Frese's Landscaping

The first couple years were fine. In the last year, Frese missed a few scheduled matters, necessitating phone calls to remind him. The prices rose. Finally, in November 2016, despite several phone calls, Frese failed to appear altogether for a fall cleanup of our yard. Christian Frese finally called with his usual glib excuses. We also had a cohtract with Frese for snowplowing this winter (2016-17). Frese performed the first plowing but when the next storm came in February, he totally failed to appear despite a phone call and never said why. Something has happened at this business and I would recommend that people look elsewhere for services.

The plus of working with Frese was that they carefully coordinated all the phases of the job. But since we starting working with Frese over a year ago it became an LLC and the business is now divided into departments. The owner delegates jobs to the different departments and then we worked with those department heads. This became confusing and we weren't always sure who to go to. The demolition of the old growth, grading the ground, and placement of the stones went really well. After the sod was put down, we had to call them back to fill in gaps and to check the mushrooms that appeared. They spread grass seeds where the sod meets the old lawn, but didn't level the ground first, so there's a dip between the two lawns. They contracted out for the tree removal, which I didn't realize that I could have hired them directly, possibly saving money. The company that did it was really good and efficient. By far the move expensive part of the job was putting in a new bed and have new plants put in. The horticulturalist was very knowledgable and came to work with us about 3 times. She showed us her design and showed us pictures of our plant options, including what a plant would look like in different seasons. We were very pleased with the planning although apprehensive that the estimate was about $4000. She kept reiterating that the plants would take several years to get established and begin to fill in the area. When the bed was finished we were shocked that we'd paid for something so unimpressive--our neighbor could have helped us design a bed and we would've thought it was just as nice. Worst of all, we asked for an itemized bill that would break out labor, travel, soil and mulch, and plants, but we never got one. We got an attractive inventory of the plants, but no costs.

I would not use this company again. They provided us with a written estimate. They came and did the job while we were at work- which was fine. Then they came to our door with a bill for twice the original WRITTEN estimate. They said it was more work than they anticipated and they made a mistake. In my book that is highly unethical. If they found the job was going to be bigger than expected, then they should have contacted us to ask whether the higher price was acceptable. We shouldn't pay for their mistake. If we had know the actual price of the job, we wouldn't have followed through because it was out of our price range. I do not recommend anyone use this service. I am very disappointed.

unknown

I spent $800. There were 5 men and the owner was very organized, everybody had a job to do, they came on time, they had their equipment and they did a good job. I think they were more reasonable than another landscaping service I used a year and a half ago.

Christian and his workers did a lot for us this year: regular mowing, some landscaping and cleaned our roof and gutters. His prices are reasonable and his crew are competent and professional.