TRANSCENDING GARDENS LLC

It is good. I've been using them for around 10 years.

I was satisfied. It was kind of a small job and pretty basic. They just did a small portion of my yard; it was a partial area. I would recommend them. I picked them because of price and available.

Firstly, after my request, the company took over a week to contact me. When he came , the agent made it no secret that he was unhappy with the deal. He spent about 10 minutes on my front lawn, then left. I believe that he wanted to get off of Angie's List. In about two weeks they sent me a scheme to plant the front lawn, but sent nothing dealing with the back yard. Also, his scheme was very simplistic....anyone can plant two rows of bushes. I don't like the idea of paying prior to service as well.

Transcending Gardens over promises and under delivers. Once they have your money, they don't care about your satisfaction. Paul sent a crew that seemed more interested in checking the boxes than satisfying the customers. They did the big parts of what we asked, for the most part, but cut corners. They left the yard a mess between days once. My husband (a former tree trimmer) complained that it was unprofessional, and they admittedly cleaned between subsequent days. They didn't fully trim the trees, but just took down a few major branches so they could say they had done it. They cleared a small amount of brush under the pines, but left most of it. My husband ended up having to do more pruning after they "finished" and we still have underbrush that Paul promised would be removed. Also, while my husband was doing the clean-up, he noticed that in the underbrush clearing that they did to (not much, and not well), they apparently cut off the low branches from the front side of a mature pine tree, leaving a blank spot that will NEVER fill in. One of the major reasons we are unhappy is that Paul told us he was leaving stakes for us to place where we wanted our new spruce trees planted. We responded that we were not qualified to do so, as we don't know how to properly space them for full growth. He then came personally and promised that he would align the new trees to block the ugly electrical boxes in the corner of our property and close the gaps in the border between the neighbors. Well, the electrical boxes aren't hidden - at all. And instead of being spaced to close the gaps as they grew, he placed them very close together. A master gardener (admittedly my mother) has since informed me that eventually we will likely lose one tree from each of two clusters of three spruces that he planted. In other words, we now anticipate having to pay someone else to clean up what we paid Paul to do. One of the trees was also planted under some hanging branches from another tree. We thought that would be cured by them trimming the tree, but it wasn't. Down the road, when the spruce grows, something will have to change. As for the perennials he chose (hostas), we paid a lot to have them planted. They were smaller than I had expected for the per-plant price, but I know hostas grow quickly, so I didn't complain. Well, what I didn't know is that if you live near a golf course and lakes, and thus have geese that hang out in your neighborhood, Hostas are a bad choice. They were all eaten. Spent thousands of dollars on hostas we no longer have. (I suppose it's possible they will grow and be eaten again next year, but either way, I don't have the necklace of hostas that I expected and paid for.) At the time we paid Paul, we knew about the poor trimming and under-pruned underbrush, but paid him anyway. We figured that since we had complained about the messy yard, and made him come back to do the trimming and other work that he had promised but never did, we were ready to be done with it. What we didn't know at the time, however, was that the spruces were REALLY too close together. (Again, like I told him, I wasn't qualified to place them, so I thought my perception might have been off. Someone qualified has now told confirmed that I was right.) I also didn't know that the hostas would all be eaten, or that they hacked up one of my pine trees---the one right outside my kitchen window---so that I have an ugly bare spot forever now. As for professionalism, during the job, I wasn't thrilled to look out my back window and see them peeing in my trees, but I suppose they didn't track dirt into my house either. After the job, and after I had reflected on the work and learned about the tree placement problem, I sent Paul an email telling him that I remained unhappy and asked him to move the trees to cover the electrical boxes and be more properly spaced and to address the fact that all the hostas were eaten. He refused in a nasty email telling me that I paid him and he wasn't doing anything more about it and I should hire a new landscaper. As for the inattention to detail, he said that our job was a "major tear out not a manicured pruning job." I guess you don't get to expect quality on the back end if you have big work done on the front end. As for the tree placement, he essentially told me I was lying about the electrical boxes not being covered. He seems to take the position that either they are hidden, or they simply cannot be hidden without placing the pine trees even more closely together. That's not true. I stare at them every day - and I have pictures. The boxes could have been covered with spaced out trees - he just didn't do it. Paul also claimed that they had already moved one tree because I had complained. That is simply not true. They never moved any trees. He said the fact that they were too close together was "not a legitimate concern" because trees can "grow together." Assuming that is true, I could have paid for 2 trees in the space he put 3, and since I paid for 3, I thought I would get 3 trees worth of screening, not 2. As for the trimming, he told me that they had hauled away a bunch of stuff (they don't use an on-site chipper, so you pay for them to haul stuff away one trailer load at a time). I guess he takes the position that there was a maximum number of branches they would trim. As for the hostas, even though he's the professional and should know what wildlife in this area tolerates, he tells me he doesn't cover plants eaten by animals. He also blamed me for having rats living in vines that were climbing up the side of my house, and for my mowers not using a trimmer or blower, as if that's an excuse for doing less than a good job. (I didn't know about the rats, and was horrified that they were there, but I'm not sure how that excuses Paul's team from having to do quality work.) Oh - by the way - although Paul is critical of my mowers for not using a blower to clear my cement, when they were clearing my driveway of dirt, rather than a blower or broom, Paul's team used a bobcat that scraped up my driveway. Again, I didn't make a big deal of it because it's a driveway. But still. Bottom line: We will be taking Paul's recommendation to find a different landscaper. We recommend you do, too.

Price was more than twice as much as the other two landscapers called. We used one of the others and the work is proceeding nicely. We are replacing 40 year old retaining walls and it is not an easy job. The landscaper we are using came highly recommended and we are happy with the diligence and work done so far. His estimate was free.

I have received no further contact from Paul after he finally came to look over the area to be designed. He said that he would get in touch with me with a plan and an approximate price after I told him I thought his ideas were good. That was two weeks ago. I find it difficult to assess what he did because he basically has done nothing. He told me that someone in his office offered his services without his permission but, and I quote, "I will honor it anyway." I would not recommend this service.

Transcending Gardens was a great company to work with. The price was a bit steep, but was competitive in relation to the other companies from whom we received estimates. The job was done to our satisfaction and in a very timely manner. We will definitely look at hiring Transcending Gardens for our next landscape project.

The crew was out every day during the job when they said they would be, and they cleaned up very well. The job turned out better than we expected.

I wasn't there. Huge shock! I was not satisfied as to where the trees were planted; they weren't accomplishing the goal of privacy screening in one area; in another, they were bunched up together instead of spread out to allow room for growth, and in the front, one was planted too close to a large Christmas tree. The owner spoke with the foreman and the corrections were made. (I put rocks where I wanted the trees to be). They virtually had to redo their entire first day's work. The third day was cleaning the beds, installing edging and mulch. It looked absolutely beautiful! The guys were there late in the day, about 6:00 or so when I got home from work so I could thank them. Next day they came to water because it was hot/humid. The only problem that couldn't be "fixed" was the butterfly bush I lost when they cleared weeds; it went with the weeds. I'm not sure if I paid too much or not but their service was good and the owner responsive especially if there would be delays.