Scott Anderson Design

The firm leads with a reasonable design and installation service. Afterward the practice is a horrible experience. You will hate this company’s rip offs. To get add-on lights, the price is double. To get repairs, and I am talking about a nine month old installation, the company’s office person says outages are caused by landscapers and animals breaking the underground lines. So the company charges $500 for two workers to enter the property for 2 hours minimum @$125 per hour. In my case, one of three zones was completely out which I explained. They spent the first 10 minutes looking over the two good zones and five minutes later found the problem, a failed electric outlet. They were in and out in 15 minutes. Effective cost was $2000 per hour. I offered to pay $100 and then pay another $500 for them to come back for their annual maintenance. There answer was no, we will be happy to take this $500 and another $500 to do the service. Their contractual terms also disavows responsibility for consequential damage to the property and forces the customer to agree to pay thousands more if you pay late. These are not good or fair people. Before you buy, ask for references from 5 year old installations.

Our 15 year old pond developed a leak and while contacting perspective pond restorers we came upon Scott Anderson Design. We spoke to several designers prior to speaking with Scott, and after speaking with him we were impressed with his ideas and work ethic. The job went extremely well and we would not hesitate to recommend Scott and his crew. It was a pleasure to work with him. We had no issues and very pleased with the outcome.

Firstly, Scott came out and seemed like a very nice guy. He sure spoke with a lot of knowledge about soil. He normally charges for a soil sample. He looked at our backyard and said there was no need to take the sample as he can see our soil is complete garbage. We explained to him how our trees before were dying because of the soil. He then proceeded to talk in great detail about his degree in soil and what was wrong with what we had now and why our plants died previously. He continued on to tell us what his plan was and how he will fix this issue with no problem. He made this sound very promising so although his quote of $8800 was on the high side, I put my faith in him and agreed. One of my worst decisions. Scott was not present when his employees did the planting. As you can see from his response to a previous post, he makes himself sounds very knowledgeable. However, his guys simply dug a hole and put two bags of compost down for 8 large arborvitae. Within a week, some trees started browning and Scott said to see what happens in the next month. They started crisping up and completely died within weeks. He had one of his employees come take a look and he couldn’t understand why the trees were dying and said he would definitely get back to us. Nothing back from him. We would send pictures of the dying trees to Scott as more died and although crispy and brown, he would tell us that they could come back from that and to wait another month. He knew **** well they were dead. He just didn’t want to deal with it. After all, he already got our money. He came out to take a soil sample and said he would get back to us in a week or so with the results. When we reached out, he said they are backed up because of the pandemic. He then touched base with us to let us know he hasn’t forgotten about us and he will have the results soon. That was the last time we heard from Scott and that was back in August last year. That’s what kind of guy Scott is. Mind you, in his previous response, he talks about all these problems with the soil from the sample he took. This is the first I am hearing about this for starters. But more importantly if he knew of all these problems then why did he say he could fix it? Then he blames my “homemade sprinkler system” as the problem. He kept telling me not to underwater but not to overwater. Very clear advice right? I water twice a week but they drown anyway because of poor drainage. Why didn’t he simply raise the bed like I have done myself now when his guys saw water sitting 2 feet down? Oh, I know. That’s more work and all he cares about is selling unwarranted trees. Bottom line, don’t trust this snake oil salesman!

I hired Scott because of his apparent soil expertise. A previous landscaper planted several arborvitaes that kept dying. Scott came over and spent an hour explaining issues with the soil. He told me he could have the problem resolved and was confident that the new trees would survive. While his proposal seemed high, I was willing to work with him because he seemed knowledgeable. On the say of the job, he showed up to draw out the landscape design and left never to return, not even for the payment. Within a week or so, 2 of the 8 arborvitaes started to die. Scott tried to revive them with fertilizer but eventually 4 of the 8 died. Scott said it could have been from too much water. Or too little water. Or our neighbors spaying chemicals. All logical, but none were the cause of the continuous dying I would later find out. I decided to replace the trees myself and bought them at the nursery (which came with a 1 year warranty). Once I started to dig the dead trees out, I discovered a pool of water about 2 feet down indicating poor drainage. I wound up replacing all the clay soil with new topsoil myself and raised the bed about 2 feet with new soil to improve drainage. All the trees I planted are thriving today. What bothers me so much is that I hired Scott to fix this problem. Instead, his crew decided to plant the trees in the same soil, at the same depth, in the same conditions as the trees that kept dying in the past. Guess what? They died too. The problem was fixable but Scott was not on sight to oversee the work and his crew never flagged the problem to me. Then, the centerpiece of the landscape, a blue spruce died. When I cut it down, I realized that the tree was planted 2 feet below grade in already poor draining area. Any basic planting guidelines always instruct not to plant the root ball below grade. This was 2 feet below grade! I texted Scott a picture and that was the last I heard of him. Furthermore, I paid for 8-10 foot arborvitaes. When they came, they all had tags on them from the grower that said “7 feet” on them. While they were technically 8 feet depending on how you measure, this also rubbed me the wrong way. Scott said it could be old tags from last year. Maybe? Finally, Scott planted a pin oak in a tight space between my neighbors house and my window. I came to learn that this will be a massive tree that will significantly outgrow this tiny space. Ultimately, I opted to replace the pin oak with an evergreen that I bought and planted myself to avoid the headache of having an oak tree grow so large and having to constantly prune it. Plus, the evergreen provided year round privacy. Yes, I could have researched “pin oak” before he planted but I paid a professional so I wouldn’t have to worry about that. In summary, I paid $8,800 to a landscaper so I wouldn’t have to worry about tree selection, survival, labor and soil conditions. Instead, half of the trees died and I am out an awful lot of hard earned money. Plus, I had to buy new trees from the nursery (which were less than $1,000 total with a warranty) and perform a lot of labor myself. Scott seems like a nice guy. But I cannot recommend him. While he was initially responsive, he never took accountability and eventually stopped responding to me once I showed him how poorly his crew planted the very expensive blue spruce. It’s a shame that the fix involved the labor-intensive solution of replacing old soil and raising the bed higher, which I would expect a professional to be able to diagnose and perform. Instead, I paid an awful lot of money for mostly dead trees.

