SOLAR GARDENS INC

Jon the owner was responsive to phone calls and text messages. The prices seemed reasonable especially considering the work is all very professionally done and looks great. His crews seemed very hard working and the jobs were completed quickly. The stonework requires some real craftmanship and care to make it look right and I would say they had what it took to make that happen. Definately satisfied. Thanks a lot to Jon and crew

Jon was prompt and knowledgable. He assessed our drainage problem and provided an option and a reasonable cost. Unlike other providers, his company also does landscaping and took great care to leave the property looking as good as they found it, despite digging a giant trench through the yard. His pricing was in line with a couple other estimates I had, but I went with him since he was more responsive and knowledgable in my opinion.

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The consulting and design project was excellent. They were open to breaking the total design down into phases, so we could tackle it in more comfortable pieces. We had a window when they expected to start working, and I believe the work started late in that window or just after. It was weather and delivery related, totally reasonable. The work was done so fast, expected 2-3 days, I think it ended up being closer to a day and a half. We still have a complicated shady steep yard, but it looks so much better. They made it more pleasant to come home.

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It went very well. The rep Jon was very responsive throughout the process, accommodating to shifts in our schedule, and kept us up to date regularly. The work was done quickly with minimal disruption to us. The hardscaping came out great, and the bushes, while slightly smaller than we had hoped, look good and will hopefully fill in nicely.

Pros: It was a pleasure working with Jon and the Solar Gardens team. From the initial meetings, to the final plant selections, they took the time to LISTEN to my idea's and implemented them. They were flexible on the price and stayed within my budget. I'm very happy with the finished product. I will continue to use Solar Gardens for future landscaping projects. Cons: Pay close attention to small details....people do notice.

They have done work for me before. I found them in the Yellow Pages. It went very well.

I did not select Solar Gardens because I miss interpret the terms on their contract, which I discovered after I secured another company. Overall my experience with Eric was great no complaints.

The gentleman who came out to give the estimate was very nice, punctual and knowledgeable. When we offered up our approximate budget, we were told that we wouldn't be in the right price range for any kind of masonry work and that we would be better off going with treated lumber/railroad ties. We asked to have a quote drawn up for both kinds of work (stone and lumber) so we could actually see for ourselves how much more money was necessary to complete what we had envisioned, but only received a quote for the lumber retaining wall, and not for what a stone/masonry wall would cost or to have any of the landscaping work completed. In the end, we decided to not have any work done due to changes in our own budget, but we likely would not have chosen Solar Gardens as we did not receive the requested quote which would have allowed us to make a more informed choice.

The response was great. The scheduling was a little more dificult but weather had some impact on that. the job quality was great. The time the job took to perform was less than expected. The outcome was better than antisipated.

Overall, I have been pleased with the work performed on my property. They have been very good at clearing branches and leaves from the property, and the yard looks very nice. A few issues, it took a long time to get the estimate for yard work. Even longer to get estimates for firewood and tree trimming (3 months). Another issue is that in September and October they mowed my lawn every week. I think this is excessive, and was an attempt to pad the bill. When I notified Neal, the owner, that I did not agree with mowing every week and would only pay for every two weeks, or as needed, he agreed to make the adjustment. Just wish that I had not had that issue.

I received a call and I am still waiting to have someone call back to make an appointment and obtain an estimate

Be sure to let them know you are an Angie's List member. I greatly appreciated Neal's honesty. He explained that my lawn was small (which I thought would be more cost effective) and the configuration of the lawn was choppy, it would actually require more labor hours because a riding mower wouldn't work. I asked for a proposal anyway for the straight mowing service and then quotes for options if I decided to take them. After discussing the proposal with family, we decided at this point to invest in a mower and do it ourselves.

He did an excellent job of the estimate. I guess I didn’t really get an estimate but he was prompt in responding to me. The man was very patient and helped me to consider options. I appreciated the guy for his respect of my own knowledge base. He didn’t talk down to me and he’s completely open to working directly with me. You don’t find that with all the landscapers and they usually start out with how much money they are going to make and they are very condescending. This guy was not like that. I live in an over fifty five community and so I have a lot of constraints. So I was trying to work with him with those constraints. I went with another company not because I didn’t like him. I did not really get an estimate from him but I dealt with him regarding the project. I will use his services again in the future.

Solar Gardens and its co-owner, Jon Winter, have my and my husband's highest recommendation. Jon transformed our boggy, weed- and moss-filled side yard into a beautiful and peaceful Japanese-inspired garden. Our side yard is essentially a swale that runs from the street, the length of our house and back yard, to a small creek. A french drain alleviated, but did not stop the water pooling in low areas of the yard. The first landscaper we consulted gave us an estimate of $13,000 to install a dry river bed without any plantings. After contacting Solar Gardens in October 2010, we met with Jon and discussed our vision for the swale and other areas of the yard. Jon really listened to us and came back with a comprehensive landscape blueprint, which included a dry river bed, with stepping stones (for ease of walking) and boulders, and plantings for the side of the swale along our fence and the side next to our house. We were completely blown away by the plan he presented to us. We were also extremely pleased by the estimate--approximately $13,000 for everything. We divided and prioritized the work, starting with the installation of the dry river bed in November 2010. Jon consulted with us closely the entire time and met us twice at the stone yard to choose the gravel, boulders, and stepping stones. They placed metal edging along the sides of the river bed and filled it with some 7 tons of gravel of varying sizes and 3 tons of boulders. Jon and his crew went above and beyond what was required--adding extra stepping stones, mulching the entire area, placing sod around the edging, etc. The dry river bed turned out fabuous even without any plantings. And it was completed on time and on budget. Our guests at Thanksgiving were suitably impressed by the transformation of our yard. This Spring we had Jon continue the project by planting the side of swale along the fence, as well as plant arborvitae on the side of the house and a Japanese maple at the front of the house. He was extremely helpful in the selection of the plants and met with us on a cloudy Saturday to go over the placement of the plants. Again, everything turned out beautifully. We look out the window every morning and can't believe that this is our yard. Even our neighbors have noticed and complimented us on the changes. And we are not done yet. We have more landscaping to do and we plan to have Jon and Solar Gardens continue their great work.

