Essential Landscaping & Irrigation

We signed the contract in spring; they were to start in late July. August came & went; I called and Jeremy said they would be out in Sept. Sept. came & went. I called again, in Oct. and the secretary said we were not even listed on the Work Calendar. They finally came out in mid-Oct. to begin working. The paver work was acceptable, but when the began working on the pond, Jeremy wanted it completely emptied; the koi, goldfish and other fishes were caught and put in tubs. We had about 80 fish when they began. By the time the work was done in late November, we had no more koi or fancy goldfish, and the total number was less than 30. By spring, we had no more large fish, just fingerlings. Also, re. the pond and stream, because we have sporting breed dogs who are older, I told them I did not want small rocks and pebbles around the edges of the pond, and along the stream. Again, they did not listen. They put loads of pebbles and small rocks in, so much so that the dogs have often slipped when entering/exiting the water. The pond is much smaller now than it was when it was installed 10 years ago. Re: landscaping, I had specifically asked for a Sweet Bay Magnolia to be put in; instead, I got a pink dogwood, almost directly behind the large serviceberry which is in the center of the front yard; they also put in 3 Sweetgum trees, which are supposed to turn a beautiful red in the autumn. Thusfar (2 autumns have passed), they haven't shown that color. They failed to start work at the approximate time they had said they would; too much time was spent on the pond and brook, with less than desirable results. The cost was more than had been estimated, work that was to be done (releveling the upper garden walkway) was not done; and no one ever checked back to see if things were satisfactory, nor did we receive a discount because of their tardiness, or the option of postponing the work until spring. Finishing up on the day before Thanksgiving caused several of the root-bound plants (which they installed) to die, and most of our fish and all of the water lilies to not survive the very late change of water .

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We got quotes from 3 different companies, Essential kept closest to our budget, plus Jeremy seemed to catch the vision of what we wanted more than the others. When the date for the work came, the workers were very polite and professional and did an excellent job. They were prompt in getting there to start work and finished the project right on time, without budget overrun. We were very pleased with Essential and would definitely use them again if needed. They had to take out our rose bushes, but they just dug them out and pruned them in case we wanted to replant them, all without being asked. One of the workers also edged our flower bed, just to be nice.

Our irrigation was completed a few years ago and all issues addressed in a timely manner. We are very please with this company.

Good quote procedure

We are satisfied with the quality of the work. The owner was very nice to meet with and gave us a prompt, reasonable quote. The only frustration we had was that some of our concerns weren't addressed right away...and we feel this was due to the fact that they were swamped with customers this time of year. Otherwise, they are very friendly, professional and did good quality work. System works fine and covers all areas that we requested.

They responded promptly to our request for a quote on May 9, 2011. We visited their site and selected the stone/block we wanted to use. We made a deposit for the work and agreed to a new proposal on June 14, 2011. We have had a very wet spring/early summer and they were backed up with work. We were informed it would be after the Fourth of July before they could start. They finally began July 24. My only complaint is that they did not contact us with updated scheduling as time passed. The gentlemen that did the work were polite, industrious and efficient. Although it was very hot they accomplished the tasks quickly, neatly and to our satisfaction. They fulfilled the terms of their proposal completely. We will use them again in the future.

Everything has been good so far. I will be going through the system with the supervisor of the group probably next year to make sure that everything is going well, but it is fine right now. They were hard workers.

Trinity and Essential did an outstanding job!

very happy with results

Last fall, we called them to do the drainage work. Their drainage specialist showed up on time and spent a fair amount of time with us to make sure he fully understood the problem. He discussed a number of fixes, that in combination, he thought would solve our problem while maintaining the aesthetics of our yard. Several days later, he provided a detailed quote that represented exactly what we had talked about. The quote was less than 1/2 the cost of a quote we had gotten from another company, and the solution more creative. We quickly accepted. A couple weeks later, they performed the work to our complete satisfaction. We were completely satisfied with that experience and called them a second time to deliver and plant a number of spruce trees to re-establish some privacy that we'd lost when we cleared a large amount of honeysuckle from the back of our lot. Their landscaping specialist showed up at our appointed time (and was kind enough to wait when I arrived a bit late). Again, he took plenty of time to understand our needs, and then offered a reasonable solution. A couple weeks later, when the trees were ready to be delivered, he returned to help us mark out exact planned location of each tree. The trees were delivered and planted the next day with no problems at all.