A Yard and a Half Landscaping Cooperative

Went great, very attentive and Geovanni and his crew are excellent.. Great price also for the amount of work.

Not a good experience. The lead landscaper on the job - who I went over everything with - was not present when the work was done. The result was areas not being completed as discussed, then other areas that I didn't want anything done to were changed. Put large amounts of soil down on an area with no grubs which then became a huge muddy mess. Several times they were very late. Wouldn't recommend.

We are very, very happy with their services. This is a 2-unit condo so it is a shared service. I like everything about their service. I would recommend them.

The first appointment went OK. Their consultant Liz came over, understood the tasks, and sent in estimates for different tasks. They were higher than average by almost 50%. We had them do the yard cleaning to try out the quality of their work. The yard cleaning was OK, but not extraordinary (not commensurate with their prices). The next step was for them to come and give us a yard design. But we did not hear from them for over a month. We contacted them, and found out that Liz had left the company (apparently, no one knew who her clients were). Then a new person came in to work with us. We explained to him that poor experience we had, and he promised to remain more proactive and communicate with us more regularly. We again explained to him what we wanted to do in our yard, and he promised us a design spec and estimates. However, haven't heard from him since. We had also mentioned to them about winterizing the sprinkler system. They said that they do not deal with irrigation systems, but have partners who will take care of it. Relying on them, I did not contact other irrigation system companies. I finally asked them about it in November, and their partner called us with a price of $125, giving us the reason that this was late in the season, and they had to get their system out of storage. Normally, I pay around $70-$80 for this service. I had to pay a premium for their inattentiveness. Needless to say, we are very dissatisfied with the unprofessional behavior. We cannot recommend this company to anyone.

They do excellent work. Very careful and thorough. The quality of the work is great.

In accordance with Angie's List suggestions, I got four quotes. Three were in the $4400-4800 range, and one was $8200. Only Yard-and-a-Half and the high bidder actually visited the site to the best of my knowledge (perhaps because my plot plan was very detailed). Both were very knowledgable. Yard-and-a-Half was on-time, on-budget, and did excellent work.

Carolyn was very responsive and very helpful. She provided very good idea about things that we could do with the backyard. She was one companies that we were thinking as the finalest. Although we did not choose A Half & A Yard this time, we would consider using them if we have any project in the future.

They were very good. I really like them. I will continue to use them.

It was difficult to get them to show up when they said they would. The ultimate product was okay.

We have still done the preliminary work, and certainly they are very organized, and they are on time. We are hoping to hire them in the future.

Went very well, they were very easy to contact, came out quickly for the quote and were able to get the work done before the ground froze. I had some worries, but the dry well has held up fine.

They left a note each time they came, explaining exactly what had been done that day. They were so quiet and efficient that I often didn't notice they were here, despite being at home. I am glad to have found a lawn service that doesn't use chemicals, since my dog spends a lot of time in the yard.

The process of consultation, choosing materials and installation happened smoothly. We were warned, but still didn't like not knowing until the last moment when they'd be able to start. The workmanship seems to us very good, although the process was undertaken so late in the year that we haven't had a chance to utilize the patio.

they never responded to my inquiry...i tried twice and gave up.

The folks there were a pleasure to work with, including Carlos the landscaping/construction foreman and Carolyn the designer. The back deck area looks terrific, and it is exactly what I'd hoped for. I have a few complaints, though; none that would make me choose someone else, but enough to note. First, the job took a very long time to move from initial RFP (early June) to completion of hte project (late September); there were several factors involved, some beyond anyone's control, but it felt like there were unnecessary delays on the project. Second, the very expensive new plantings in our front yard (two dogwood bushes and one dogwood tree) arrived with nearly all their leaves fallen off, and the ones that remained were spotted with rain/sun damage. We were assured that they were healthy, that the spots were sun damage from the greenhouse, and that they would leaf out in the spring. Time will tell if that is true, and I have no reason to doubt it, but it was irritating to pay so much for scrappy, leafless bushes in our front yard. You want to feel like your place looks terrific after paying so much for landscaping, and that just wasn't the feeling we got. I assume we will have that feeling next Spring, and they have a 2 year guarantee to replace plants that don't thrive, so it's less a financial issue than a psychological one. Finally, I will note that the painting of our deck lattice was a bit sloppy. When I requested a return visit to correct the problem, they did so cheerfully, and the completed project looks beautiful. But it should have looked that way the first time around. Still, I am really happy with the results and enjoyed working with the crew, which was super nice to everyone (including my wife, babysitter and little kids), which unfortunately is not always the case with work crews. They were a bit higher priced than other estimates I got but I felt the quality and expertise in both planting and hardscaping was worth it.

This report averages a D because I never received the service from this company after two calls and two bids.I called A Yard and a Half requesting a site visit for them to give me a bid on a drainage issue in my front yard. About three weeks later, I called again since I had not heard back and no one came to the house. About a week after that, a gentleman (Ulalio?) showed up and talked with us about the work to be done and said a bid would be forthcoming. No bid came, so about two weeks later I called and spoke with an Eileen, who said that the bid was still be be written up but there were questions so Ulalio would be coming by again. Ulalio did come back with another colleague. They even used white spray paint to mark up a few spots in the driveway to show where the excavation would be done. That was July. It is now October 12 and we never got a bid, nor a call back, but did get our driveway spraypainted. I will not be calling this company nor recommending them again.

