Gardenier Landscaping, Inc

Zack came to the house and listened to what we were looking to do. He spend some quality time and came up with some great ideas. We were very comfortable with him personally and liked his plan and were excited about the possibility that this could all be done before winter. We were also sold on the plan that Zack would be there to manage the whole project and we would not have to be around to answer daily questions. We wrote a check to get things started and they showed up within a few days. It started well, things were progressing quickly. Boulder walls were built and the land was cleared. Pavers were put down for the patio area and the fire pit was constructed with a nice 2 1/2 foot high semicircle wall around the back side. It was looking great. The problems started when they were convinced that they were done. The plan was to use the boulder walls to make the yard flat with a slight pitch away from the house for runoff. When they were "done" with grading and spreading the black dirt, it appeared that the yard sloped toward the house in some areas and collected in the middle of my backyard until it funneled down through the patio area. I expressed my concern to Zack and the problems started. He seemed to agree that it was not graded properly, and Josh came back with the bobcat to correct the problem. He moved some dirt around and declared it done. A few weeks later, rain came and showed that the water still pooled in the backyard and funneled down through the patio area. At this point, Zack who was supposed to be my designer/project manager disappeared. I was told to work with Josh directly. We went back and forth on this issue and he showed up a few times with the bobcat and pushed dirt around. Still things didn't get resolved. As it was getting late in the season and weather was not cooperating, we decided to take it up in the spring...not before convincing me to pay the entire balance of the job. That was a giant mistake on my part. Spring came and Josh came back to fix a walkway that had settled and then I discovered that part of the fire pit was over my property line and sitting on town property. I showed Josh this and he defended the placement by saying that they ran a string before they built it and it was within the property limits. The fact that you can stand at one property stake and look up to the other one and clearly see that it was over the line didn't seem to matter at all to Josh. At this point, he was clearly angry and was not going to do anymore work in the project. I filed a complaint with the BBB, which can be seen on the BBB website but the company refused to respond to the certified letter that was sent by the BBB. I then got a different landscape contractor to come over and look at the grading and he didn't think it would be all that hard to make the land flat with a slight pitch away from the house. Of course the job is much more complicated due to the fact that the fire pit had to be relocated and the boulder walls had to be raised to level off the yard. Then more fill had to be brought in to complete the leveling process. Also, the top 3 inches of soil had to be removed to combat the weed problem. He bid the project on a time and materials basis, so the final amount could only be estimated. I then contacted the city to get a ruling on the fire pit location, hoping that they would be understanding. They ruled that it had to be moved for liability reasons. By this time(late summer 2010), my backyard is a huge mess of weeds and loose rock and a general eyesore. Fall arrives and that's when my new contractor starts to fix the issues. They did a great job, but it's hard to swallow the extra $15,000. In the end, the kindest thing that I can say is that Green Key was just not well suited for this job. They did make the patio blocks look nice, and the fire pit with the half wall looked great, but clearing trees and estimating the number of boulders needed to level a yard were clearly not what they were good at.

The job went well. The crew worked hard and steadily. The completion date was delayed by two days of heavy rain, very understandable. The work site was kept clean and neat. Workers were very polite and considerate.

The job went well. The crew worked hard and steadily. The completion date was delayed by two days of heavy rain, very understandable. The work site was kept clean and neat. Workers were very polite and considerate.

Josh and Jason are very talented guys. They were able to take my simple ideas and turn them into a grand design. They were very professional, and their pricing was much better than other landscapers who bid on the project. Thanks guys. I will definitely use you again and again.

Josh and Jason are very talented guys. They were able to take my simple ideas and turn them into a grand design. They were very professional, and their pricing was much better than other landscapers who bid on the project. Thanks guys. I will definitely use you again and again.