Green City Gardens

They did a great job. Very reasonably priced. Extremely helpful in making suggestions about what plants to use. Work was done promptly and professionally.

JD and his crew were wonderful from start to finish. Before JD, our heavily shaded back yard consisted of patches of grass and dirt but it is now beautiful. He really listened to what we wanted. He and I sat at his computer looking at pictures of plants he thought would work and I got to pick what I liked from that. He then developed a plan and included color pix of the mature plants so we could picture what they would grow into. JD's first estimate was a bit higher than we wished to spend so he reworked it by subtracting some of the plants and putting in some that were a size smaller. JD and his crew then did the work in less than a week and were courteous and professional. The yard is now absolutely lovely. I want to add that we had 3 other companies provide estimates and plans and JD's was the least expensive by thousands of dollars, and fit what we envisioned the best..

I really don't want to be inside at my computer writing this review because I want to spend all my time now in my yard - both back and in front of the house - after J.D. Mathiem's masterful planning and planting yesterday. My family and dogs were outside all day enjoying our new outside living space. I joined Angie's List to find a lanscaper and p icked the one I found with 5-star rating: Green City Gardens. The perfect experience that ensued is both a testimony to J.D. (owner) and Angie. We turned to J.D. to speed up the process of making our outside living spaces feel as inviting as our inside. In hindsight, we could never have done what J.D. created even if we wanted to take years to create. J.D. saw our space, listened to our wish list, sent the perfect representation of same. He was warm, creative, funny. He gave us install date and came out and created a sanctuary for us in back yard and warm, inviting look out front. His crew were was hardworking and accomodating. And J.D. was focussed and intent while creating his vision which made the job get done to the last detail. Even for our small yard, there was alot of work involved but it all seemed to get done seamlessly and on time. I am telling all and anyone about Green City Gardens. And adding that true to his word, J.D. returned today to make sure the timing system for the sprinklers were set correctly so that our investment would grow tall and even more beautiful. Anyone who thinks they can do this on their own should think again. And why when you can turn to someone who truly, truly has a green thumb. Thank you J.D. and thank you Angie, Anne Boguslavsky

Excellent! See my comments above.

J.D. scored right away by answering my first call on a Sunday when I was planning to leave a voice message, and we managed to have a few laughs in the course of that conversation. As noted above, his proposal was the best among several that were also good. I liked that he offered to go with me to the growers to nail down exactly what cultivars to plant - and I took him up on that offer once we got to that phase of the project. I also liked that he worked with our design plan without nitpicking the fact that it wasn't fully detailed as he probably would have preferred. As with every big project, there are always speed bumps - some in our control, and some that aren't. One bump in control was checking assumptions - we thought J.D. was checking into options for material to frame our raised bed along with our own research - and he thought we were handling the research and procurement of those materials. As that was a critical path item before we left on vacation, I would have liked a little more confirmation on who was doing what. As it turned out, my husband came up with an ingenious solution and together with J.D., they worked on the install of that piece. Other bumps out of control - Mother Nature! We discovered a beach of sand under our old driveway (courtesy of Lake Michigan), necessitating a deeper dig and about 24" of gravel. J.D. and his team swung into action and took care of the challenge right away, and with such quality. And - there was the intense heat and drought conditions during the summer of 2012 - and J.D. kindly agreed to delay the install of the landscape as much as he could without throwing off other clients on his schedule. About the install of the ground covers and grasses - he did such an artful job of interpreting our fairly loose design. As I spent time watering and pulling the tiniest of weeds over the fall of 2012, I appreciated more and more the thought he put into what went where. Finally and most importantly - the people. J.D. by now you should surmise is great to work with. But he is matched by his business partners who did such a professional job on every aspect of the install. Truly great guys - extremely diligent and willing to answer questions and endure my photographs each day as they made progress. They kept the site tidy, were respectful to the neighbors, and the quality of their work is obvious - very tight, very exact, very solid. J.D. and his subs were outstanding - even happy to do extras, like pulling out a "shrub" I detested and coming back to replace bits of sod that didn't thrive as well as the rest.

The design JD created was beautiful. Perhaps a little more than we had hoped to spend, but well worth the cost! We have received many compliments from our neighbors and friends. Very satisfied customer.