We have a contract with them currently for mowing which is $45.00 a week. They come out approximately weekly. I went with them because I liked their attitude and I liked their presentation. I liked what other people said about them and the reviews I got from the people in the neighborhood. It has been so wet that they haven't been able to get out into the yard and do all of the things they are scheduled to do. So far, I am happy enough. I have no negatives at this point.

Our Angies List account is in my wife's name, but I am writing the report since I am the one who had contact with this company. I contacted this company because they were highly rated by Angies List. Neal returned my first phone call within a day or two, and said someone would be by in a couple days to look at our property and would then call with an estimate. A few days later, someone contacted me again to verify our address; they had apparently written the address down incorrectly. More than a week went by before I heard from them again, so I called and left a message with someone. It has now been another week and I have still not heard from them. We wanted to try them, but if they won't contact us, I guess we will have to try someone else. Micky Goldstein

I had water coming into my basement, and I decided to try a landscaper first before attempting a more expensive fix. John came to give me an estimate in November or December of 2009. The crawl space underneath my enclosed porch is about 2-3 feet tall, but John crawled underneath to inspect the area. It was also very cold that day. He pointed out areas where water could potentially be draining towards the house and suggested ways to fix it. He also stressed that there's no guarantee that his suggestions would keep water out of my basement. He sent me a written estimate a few days later. I sent a deposit for the work in the Spring, and the work was completed within a few weeks. I don't know if it will keep the water out of my basement but for the price, it was worth a try before paying thousands of dollars to attempt another solution. I highly recommend Solar Gardens.

We had four estimates from different landscapers - two estimates were outrageous in the range of $8,000-$15,000. One estimate was $4000, which we considered but did not include everything that Solar Garden proposed for $2700! Jon came out for the free estimate and talked with us. He seemed to listen and really know what he was doing. I had mentioned that one of our front steps was causing us trouble, after a few minutes he called me over and explained why it causing the problem and described how he would fix it. I was impressed, none of the other landscapers took this time with us. When we got the proposal I was very impressed! Other proposal grouped tasks together by the front yard, side yard etc and provided a cost for that area. Jon's estimate was a line by line estimate, for each and every little thing. (Example $150 to remove the large stump, $75 to remove the smaller stump etc.) Other estimate from other landscapers said "Stump removal -- $1200". His estimate was timely and he called to follow up a few days later to ask if we had any questions. (We waited weeks to get some of the other estimates from landscapers.) We scheduled the work and they gave us a two week window that they could come depending on the amount of rain that would slow them down at other sites. They had Misc Utility come and mark the lines, called us the day before they came to let us know they would be coming in the afternoon the next day. They estimated 3-4 days work. They arrived at noon, delivered some dirt, ripped up the patio and broken front cement step, and left the yard very tidy (no trace of cement pieces and raked the dirt smooth). The next day they arrived at 7:30 am with 4 workers. Jon was there to supervise the site. They were very efficient! By 10:30 they had delivered a truck load of fill dirt, removed all three stumps with a skid steer, dug and buried the drain pipes. They finished up the morning of the third day, smoothing out the dirt, spreading grass seed and straw, and laying the cement for the front step. Again they were very clean, sweeping the driveway and leaving the yard clean. The last day the weather was somewhat wet and the cement step did not set well. We called the following Monday and Jon came right out and said he didn't like the looks of it either. The end of that week they came back and re-did the surface. Unfortunately, a few days after that we saw small cracks develop. We called Solar Gardens and Jon came back out to take a look. He said that they would need to rip it out and start again. They came the next day and re-did the step, now it looks great! We were very happy and would definitely recommend them. They were booking up the most summer when we scheduled the work with them in early May. I recommended them to a friend but they were so busy they were starting to charge for estimates, a business practice I do not agree with.

He came today and we haven't seen the estimate yet. He was professional. He was middle of the road. He wasn't as nice, friendly and informative as some other people that we've had out. He was average. He was middle to good, but not great. He was knowledgeable and knew what he was doing. He had suggestions and didn't seem like he was trying to hard sell us. We are still considering using him.

They are very reliable, efficient and make my lawn look really beautiful. If I need some extra work then I just call them and they do it. They are expensive but, they are worth it. I would recommend them to anyone.

They explained things very well. They inquired about what I wanted & tried to make that their priority. When I requested something that was not the best option they were cheerful about doing the project but also informed me why something else might work better. Overall a very prompt, tidy, & responsive company to work with. They let me know by calling before they came.

Responsible and neat.