It was a pleasure working with Scott Anderson Design for the new patio and landscaping for my backyard and the new sidewalk and sod lawn for my front yard. The masonry work was exceptional and his employees were true craftsmen. The result was more than I expected. Also, contractors he recommended for irrigation and fencing was exceptional and Scott also coordinated the whole project with the other contractors. It was well worth the money spent which was also reasonable. I would highly recommend Scott Anderson Design for your landscaping needs.

Excellent job. Removal, clean up and replacement was done very professionally

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After reading about local landscapers, I received estimates from four companies with very good reviews. I found Scott to be very responsive and he was willing to answer my questions, which is very important to me. He offered good advice and suggestions. Since there is a huge house being built very near our back property line, I was very concerned about getting landscaping installed for privacy. Scott was willing to work with me as my vision for what I wanted to have done, and to spend, evolved. We were originally going to have more extensive landscaping put in the back and then we scaled back the plantings in the back and used that extra money toward a complete landscaping job in the front. His estimate was a bit more than the lowest one we received but it was absolutely worth it, especially when Scott worked with me to modify the work to be done. At the eleventh hour, he also went to the nursery personally and brought an additional 9' tree to our house to be planted before the crew left; he only charged me for the price of the tree, not for the delivery and planting. He is a very nice person and his crew members were all friendly, knowledgeable, and accommodating, too. I can recommend him without reservation and would definitely hire him again for any future projects.

Went really well. Happy we found them

Scott was a pleasure to work with. He was always available to discuss and answer questions.

Great job, very professional and a pleasure to work with Scott and his amazing team!

The work was completed faster than I had ever expected, and the plants seem to be doing well. Scott Anderson was responsive to preferences, questions, and concerns.

Both jobs went extremely well. The patio and landscaping made the backyard a paradise. Scott, the owner and his crew did an incredible job, and always remained professional and very courteous. We intend in the near future to have more landscaping done.

Everything was excellent. Scott was prompt and very professional. He had some ideas that I hadn't even considered. I would definitely recommend these guys.

They are 100% competent. I have used them for 5 years now and they are always reliable and do a good job. They come back once after the snow comes and once after the sanitation truck comes through. They are totally polite and really nice people. I would highly recommend them.

we are so happy with the results. we love how beautiful the yard is now. scott and crew came and worked their tails off. planted shrubs along 3 sides of the yard that were barren before. installed a patio in back under the existing trees also. in addition he took an existing flower bed and replanted them among the new shrubs, what a huge amazing difference I absolutely love how it turned out. scott and crew are easy to deal with and deserve their sterling reputation. I would recommend scott to anyone I know who is looking to transform their dreary yard into a yard where you can be proud of. love love love the new yard. many thanks to scott and his fine crew!!! id like to apologize for the late review this work was done in may and have been lax at writing it. it is well deserved. thank you again scott.

Scott was very responsive and got the work done quickly. We were very happy with the finished product and felt that he was good at working with us both on price and on the look of the finished product. We would definitely hire him again.

the project took about 5 weeks and it seemed every day people were just working all around the house. They did so much to improve the house people doent even notice it any more

We love the final product and Scott was fantastic to work with. Our only minor complaint is that it took a little longer than we anticipated. We can't wait to use it this summer.

They were great to work with! Very professional, and everything turned out nice and pretty.

We were more than satisfied. We loved the work and even our neighbors went out of their way to tell us how beautiful it was.

Scott and the guys are the best all around / I use them every year / never had any problems with anything / 💕

Very well. Scott and his team are extremely professional and easy to work with. They even made suggestions for next year!

Better then expected, everything turned out beautiful. Scott and his crew are very knowledgeable and well mannered. Will be using them again.

By far the most amazing and courteous company I have ever worked with from beginning to end I was over the top satisfied,they truly went over and beyond my highest expectation