We worked with Green City Gardens, and JD the owner, designing and building our front and backyard landscaping. The design included both plants and hardscape, as well as grading and drainage. All in all, we are very pleased with the work. The first phase of the work, our front yard, was completed in October 2011. We had him install a retaining wall, new sodding and plantings. JD was very easy to work with for both design and build. He was very responsive and personally made sure that everything was in order. We really like the end result, and since then we have had many people tell us how much they like our front yard. Since we liked his work so much, we asked JD to come back and design a patio and plantings for our back yard as well. For this second phase of work, JD was very thorough and open to multiple discussions on the size and shape of the patio, including a midway rework of the shape. It has just been completed, and again we really like the end result.

We needed some general landscaping and figuring out what to do with some unusable parts of our yard. JD came over and spent close to an hour discussing options. He was very patient going through a variety of flowers and plans for the yard. Later that week he also followed up with new ideas. He sent BEAUTIFUL drawings of the landscaping design and came over a few weeks later to do the planting. JD and his team are absolute professionals and they were very efficient the day of planting. The design was implemented as we discussed and looks amazing! My neighbors literally stopped by for the next week to say how nice it looks. I would recommend Green City Gardens to anyone - they did an amazing job.

J.D. and his team are real pros. I first called JD last fall to give me some ideas for re-landscaping our front yard. He had great ideas and is able to quickly sketch them out to give you an idea of how it might look. We finalized a detailed plan and agreed to install it this Spring. The actual implementation looks even better than the drawing. He's a master at colors, shapes and different plant/tree options -- exactly what I wanted. His team was pleasant, professional and attentive. We have been working through some backyard/patio options next -- assume we'll have an equally good experience.

Company is owned by JD Matheim (sp?) and he comes to do the work along with three other workers. All work hard and are careful of other plantings. Great communication throughout the process. He underestimated the sod by six rolls and the mulch so he came back the next day by himself and finished the job. He didn't charge for the additional sod and mulch.

They have done a great job. I will probably use them again. They are sensitive to budget restraints.

J.D. and his team were excellent to work with. We had a limited budget and long list of items that we wanted to have accomplished in our front yard. J.D. was the only landscaper (out of the 4 we received quotes from) that put together a beautiful plan and kept our wish list within the budget. There were changes that needed to be made once his team started the work, but I think that is very common with any big project. In the end, our front yard was transformed and is now beautiful to look at. I can't wait for all my new plants to start blooming this spring! We will definitely be using Green City Gardens for any future landscaping needs.

J.D. and hist team transformed both our front and back yard and we couldn't be happier. We selected GCG because J.D. listened to what we wanted and how we planned to use our outdoor space--and then came back with a terrific design. During the actual installation we improvised with some of the tree and shrub choices, and J.D. made it work perfectly. The paver walkway and patio is stunning, and the quality of the work is exceptional. Even when we a couple of our shrubs and portions of the sod were not thriving, J.D. came out right away to replace them. We also had GCG come back for fall clean-up and they did a really nice job.

My experience with Green City Gardens was excellent. JD was prompt with providing a quote, and flexible with me when I had to change dates. They worked hard and as long as daylight would allow. They had to come the following day to finish. When it was all said and done, the landscaping looked great and my yard was cleaned up better than expected. His quote/final price was very fair and JD was very enjoyable to work with. I would definitely use him again.

Overall, they were excellent. They were good, friendly, timely and competent. I would rate them highly and would continue to use them in the future.

Very well. We picked GCG because we loved JD's design. he wasn't the cheapest but he was in the middle to lower middle of the pack -- we got a number of estimates. The work was as described and JD was very responsive to any questions/concerns/problems. Our neighbors have given us tons of compliments and one has asked for his contact info. JD's design was tops because it was smart, creative and it was US -- he really listened and even though I swore I did not know what I wanted, he pulled it out of me and made note of my likes and dislikes. He figured out what I wanted when I didn't know myself.... and the results make me happy everytime I drive or walk up to my house!

