NATURESCAPES AND WATERGARDENS

Eric came by, replaced a sprinkler head and put a new battery in my sprinkler timer. He said he did not know how to program it and suggested that I should look online. I then looked online and figured out how to program it. I had several heads that weren't spraying anything but the street and my car. Heads needed to be replaced with different types of heads or be replaced in order to only spray on my lawn. Also, I had an issue with the sprinkler not turning off - even when removing the battery. I had to have a neighbor use a wrench to shut off the water supply. I called Eric back and told him that I'm basically watering the street and there is still something wrong with the electrical. He came out a few days later when I was not there and then called me later and said that the same thing happened to him and that I needed to get a new timer. I came home and saw he had snipped the electricity to the timer. Honestly I never called him back because I was surprised that he cut my wire without letting me know and it seemed like he didn't know what he was doing. They sent an invoice for $93 which I set aside due to the fact that I hired them to fix my sprinklers and they were 100% unusable. 3 month later they sent another invoice. I was surprised as I had assumed at this point we had basically silently agreed that this was just over. I called Tom the owner to talk to him about he and he accused me of being a deadbeat if I didn't pay the bill, denying that Eric had cut the electrical. I told him that if they wanted to come fix the sprinklers I would pay what I owe. 2 months later I still haven't heard anything and I still can't use my sprinklers.

They redesigned the water fall and the result is so pleasing that my husband changed his mind and now he like the water feature.

The work was done professionally and on time and the workers were polite and responsive, but the owner, Tom Ash, was more difficult to deal with. He seemed to be a somewhat burned out, angry, type A personality, and not easy to talk to. The plan he drew up for me did not appear to be what we had discussed, namely a pond with one small, low key falls at one end. I even showed him a photo from his archive of what we wanted. We ended up with two large, loud falls. It's as though he was going to do what HE wanted to do, regardless of what I had in mind. We compromised by installing a smaller pump that gave the falls a more gentle sound and I'm okay with it now. We had numerous problems after installation with the works getting clogged up, but once we learned how to prevent FROGS from getting into the pump, and learned how to balance the flows using the underground valves, we have had few problems. Overall I am pleased with the result, but would hesitate to work with Tom again.

Excellent. See above.

excellent

Excellent

We cannot say enough positive things about Tom and his company. They are at once professional, courteous and have done excellent work for us.We first heard of NatureScapes and WaterGardens at the annual Home and Garden Show at Expo. We liked what we saw - from their display, to the architectural drawings and photographs, so we asked for a landscaping estimate for our rear yard. Upon arrival, Tom walked the property, and listened to what my wife and I thought were good landscaping ideas. After listening to a professional, we realized our plan was not a good idea, and would have cost more money. Tom returned with a detailed drawing, showing everything that would be done. Tom was gracious by reminding me a few times we could do all, or some of the work, to help keep cost at a minimum. We reviewed the plan, made a few changes, and signed on the dotted line.The work they did was far more extensive than I would have imagined, but they did an absolutely beautiful job. The irrigation system is excellent, the overall plan made for a low-maintenance yard, and there were no 'hidden' charges. My wife and I were so pleased with the work done in the rear yard, we hired NatureScapes and WaterGardens to completely re-lanscape our front yard as well. The work completely transformed the appearance of the house, and in a very positive way. We've had neighbors, and even strangers, stop to look at the landscaping. Without hesitation, we would recommend Tom and his company for any landscaping needs.

They do a great job eacah time they come out of checking my system, fixing broken sprinkler heads and adjusting the sprinklers for maximum coverage. They are always prompt when I call and have very nice employees.

The plan that Tom Asch submitted is very detailed and gave us a very good idea of what was planned. The plan that was submitted covered alot more area than we had discussed, therfore the price was alot higher than other bids. I discussed this with Tom and he adjusted his plan more in line with what we had initially discussed but he did not seem very happy about it. Since this was my first time dealing with contractors I let it go. After comparing the two plans, we could not let go of the first larger plan and went with it. Tom estimated the work to take about 10 days (actual, 3 weeks). The first week and a half did not go well at all. The first two days only two guys showed. The 3rd day only one. The 4th day they hauled in crushed rock and load of boulders, no work. Then a holiday weekend. The next week we had more manpower issues. I called Tom and voiced my concerns of the progress. Again I felt Tom was a little abrut with the reason for the slow progress but said he would take care of it. At that point things picked up pace and I was very happy with the quality of the work being done. The rock walkway came out excellent and so far all the plants are doing well. We are very happy with the end product. After the project was completed I was approached by my neighbor. Evidently one of the boulders got away during the project rolling down the hill and hitting my neighbors tree. It knocked a 15" x 6" chunk of bark off the tree. I am not very happy that I had to get this information from my neighbor.

