NEW URBAN LANDSCAPING

We are new to the area, and we contacted John at New Urban Landscaping based on prior Angie's List reviews. Well done, consumer compadres -- you were right on the mark once again. John went over the project with us in detail prior to getting started, and he & his crew spent a lot of time removing the invasive plants that had taken over our landscaping. They were very thorough and took the time to dig up roots -- it wasn't a quick, superficial rush to simply remove what was visible on the surface. Following the clean-up, John suggested, sourced and planted the bushes that met our criteria (low water/maintenance, native to are, provides lasting foliage & color). Other than the crisp garden area he left for us to enjoy, you couldn't tell that anyone had been working on the yard -- they did a great job cleaning up the project area once it was complete. We'll definitely be using New Urban Landscaping again -- highly recommended!

The project went well. John and his crew were able to bring in a couple trucks of top soil and mulch and get the plants in all in one day. They did an excellent job cleaning up after they were finished. He also added some grass seed over the filled in areas to get grass established. I have used New Urban Landscaping in the past and will continue to use them in the future. John has always been timely with looking at the projects, getting me a bid, and then getting the work completed.

John Nekola is very nice and easy to deal with. I have actually hired him twice. Last year we put in a new sod lawn and did some drainage work in the back of our home (Oct 2013) and this year we put in a new sod lawn in the front of our home (Sep 2014). Last years job ran about $3000 and this year was about $2000. John did a very good job both times. I do think it is always best if you can to be on site when any work is done (with any contractor, not just John) so that you can make sure the details are exactly what you want. On the first job a flower bed was longer than I wanted, and on this most recent job a planting bed did not have the curve I would I chosen but both of these were easily corrected and no big deal. In the future I will definitely call John again.

After he planted everything, (by the way, he talked to me during the process to let me know how things were progressing and what the next steps were,) he told me what I needed to do to maintain the new sod and the plants and offered to return next spring to prepare for the new season. John was easy to talk to and very helpful. He provided good feedback to our suggestions and was very easy to work with. We would definitely be calling him in the Spring.

We used New Urban landscaping this spring for a complete renovation of our back and side yards. We had three bids from well-known and reputable companies. After examining each closely, we realized that New Urban was the only one that planned to install plants that were recommended for our climate zone. Both of the other bids had high-maintenance plantings that were inappropriate for our area; in one case, the plant was best installed near a swamp. Fortunately, we used the Missouri Botanical Garden?s website as a local and very helpful resource to check these things. John Nekola, the proprietor, was unfailingly professional, punctual, and reasonably priced. He returned calls in a timely manner and was able to answer all of our questions clearly and simply. He has a solid command of horticulture, and he worked hard to provide us with what we were looking for. This included substantial plantings for privacy along the street in our historic neighborhood. We highly recommend New Urban Landscaping.

John did a great job. He was timely and professional. I would hire him again!!

It was a public bid process and I was not here when they did the work. Their pricing was competitive.

We priced 3 well rated companies and his price was by far the best. When the weather delayed the installation, John let us know via cell and email. We were always in the loop which many companies aren't so good at. He was very helpful in answering all our questions and well as explaining what we needed to do after he left.

It was excellent. He did excellent work. He's come back a couple of times to check on the work. He's just a super guy! Very meticulous and very conscientious of the price. His mannerisms were very good and I was very very pleased. He went above and beyond! I've actually used him twice for landscaping projects!

John is very friendly and is an excellent landscaper. We have hired John twice for work in our yard. The first time we hired John and his crew was to level off our back yard so we could install a swingset for our child. At that time he also installed a beautiful paver patio on the side of our deck and also graded the ground sloping away from our house. Since he had done such a great job we hired him back a second time to do the grading to the front of our house and install matching rock that we had around our shrubs. As far as the work performed: *the grading of the dirt away from our house - We no longer have any water getting into our basement. He sloped it perfectly and installed rock in the front and sod on the side and back of the house. It looks great. *the paver stone patio - John turned an area of our yard that was just a muddy pit into a beautiful paver stone patio. *the leveling off of the yard for the swingset - The area wasn't perfectly leveled (a few little dips), but was a lot better than before and worked out great for the swingset. I've hired John and his team twice and they WILL be our landscaper for any future work we want done.

The name of the company (and the review history) was what prompted me tocall John. I have a small city yard, but even that has its difficulties. John is easy to work with-- he listened to my wishes and provided suggestions of his own. He was willing to do what I wanted done, as difficult and unglamorous as some of it was. For example, he redid the "tree lawn" (space between the sidewalk and street) by removing the motley grass and weeds growing in a hard pack soil and putting in ground cover and mulch. It looks great now and will look even better as it grows. He yanked out some ornamental grasses which had way outgrown their space and looked horrible. He suggested a replacement plant with some color interest and a very upright neat habit, which I'd never heard of and like very much. He redid a planting near the house, removing some near-dead plants and replacing them with ones I wanted. In this last job, he had to dig out an entire bucket load of various brick pieces and stones to dig the holes for the new plants. This took more time than anticipated, but he just made it work without complaint. He trimmed up a good number of boxwoods and they look neat and natural as if they'd always been that way. John is a one-man show. He has his own pace and way of doing things which I ended up liking and respecting. He has a good eye for placement and appearance. He has a "can do" attitude, he asks for periodic feedback if he needs it. He's a hard worker. He has good knowledge of what will work and gave me very specific instructions about how to care for the new plantings for the next couple of months. I am looking forward to an ongoing relationship, so I don't want him to get "too" busy and was hesitant to post this! Seriously, he deserves a good review-- anyone who tries to get work done in St. Louis knows how hard it can be to find a match that can work for you in the long run.

