The Grounds Keeper

I contacted the grounds keeper mid-April to redesign the landscaping around the foundation of our home. The owner first forgot completely about the appointment he set with me to come to our home to give us an estimate. I called him and asked if he was coming. He needed my address again and showed up about 20 minutes later (even though we live 5 minutes away). We explained what we wanted done and he said his crew could do all of it with no problems. We were told we'd receive a quote in about 3 days. About day 5 I attempted to contact him. I left a message which was not returned. I called again on several occasions to see what he had for our estimate. Just trying to get him to return a phone call was a fiasco. Finally he sent us a quote (all the while telling us that he had sent it to both my email and my husband's....which neither of us had received). Because we were desperate to get our landscaping done in time for my daughter's graduation party, we went with this company. BIG MISTAKE! At first we thought that with all the labor required to do the job "right" it would take a crew of about 4 men about 4 days to complete the project and that's why the quote was so high. We went with the quote expecting quality work. Another problem was trying to communicate with the owner via texting to choose plants! Their site says they do "professional landscaping"... I knew way more than the owner did about the plants that were existing on my property that I hadn't even planted and wanted gone! On several occasions I asked what or when at least) the landscape designer would come out to discuss what plants we wanted and where to plant them. NEVER did any type of landscape designer ever come. I requested several times from the owner a list of the plants that he was planning to put in. He had no such list. We were getting down to the wire with our upcoming graduation party, and needed the job done ASAP. We let them set a date to start the project. They came on the day they were supposed to and (remember they were planning to take 4 days to work on our project)...they were done in one day. At first I was happily surprised until I saw what they did. First, they did not remove any of the old weed barrier (plastic stuff) under our river rock. They raked back our old river rock, pulled out our old plants and randomly stuck in a bunch of cheap grasses and lilies you see in business parks. They put in one Japanese maple tree and 2 rhododendron bushes that were nice, but the rest of the plants were awful and extremely cheap! I was very disappointed. Not only were they cheap plants, but they were practically seedlings - dwarfed by the river rock that surrounded them. They added some additional plastic weed barrier here and there, but did NOT cover the entire area with new like they'd promised. Bottom line, don't hire this company. Not only do they charge way too much for what type of service you receive, but the service itself is ridiculously low quality. Don't let them tell you they have a landscape designer... it was an Hispanic man who tried to communicate with me (while they were planting) what plants they were putting in. The whole thing was a joke and I can't believe I was such a sucker.... So, for all you out there looking for a company with a confident and trustworthy owner who has a strong crew of workers doing quality work and landscape designing....you'd be a fool like me to hire them.