I cannot begin to describe how unhappy and unsatisfied I am with the services from this company. When we solicited bids, other companies warned me about Naturescapes and Watergardens...Of the 50-60 reviews I've submitted, this experience ranks as the all-time WORST. In summary, I STRONGLY RECOMMEND AGAINST USING THIS COMPANY. 0. They spilled DIESEL all over my property !! 1. The vine maple never flowered, then was replaced with a total piece of junk. Completely unacceptable. I told the guy who replaced the tree that I wasn't happy with this. 2. Most of the 12 incense cedars died -- the roots on these tress were tiny and they were left sitting on the ground near our home for weeks prior to installation. They replaced some of the trees with much smaller tress which didn't meet the 10' to 12' specification, which is very questionable. They came by and cut away all the dead portions of the trees...so now they have holes in them. Some of the trees are missing half of the volume as a result of this. Very unprofessional, very poor quality job -- I am very very unhappy with my incense cedar trees. 3. I went out and selected the 3 clump birch trees and when they arrived, they did not deliver the ones I had selected...Are you kidding me? I then wasted another trip to select another set of trees (among a very mediocre selection which was clumps of 4 vs. 3 (3 is considered better) *AND* not even the 2" caliper as specified by the specifications (and paid for)). Thankfully, they haven't died yet, but one of them has a problem with the bark and none of them are great. 4. Many of the smaller plants are in bad shape - my landscape service informed me today that the spring bouquet's are in terrible shape, yet he was confused why 2 of them looked great...I told him I suppled those two from a good nursery and the rest were supplied by Naturescapes and Watergardens....you can look at the plants and see the difference. Very low quality product coming from this company. 5 .Their trenching tool leaked DIESEL all over my property and was half the size of a car. It never did accomplishment much work as it broke down 3 (yes, 3) separate times. Each time, Eric had to come to the property to try to fix it. The digging and trenching work would have been much more efficient and cost effective (remember, time and materials) with a working trencher. Further, I am very unhappy that they leaked DIESEL on my property multiple times. If I didn't go down there to talk to Eric about the mess, I'm not sure he would have cleaned it up. 6. I had to discuss with them the proper depths for water lines with respect to frost -- they only wanted to trench 10" deep, but most professionals (and the universal plumbing code) requires 18" for mainlines and lines under constant pressure. 7. Talking about Eric - he was the project lead and was rarely seen on the job. I had to spend most of my time on the job making sure people were doing what they should be doing...I thought I had hired and PAID FOR Eric to be here. I had to take substantial time off work to monitor the job and my hourly rate is very very high. 8. At one point during this fiasco of a job (which lasted MONTHS), their foreman (Geraldo) walked off the job because he had a dispute with his boss (Rex) -- Rex was observed not working by me and others and the workers were frustrated with this behavior. Geraldo is the best worker and speaks good English and seemed to be the only one skilled at working the backhoe -- at least the only one that showed up on my jobs. At one point, the backhoe was idle while they manually moved items they should have used the backhoe for, since Geraldo wasn't present. 9. They made numerous trips to the store to buy supplies - I would have expected a company to have the supplies for the job. These trips cost money (Tand M). I would never trust a time and materials job from this company and I would recommend checking the calculations -- my security cameras identified numerous errors with the time accounting. 10. They showed up with the wrong materials a couple of times...In one instance, they showed up with perf. pipe while trying to extend a city drain pipe, which has very specific specifications and requirements! 11. They did unnecessary work - dug trenches in places I instructed them not to dig (too close to the property line, which conflicted with the fence footings I told them about). 