Terrific as usual! I could not be more pleased with the professional, quality work New Urban Landscape always provides. A+!

John did very good work. It looks great. He was very easy to work with, providing good suggestions. He was careful to check with me to see that what he was doing was what I had in mind. Planning on working with him again on a larger project.

John was easy to work with and offered some good ideas regarding the project. He promptly returned my calls or emails and was very dependable. He had to work around established plants which couldn't be moved and an irrigation system which made the job more difficult. There was one mishap when the tiller cut an irrigation pipe but he came out right away and took care of it. I enjoyed working with John and wouldn't hesitate to call again for future projects.

The job was done well and in a timely manner. The quality of the material he used was excellent and his price was more than fair.

The work done was just okay. I thought the price was high for the the quality of the product.

The service went pretty well. He was pretty prompt and had good communication. He was a good guy.

John listened to my ideas and coached me along the way with his own ideas and professional advice. He is very knowledgeable.

I have been very happy with all his work.

John was good to his word. He responded quickly to my call, met me on time to discuss the work, kept me informed of when he could start and then showed up as promised. The work was exactly what I asked for. They got the work done well and cleaned up after themselves. All in all, it went very smoothly.

The experience was a pleasure from start to finish- John worked quickly and was very responsive to our thoughts and concerned that we were happy with the end result of re-landscaping the front of our home. He also did general clean up and trimming of the side and back part of our property, and his hourly rate is reasonable and so worth it!

It went well. John was a little slow to come back with the estimate. I originally contacted NUL during June. He was kind of in hurry, but we went over the ideas for the patio and then he had to go. I didn't hear anything for several days, so gave him a call and he scheduled another meeting on 6/28. I was looking to have this whole project done by 7/27, so every day was crucial. We met a couple of days later, but I don't recall the exact date. I know it wasn't long, since I was getting close to crunch time. The second meeting was much better. John was more focused and I think maybe he was taking me more seriously the second time around. Whatever the case, we went through a few concepts, he took some measurements, and said he would contact me with an estimate. I didn't hear from him for a few days, so I contacted him on 7/7, and he offered to come by that evening to go over the estimate. We came to an arrangment that evening and scheduled the work to begin the next week. Work began on schedule, and it took three days. We had to head over to Kirkwood Building Supply, as that is where NUL gets their materials to pick out a specific gravel for the top layer. We had that decided by the time they needed to order it. John and one other gentlemen did the work together. During the process of removing the topsoil their little bobcat got wedged up against my porch when the dirt gave way under the machine. They jimmied it around for a bit before taking the bucket off and moving the machine away. In the process my bottom step got a bit of the corner chewed off by the bobcat's treads and the bucket banged against my stair railing a few times leaving some gouges. They did patch the gouges with some stain to match the color, but there wasn't much that could be done about the step. The damage wasn't too bad, so I didn't make a big deal out of it. Other than that and some tracks through the yard from their machinery, the property was in pretty good shape without any other noticeable damage. The grass grew back in just fine, and that kind of thing is to be expected with this kind of project. We ended up with a very nice patio. The gravel is easy to rake out, kind of like a japanese rock garden. The sublayer absorbs water quickly, even during storms. The only problem (nothing to do with NUL) with a patio like this is the ease with which the mini-pearl gravel gets tracked up onto the porch our knocked into the grass at the edge of the patio where it's practically impossible to recover. We're happy with the porch, and I don't think either of the issues during the work were avoidable. The only thing I could suggest is that John be a little faster at turning around those estimates, or if speed is not the issue, a little more proactive about letting the customers know that the estimate is done. All together it was about three weeks from the time I first called NUL to the time I got an estimate to work with. Once I got the estimate, the rest of the process went really fast.

Had a great experience. Both men were professional, courteous and worked fast. When the younger man came into the house, he removed his shoes so as not to track dirt inside. It was a very hot day, but they worked very hard. I actually had to leave when my power went out, but they called me when they noticed it came back on. They finished the work in less time than expected, and I've been getting compliments on it from both neighbors and strangers.

NUL did a very nice job overall. They were responsive following my initial inquires and turned the work around quickly as we were preparing to have an open house to sell our home. They followed up after the work was complete and made a follow up trip to our home to make sure everything was good and give us care instructions since we were not home at the time the work was done. We actually had NUL come out to our new home to mulch beds left bare & weed infested by the previous owners. I didn't even look anywhere else. I knew the job would be done correctly based on my original experience.

The owner did a great job at bidding and predicting quite accurately the exact amount we would need. We were happy with the quality of the mulch and the hard work of his employee, Zach, in working all day to distribute the product among our extensive lot among all our trees, shrubs and gardens. I would use him again for this and other landscaping work.