TERRAVITA LANDSCAPE & GRDNG

I contacted Terrivita about providing consultation, design services, and installation on a fairly extensive landscaping project in my back yard, one involving pouring a concrete pad, redoing two terraced planting beds and creating a new third bed, planting a variety of shrubs, bushes, and herbs throughout the beds, and installing mulch or other ground cover in all beds. I initially e-mailed Terrivita on March 17, at which time Kim assured me that someone would call me right away. Two days later, I contacted Kim to say that I was still waiting for someone to call. It was 10 days (March 27) before the landscape designer came out to view the place and talk to my wife and me about our needs. After the landscape designer met with me and my wife, she said that she would e-mail us photos of the plants we discussed, so that we could pick out the ones we wanted. On April 6, I e-mailed Kim to say that we hadn't received any photos, even though 10 days had passed since meeting with the designer. I received no reply to my e-mail. Two weeks elapsed between the time we met with the designer to the time we received the proposal. The proposal refers to "5 arborvitae," though we discussed planting only three in the side bed. The proposal makes NO mention of any bushes, shrubs, or ground cover for the top terraced bed--easily one-quarter of the project. We must've spent 20 minutes talking to the designer about this part of the project, but the proposal says nothing about it. In short, Terravita failed miserably to communicate with us and was unresponsive when we initiated communication. The proposal is incomplete and fails to define with any specificity the scope of work or the plants to be installed. I would never sign a proposal so vague and imprecise.

I had a stone wall abutting the creek that was failing. And a stone patio that was cracking in certain areas and starting to slope downward. I wanted to bring someone in who could help fix these problems and add some additional landscaping and stone work. Bob Boyle, the owner, came out to my house to discuss the issues. We walked the property and he starting giving me many ideas. They were very creative and including bringing in large boulders to give more contrast and natural look. He told me how I could fix the stone wall abutting the creek by creating another stone patio. He also made suggestions of geting rid of a few trees that were distracting and making the property look crowded. His team worked at my house on and off for several weeks. The project lead, Che, was outstanding. Always willing to listen to ideas, keeping the property cleaned up, making sure all the sprinkler worked and provided coverage, and even made sure the electric dog wire (which their crew had to break several times) was working after the project was complete. Their labor rate is fairly expensive at $45/hour. I think this rate is mainly how the contractor makes a profit. I didn't see a lot of mark-up on the materials and plants. But I have no complaints on the quality, punctuality, completeness, and satisfaction with their work. If you want a quality job and don't want to worry about fixing problems, or getting really involved in the project, these guys are for you. If you are on a tight budget, and are willing to put up with some hassles, then you would probably do better with a different landscaper.

I have been pleased with the work completed by Terravita. They always show up when they are scheduled, they do good work and are responsive to my calls and/or e-mails when I have questions, concerns or need extra work completed. The person in management that I deal with most of the time is helpful and knowledgeable.

For this particular job, I called Terravita and Tracy came over to walk through my yard with me. She brought a bulb catalog and we decided on the color, type, and quantity of bulbs to plant. She had a really good idea of how to get the most impact as the bulbs flower throughout the season, with some coming up early and then others filling in as the early bloomers are waning. When Tracy and her team arrived, they were here for about 3 hours. They had to move all of the permabark along my walkway to get to the dirt below. They planted the bulbs as we had decided, then cleaned up completely before they left.