J.D. was very helpful. When he originally came out to talk about the work we wanted done around the house, he suggested we hire someone to remove all the trees and bushes. It was less expensive to have a tree removal company come and remove several bushes and trees. Once the trees and shrubs were gone, J.D. came back to talk about the design of the front yard. He drew some great sketches to help see what the concept would look like. He showed a lot of different pictures of the plants that we picked, to make sure that was the look we were going for. He was very helpful in explaining the different types of options. We will need to work on the backyard next spring and I plan on contacting J.D. to do that work.

They were very friendly, and my experience with them was positive. They responded very quickly. They ended up saying that they were not equipped to do the work; they did not have the equipment to cut the back bushes. I would consider using them again in the future.

Overall, the final look of the backyard was good. However, there were so many headaches and delays in getting there and that is the reason for the poor rating. A job that we were told would take about 4-5 days and be done in 3-4 weeks ended up taking just over double that amount of time to complete. The project got a very late start and it didn't seem like it was going to start until I contacted JD to find out when the tree was going to be removed. After that, the work got going. However, after the first major day of them tearing up the backyard our cable went out. Apparently they cut the cable line. I had insurance on the line so it didn't cost anything to replace it. However, I told JD and asked him to ask his guys to be careful of the lines in the yard (JULIE came out). A couple days later, the power was out to our garage. Apparently when they were digging again the power line to our garage was cut through the conduit. On top of this, there were other issues in timing. It seemed the project was getting done in bits and pieces. After each piece was done we'd get an estimate for the next part to be done. Almost every single time the timing got delayed after I called. There were also several problems that ended up having to be corrected and redone including the entryway of the patio (angled incorrectly to the stairs), the new stairs off the patio (faulty steps that didn't have proper support and cracked within days), sand missing from some of the patio (which prevents weeds from growing through and ensures that the bricks don't shift), and the sod that was installed ended up having a lot of crabgrass (we never told JD about this since it didn't start appearing until a couple weeks after they were done and grew on about 40% of the grass). I will say that JD did end up fixing everything (except the problem with the sod/crabgrass which we never mentioned because we just wanted to be done) that was wrong and at the end the backyard looked amazing. Update after Owner Response: I have changed my grade on here to reflect the owners response. Quality was poor: Why? Well, I have pictures that can show exactly what I mean if anyone would like to see them. They included a patio that was built with one entrance in the wrong direction. When that was fixed after I complained, he never put sand to fill in the cracks in the patio. When I told him this he said the sand in the patio cracks is only cosmetic. I replied that the bricks will shift and weeds will grow and finally he replaced them (after realizing that is correct). He then had his carpenter build stairs that were completely unsafe. They had to be repaired within 2 days because they were already cracking the wood at the sides (like I said, I have pictures if JD wants to call me a liar again). He also never put in a railing because "he thought it would look nicer without one" even though the rest of the deck had a railing The grass he installed was littered with crab grass (which I didn't complain about because I wanted the project to just be done and for him to be gone). He knocked out my cable line and my power line to the garage. Power to the garage: He is a flat out liar in saying that his crew who he subcontracted never got power from my garage. First of all, JD wasn't even there that day because I had to go back and move my car for them to back their truck in and JD was just calling me to coordinate before I talked directly to the crew when I got there. In fact I opened the garage up for them to have power on the first day so I saw them use it with my own eyes! I even had to flip the circuit breaker back on 2 times because they blew the circuit. Also, we left the garage lights on and the back door lights on every night and JD has seen that before when he gave us an estimate. The garage door opener was broken because it was old, that's why it wasn't working. Even the electrician JD used knows this because when he ran the electric back, the garage door still wasn't working, but the lights went on! Apparently if you rate JD below an A or a B he tries to discredit you by making things up. His rating is now an F from me after this. How dare he try to make it sound like I was lying to get free power to my garage! I bought my house only 1 year before his landscaping crew came....you think I would have bought it without power to the garage? He also never asked me about using power from inside the house until after I told him his crew cut the power line to the garage because our outside lights on the garage and our back door lights weren't working anymore, then he started asking me to use the power from the kitchen. I have emails for that timeline. He NEVER mentioned not having power to the garage until after his backyard crew cut through it. Once again, I have the emails. His crew also cut the cable line as well, which didn't cost him anything because I had insurance. Funny he didn't complain about that one. I'll leave my thoughts at that.

