers, etc. He also suggested things to complement the landscaping such as boulders, trellis and stone paths. His work is "artful" and we are pleased with the final look of the project and our dealings with this company. He was mindful about colors, height, foliage in various seasons, etc - some of which we had not thought about. After dealing with various contractors for the last 4 months, this company was one of the best to work with. We feel that we received quality work in a professional manner. He also offers a 1 year guarantee on everything which was important to us. Darryl came out at various stages and insured that we were happy with everything. If I have any concern, it's that we had a hiccup at the end with exceeding the budget we had set. We would still recommend him.