Jerry's Landscaping

I contacted this flake a YEAR ago to receive an estimate and be first in line in Spring 2021 to do a major yard rehab job post construction. He told me to "remind him" again in January of this year--I did this, too. Come springtime he did not return my phone calls or texts. Now it is too late in the season to do this job, and my yard is an embarrassment to the neighborhood. STAY AWAY from these creeps. You can't count on anything they say.

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Angie's List appears to want to put this review under "Snow Removal," but that seems unfair because snow removal is just one of many things Jerry's Landscaping has done for us. They do a great job of snow removal, but they do a great job of a great many other things, too. Jerry's Landscaping has mown our lawn, pruned our shrubs and trees, weeded and mulched our gardens, done a variety of landscape- and drainage-related construction tasks, and performed some substantial, non-routine, specialized tasks for us for at least 25 years. (I forget when they started. We switched to Jerry's because a property a block away from ours was always the best-looking property in the neighborhood.) Many tasks have related to drainage. They installed gravel beds with underground drain-pipes to remove water from near the foundations of both of our last two houses. Our present house was a real challenge. Its basement had flooded frequently, for 40 years, before we moved in; and, in our second year here, water was 12 inches deep in the basement. After fooling around for too long, we took the advice of Adam, the third-generation owner-operator of Jerry's. After he had built proper drainage, we had _zero_ water in our basement for four years. Then a lightning strike zapped the motor of the sump pump Adam had installed. We were not aware that the pump had died for two months, during which our basement flooded three times. Obviously something had gone wrong, but we kept guessing wrong about what it was. Then last Sunday night it occurred to me to check the pump. Duh. I called Adam on Monday and he was here Tuesday morning. My spare pump (no longer needed since Adam had fixed our drainage) didn't fit the plumbing he'd built for the main pump, so he quickly rebuilt the plumbing. This job was tricky because the geometrical constraints were not simple. I haven't received his bill, and the $500 I gave above for the approximate cost is a wild guess. Adam and his crew are versatile and they apply good, efficient, tools and equipment to a job. Once, a little backhoe called a Bobcat. Last February, a 40-ft man-lift that he'd towed behind his truck. Last month, a bigger, heavier, self-propelled, tracked, man-lift that arrived on a flatbed trailer behind his truck. Adam is a jack-of-all trades. This year we fired the other company that had been applying fertilizer, herbicides, and pesticides to our lawns and gardens, and we asked Adam to begin doing these things. He arrived with the slickest machine I've ever seen for these tasks. It's self-propelled and he rides on it. It broadcasts a granular product from its rear, and it has a tank of liquid with a wand on a coiled hose/tube on each side. He uses a wand, hand-held to apply liquid product to the edges of the lawn precisely so that herbicide does not spill into our flower gardens. The previous company had never been so precise. Jerry's (Adam's) crews are two cuts above those of all the other landscaping companies I see in my neighborhood. With Jerry's crews around, I don't feel a need to count the patio furniture and ensure that all our doors and windows are locked, if you know what I mean. Also, I'm able to give instructions and assume that they're understood.

I spoke to some gentleman at about 10:30 in the morning the day of the Friday storm. I asked if he could fit in our driveway in Winchester. He said that his crew was in Belmont and that they were heading to another town and then to Mahoneys in Winchester which is less than .5 miles from my home. He said he could do my driveway later. I confirmed "you mean today, right". He confirmed. Well about 4:45 no plow so I called again and got a voicemail. I left all my contact info again and re-iterated my address and the conversation we had had that morning. I was hoping that they just hadn't gotten to me yet. But ultimately no reply and no call to let me know. I get that he might not have been able to make it, but to confirm he would come so I didn't bother calling anyone else and then NOT TO SHOW OR CALL at all is simply unprofessional.

In the beginning I dealt mainly with Jerry himself, then with Jerry's son Jay, and now more often with Adam. I have never had any reason to complain. As time goes by, I have asked them to do more, different, and/or new things; and they have consistently pleased me and surprised me with their versatility. Adam is especially multi-talented. He knows general construction techniques as well as lawns and gardens. They are responsible, reliable, prompt, diligent, and neat. They do everything I ask, and I don't have to repeat instructions, either week to week or year to year. They remember, and they do things right the first time. They don't do unnecessary work, either. They don't leave messes on my property or off; and they don't annoy my neighbors. Their employees appear to be stable and long-term, which I mention because I've noticed that other local landscapers' employees are not. I just subscribed to Angie's List, and the first vendor category I looked at was "Lawn & Yard Work." Out of curiosity I looked up Jerry's Landscaping. I surprised to see a grade lower than A, so I read all (six) reports to see what the complaints were. I found that every grade was either A or F; and that every F was from a subscriber for whom Jerry's had not done any work. The subscriber was angry because he or she had called Jerry's for an initial estimate and Jerry's had either not responded or had been late. I can't and won't argue with these subscribers. I will offer my observations that Jerry's has a stable business and a very loyal clientele, and has never seemed very interested in _expanding_ its customer base. I recall that, about 14 years ago when I moved to a new house with a larger driveway and decided to stop clearing snow myself, Jay mentioned that he strictly limits the number of snow-plowing/blowing/shoveling clients he has. I suspect that he limits his lawn & garden clientele, too. Fortunately, he took me on. He (and/or his employees) is/are very responsible and reliable for snow-removal, as they are for everything else. He/they know what time we want to leave home in the morning, and he/they make a point of having our driveway clear at that time.

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They are very good and reasonably priced. When cleaning up they are good about not throwing the debris on any one else's property which I appreciate. They even clean up the street after themselves. They are quick and efficient. The price is based on the size of my lot.

I wanted an estimate. I called and a man answered the phone, not Jerry, who seemed a bit confused. I told him my home address and he told me there was no such street in the town I lived in. This was exasperating, so I gave up on Jerry's Landscaping.

Jerry's Landscaping is very good. I like him a lot. He is a good guy and he is local. He is on the job working with the other guys. They are in and out quickly.

Jerry's was reasonably quick to return my call. They arrived early at the work site before I arrived and I told him that I would be there in 10 minutes, whereupon he left promising to be back in 10, but did not come back for almost an hour(despite several calls to ask when they would come back with promises that they would be there soon), leaving me waiting. After a walk through, they promised to send me an estimate, and never did.

Jay is extremely accommodating. He brings three or four other workers with him, so they are out within 20 minutes. They make sure to not blow leaves in other people's yards. They are just very considerate. Any time I talk to Jay about doing extra work he has no problem doing it. They are very reasonably priced.

HE DOES THE JOB THAT WE EXPECT.