Green City Gardens did a magnificent job of landscaping our sizeable front yard. From the beginning, J.D. did a great job of listening to what we wanted -- both aesthetically and financially -- and presented us with multiple options. Once we agreed on a layout, J.D. helped us to connect with terrific contractors for lighting and sprinklers while he and his guys managed the planting and hardscape elements. The overall process was not quick, but it was thorough. Most importantly, the final result is exactly what we wanted and met our budget. We absolutely recommend J.D. and Green City Gardens for any landscaping needs.

From start to finish, J.D. was extremely enjoyable to work with -- and always professional and responsive. When installation day arrived, his crew was top-notch and worked very quickly and professionally. J.D. had great ideas and delivered exactly the type of plan we needed -- the results are fantastic and we get compliments from neighbors daily.

JD came as scheduled, had lots of good ideas and was flexible regarding my desires. He was prompt in returning the proposal and fair in his pricing. We had a tight timeline that we had to adhere to and he spent extra time making sure that our yard was ready in time for our previously scheduled outdoor party. When we realized that the mulch walkway was going to be a problem with rainy conditions, he gave us a few options for stone and came and installed it on a weekend morning. We plan more work eventually and he showed us that he is the right guy for our larger project as well.

Working with JD went very smoothly. He planted a large tree in our yard last year so when we called him again he came out promptly. He provided some plants and decorative stone and used what was already planted in the yard for the rest.

A few comments: Design and planning: Of the well-recommended landscape companies on Angie’s list, J.D actually listened to us when we described what we were looking for. We wanted to get landscaping in immediately that would give us the most appeal for the money and would allow us to complete our total landscape plan in phases over the next couple of years. He checked the site lines for various angles, street, drive, and interior views from key areas such as dining, living, master suite, family rooms etc. to complete his plan. He discussed what type of plants and features we liked. For example, we have a preference for grass over beds and like the expanses of grass we have on our large lot. I mention this because another well-recommended landscape company gave us a plan that so broadly missed what we wanted that it was incomprehensible how they arrived at their plan. We gave them the same budget and info as Green City. Primarily, the other company gave us a plan that was over 120K and could not be implemented in phases. (We may eventually reach 80K+ in landscaping cost but we will do it in phases given that we have other priorities.) The other company put in a lot of features which we told them we did not like in the original interview. I am still amazed to this day at how much time and energy the other landscape company spent to design a plan that was pretty much the opposite of what we wanted to do and which did not even give us a starting point to move forward in the design process. Installation: I will admit for our money we got an impressive amount of activity: large and small trucks and equipment coming and going all week and literally an army of guys moving soil and staging trees, shrubs and flowers. Since we have new construction, we needed a large amount of poor quality soil and construction debris removed and replaced with topsoil. Before the trees, shrubs and flowers went in, J.D. staged and checked the arrangement and viewing angles to verify it was achieving the desired effect. When it wasn’t appropriate, he re-arranged plants to achieve the affect he was looking for. Completion: Although everything went in at the end of the fall when most of the plants were going dormant, I was surprised that it still made for a very pleasing affect. Now that the spring has arrived it is even better. Summary: Will we use Green City Gardens again? J.D. is now working on phase two of our landscaping project. Since we have an acre, the landscaping is a continual process. When you get a good product at a good price, it is hard not to be pleased.

This was not an overall good experience. The first year the company put in new sod in my front yard. They came on time and completed the job. Because that initial work went well I contracted with them to replace my old concrete patio with a new brick patio and landscaping. This did not go well. They contracted with an outside company to replace the patio and this did fine work. They did a beautiful job in laying the patio. However, the landscaping was less than adequate: the bushes around my air conditioner, although fast growing, developed a fungus. I am an organic gardener and spraying was not a good option for me. I removed these bushes and put in others, myself, at my own expense. Several plants died. And this year all of the sod that was laid in the front yard died and needs to be replaced. The sod in the rear yard is not doing well either. Communication with the owner during the job was poor. When I complained that the patio workers needed to park in the alley to remove the concrete I received no response from the owner. I needed to wait at home in the morning (be late for work) in order to direct the workers. Further communications were not replied to in a timely fashion. I would not use this provider again.