Gaia Gardens

Rude & vulgar men who blast their truck radio, block the driveways of residents, should lewd remarks at women & during a recent trip to my neighborhood, DELIBERATELY SPIT AT ONE OF MY NEIGHBORS. This is an act of violence & during a pandemic, can be considered Assault with a Deadly Weapon. The police have been notified, as well as Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE).

The owner is great! Her workers, not as great, they just wanted to mow and leave, when they were contracted to weed as well. The owner was gracious and had them come back, but they made the same mistake again and I had to watch them the third time to prevent them from making the same mistake again.

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The maintenance was billed over a 12-month contract, pro-rated, so that I was actually paying these monthly bills long after services stopped. Very clever girl, that Daria. But a contract is indeed a contract, and so I paid. Interesting to see that another customer also noted that the workers ripped out plants "by accident"; I had almost nothing left of long-established flowering plants when her guys got finished, though she never offered to replace MINE, and huge patches of brown dirt (which she called "mushroom compost") where grass was supposed to grow. I wish you'd offered to replace MY plants that your guys ripped out (but you denied that they ripped anything out)--I can name them in English: day lilies, irises, even my hostos and a brave little rose, just to name a few--but your "guys knew what they were doing"--and these were solid, established plants, not delicate little seedlings requiring daily care. I'd had them for years. They're gone now. The mushroom compost remains where there should have been grass. Daria is arrogant and dismissive. Naming the plants in Latin doesn't take a genius (you just look at a catalog), but I had to ask three times and threaten to withhold payment before I could get her to come back to my house and SHOW me what a $48 plant looked like (I expected a small tree for that money--it was a seedling planted in the middle of a heat wave, and sprouting all of three little leaves!). But again, a contract is a contract,and so I paid. Never mind that when I contracted her services I made it very clear that I wanted low-to-no-maintenance plants, and that I did not want anything dug up that was already happy and thriving (thanks to a wonderful landscaper who had made my property beautiful and--sadly for me--moved away). I wanted the grass supported; I got dirt, aka "mushroom compost." "Don't worry," says Daria; "my guys know what they're doing." I bet they did, too, but what they were doing was leaving my backyard looking like a bomb site; even my friends pointed out how awful my yard now looks. The "guys" turned up on no particular schedule, and then refused to cut my back yard because my car was in my very narrow driveway. Odd that when they FIRST started working here, the same car was in the same narrow driveway, but they were able to use a smaller lawnmower and get around it. They never asked me to move my car; If I happened to see them arrive, I'd run out and move it; if I'd known when they were coming, I could have moved it ahead of time--but apparently the courtesy of an advance notice was not on my payment plan. One tried to tell me he'd called me but I didn't answer--funny, my answering machine, which is always on, somehow didn't get the message.The final straw was when I caught them opening my back gate, which faces onto private property, and dumping my leaves and lawn debris out the back rather than taking them away. When I called them out on it, they said they'd always done that (lie), that it was public property (another lie, and so what--it's still illegal to dump trash there), and that my car made it impossible to drag the leaves out to their truck (see courtesy of a request, above). I have never, until now, had to tell ANYONE working on my property for any reason, "Get off my property," but I said it to them. And because a contract is a contract, I continued to pay. The maintenance contract came to $1268; add another $1000 or so for the "plantings" whose results are still not much visible. (That was after the couple of times she tried to get me to agree to a higher price than I'd said I would pay--at one point I had to get her to rewrite the estimate twice to bring it down to what I'd asked for in the first place--Daria thinks her customers don't read very well even in English, never mind Latin.) And THEN she says, "it just breaks my heart to see how you've neglected these plants." Really? Did I not ask for plants that didn't need much care? Did she so much as leave an instruction about the care each delicate flower required? Almost every time she came to my house she had a friend, a kid, or both, with her, as if I was an annoying interruption in her social schedule--or she had to go rescue someone who was stranded somewhere, or whatever. And Daria, before you try to threaten to take ME to court like you did the other customer who complained, be aware that I have a bank record of every cashed check I paid you and every invoice number. Neighbors, don't go near this one. She'll take your money and insult you in the process. If you already have a decent yard and plantings, you can kiss them goodbye, along with the money you'll pay out over a year, because a contract is after all a contract, and if nothing grows where the contract said she planted, it'll be your fault, not hers. (Wanna make a bet? Watch for the response she posts to this report!)

Terrific. Daria was 100% fun to work with because she really cares about our tastes and about making our house look attractive. We hired her earlier in the summer and her crew did a great job on installation of a stone wall and sidewalk. She does not push the consumer to go for more than the person wants and is willing to spend as much time as you want discussing plants and sending you information about them by email. Then we hired her again to install sod and to refresh our raised bed and area under the tree. Daria provided great design, great plants, and just made us confident about what was being done. Our ugly house is beginning to look loved thanks to her and to her quality team. Her billing was very fair; by mistake, her guys removed plants that she replaced -- no excuses, she just replaced the lost plants right away. A great experience.

Would never use this provider or recommend to anyone again! Cannot be trusted, very unethical and unprofessional. She was paid for the patio work that was done, but could not fulfill the monthly landscaping contract. She tried to charge for weekly lawncutting service, when she didn't even come every three weeks for the service. After pointing this out, she became unresponsive and blew off the entire contract. I feel like I have been ripped off for the $2500+ I paid for the patio work. Would never trust this provider again. Stay away! Completely unprofessional.

Conscientious and meticulous are how I would describe the crew that came on a weekly basis. I would add pleasant and respectful of my property. They routinely pull the dead stalks from inside the plants and bushes, rake the mulch in the flower beds and trim and rake the edges. They leave my property looking totally refreshed. Daria Paxton, the owner, is quite knowledgeable. She also has an interesting billing method. She totals the cost of all planned maintenance, including feeding, mowing, weeding, aerating, etc., and then divides that into a uniform monthly bill. That way, I know what I am going to pay each month. Finally, I must comment on her honesty and customer care. The few minor issues I had (there will always be minor issues) were handled immediately and to my complete satisfaction. I was going to wait until fall cleanup before writing a report, but that would be unfair to anyone looking for superior service at the end of the season.

The lawn mowing is very good. She offered tree services to cut down trees, but I found out she was subcontracting it out, so I wouldn't use that service. Her service is very good and easy to work with. I have been using her for a long time. She is not as good with her invoicing as she could be. The price is very good. The quality of the work is an A+. Her crew does very good work and is very responsive and receptive.

We are very satisfied with Daria's service.

We hired her for weekly lawn maintainence. We also discussed a landscaping plan and layout. She came up with a plan to remove some items from our front yard and move them to the backyard. This evened things out in the front and gave everything room to grow. She planted new items and watered them. She also provided recommendations for an irrigation company. She removed some trees that died for free. She has been excellent. I email her with questions and she responds quickly. She has been the best landscaper we've had since we've lived here.