They always did a good job. However, their prices were always very high.

Pros: Project manager (Caroline) is very good to work with - she was the main factor in choosing this company. Team were very good, experienced, and skillful, very hard-working, and very flexible in accomodating their work to my ideas. We ended up not using Caroline's plan/layout although it was a great jumping-off place to formulate my ideas, and I found the project a very creative experience with their support. Irrigation contractor was Autowater, who are very good, and I will use them again when I do my back yard. Deck contractor, Jim Doherty, is extremely talented and completely understood and figured out how to implement my ideas. Cons: Crew had only 1 English-speaking member so communication was hard if Caroline or crew chief not around. Project was delayed due to 2 months of rain, so we had to install sod, not seed. Kentucky Bluegrass sod is really unsuited to my location, and my lawn is not great; I will have to overrseed with a more high-sun tolerant grass. Soil was wet and team did not smooth out clods before laying sod, so lawn is lumpy; I wish they'd raked/rolled it. Although I had and intended to add more roses, no one recommended drip rather than spray irrigation for beds, so roses all get black spot. Overall: Despite these disappointments, their professionalism, responsiveness, great sub-contractors, great project management, willingness to adapt in real time to my emerging design ideas, and the high quality of their work make them a company I will talk to and perhaps use again when I do my back lawn. I also met someone who'd had them build him a custom bocce court and he was thrilled with it and the work.

From the moment of contact, the team of service people has been outstanding. They perform excellent work, are reliable, consistent, bill appropriately, and are professional. I highly recommend them to friends and will continue.

The interaction was really good. They came when they were supposed to and they got us the estimate on time. We had no complaints. They were great. Their price was higher than the other company that we went with.

There was great variability between what was discussed and what went into the contracts and proposals. I needed to 'circle back' several times to finally get the quotes, and each quote over a 2 year period (for the exact same services) was higher than the next. 2nd one was $200 higher than the first due to labor cost increase (okay, fair enough), then the 3rd quote (for the exact same project) several months later was $600 higher (again citing increased labor costs, really??). I must mention that the scope of our project was very small and so we probably did not meet their minimum, but this was never stated or addressed, it seemed they just kept bumping up prices randomly to get to the minimum. E.g., "Yes, the labor will be $500, and then the cost of materials will be $650". The "materials" being mulch ONLY for two small raised beds in front of our condo building. We have done this project ourselves before and the cost of mulch was ~$80 for these two beds from the garden store down the street, which I mentioned to them and they said, "Well, we buy in bulk!", okayyy, well if you buy in bulk, shouldn't it be LESS expensive?? I was just so confused by the end and felt that I had been given such a runaround with pricing and discrepancies between what was said and what was actually in the contracts, I have just moved on to another company. If you have a very large landscaping project, are comfortable with ambiguity and random, ever changing costs, and wish to spend a LOT of money, then this is the company for you. UPDATE: First, we were never told that there was a minimum of $1,000. The last verbal quote that was given to me by employee, Eulalio, was quite clear, "$500 for labor", and then IN ADDITION, "mulch at a cost of $650", (=$1050) to reach up and over the minimum mark. It was never stated that getting the costs up to the minimum was the reason for the rather arbitrary material cost pricing. I asked him explicitly why mulch would cost $650, understanding that labor was a separate cost of $500 - which is when he said, "because we have to get the mulch there...and we buy in bulk", to which I said, "so $650 IN ADDITION to the $500 for labor costs, so a total of $1050?" and he said, "yes, that's correct". And there was NO confusion about this particular quoted pricing on my end and wasn't on his end as well. Yet, somehow, the contract we were given gave us a quote of ~$1,800 - which didn't include anything additional to what we had discussed via phone. The confusing part was being given 3 different quotes at different prices for the same services, while being told different information via phone conversations that weren't reflected in the contracts. I fully understand the concept of a contract being structured with labor costs billed by the hour, but as your company was aware, our condo association had a fixed budget for landscaping maintenance and so am not sure why an open-ended contract would be sent out, knowing that we had a finite amount to spend - and that Eulalio was familiar with the scope of the project. Perhaps instead of blaming your potential customers for "being confused", you should instead train your employees in communication and transparent sales tactics.

Left messages and never heard from them. Frustrating.

We had a terrific experience working with A Yard and A Half and would readily (and already have) used them again. Geovani promptly provided us with an estimate for our job and readily provided his opinions on how to make the best use of our space. It's beautiful--way nicer than we had ever imagined it. The crew always showed up on time, worked hard, and left the site spotless. I wish every company was like this. A Yard and A Half is now repairing the brick stairs and landing in the front of our house. A++

Unfortuntaly, my landscaping needs were too small to meet their minimum but the were kind enough to suggest another landscaping company. They were friendly and professional on the phone.

They work for me and they are pretty good. I have a contract with them where they come all summer. They are all organic and I like that. They are very responsive and they try to satisfy the customers. They work with a sub contractor who does grass maintenance like feeding the lawn and that's good.