12. The layout of the irrigation system was not well thought out -- they didn't complete any of the calculations that most professional companies would complete...accounting for water meters, slope, friction of the lines, size of the lines, length of the lines, type of pipe, # of heads and type, layout optimizations, etc. The layout they proposed was far from optimal - at one point, I measured head distanced of 13', 11', and 16' on one zone with the same heads -- this doesn't provide for even precipitation rates and is a very bad design...tape measures were not used -- Eric was walking the distances. Eric was using square, rather than triangle, head configurations on 2 of 3 zones. Two of the three zones they laid out were also broken in terms of required GPM -- I suspect they neglected to account for the GPM reduction due to elevation change. Finally, the landscape design included a patio area that wasn't to be irrigated, but Eric had not seen that and planned a zone to irrigate an area I planned to place a patio. I had to teach myself the proper methods and reposition all the zones MYSELF. What a mess. Do not hire this company unless you plan to take off work and double and triple check everything they say they will do. 13. They showed up with a bucket of used fittings at one point for my irrigation job -- I instructed them to use new ones... 14. When I reviewed the Tand M, i found items I was charged for that were not accurate...including wire, which I wired up....inaccurate "funny pipe" lengths, etc... 15. They told me the irrigation would be $600-$800 and charged me $4500. We planned to add four zones and amend one zone, but ended up adding 5 zones and amending one zone. Of course, Tom claims the scope was expanded and I showed him how it expanded 16-20%, but was being charged 900% more. I felt ripped off by this company as a result of this, even at $3600, which is what I paid him. I paid 600% more than expected for 16-20% more scope. Had I known he would over-charge me like this, I would have gone with All Oregon -- a company I suspect is much more professional. 16. SAM heads were not installed on slopes, as is typical is all professional irrigation installations. Are you kidding me? Made them re-do. Also, some of the head bodies were not correct for the locations where there were tall plants planned...had to have them re-do with 12" bodies in some area where they placed 6" bodies. 17. Travel time was often charged to/from the company and to/from various distributors for materials. At one point, Rex went to to get parts and came back with 1 SAM head -- 1! I would think they would buy 5-10 just in case...Geraldo was very upset by this. 18. It appeared to me that lunches were often charged at a half hour, but often 1 hour was taken. Again, the security cams helped to identify these anomalies. 19. They charged us for Tand M on days when we had fixed priced work happening. In the end, I proposed a bunch of credits they could apply for this job: 1. credit for making the homeowner manage the job because of incompetence on part of the manager and foreman 2. credit for making the homeowner choose birch trees twice. 3. credit for nozzle installation, wiring, irrigation controller, testing, etc. (which was done by the homeowner) 4. credit for broken equipment (trencher) and excessive manual digging. 5. credit for the environmental damage from the Diesel spill on my property. 6. credit for no foreman on the job 7. credit for no manager on the job 8. credit for lack of backhoe usage because foreman wasn't on the job 9. credit for driving - at any given time, at least 1/4th of the guys were driving somewhere to get something that was missing or incorrect...often returning with nothing 10. credit for all the hours that were charged to me when no one was working (7am driving, are you kidding me?)... In the end, they gave some some small credits, but overall, we were still heavily ripped off. We still have terrible looking Incense Cedars -- may of which do not meet spec, we still have a vine maple that is laughable, we still have plants that are ready to die, etc, etc, etc... I am so very happy we split our job into parts, so we did not have to use this company for the rest of the work. In summary, avoid this company like the plague.

He walked through the backyard to see what exactly I wanted and took all the necessary information about the work. After sometime he came back with an idea and the estimate. He started and finished the work within the same time that he said. I am really very happy with the result and I am still enjoying the gorgeous work that he did for me.

In the past, we have used Naturescapes for several years. Last year we were charged $300. This year, for the same project, they wanted $900. They didn't give us an estimate or tell us about the big increase in price.

I found working with Tom unpleasant and very unsatisfying. Tom spent very little time with me to explore what I was looking for. We did not look at any examples of designs or plants. What I requested was a first phase design, as our home footprint would change in the future. Tom insisted that what I needed was a master plan. He was unyielding toward my request. When Tom returned with the preliminary design, Tom made no effort to personalize the design based on my feedback. He seemed to be on a time line, and had little interest in collaborative discussion. When I would make a different suggestion, I felt Tom was defensive. In retrospect, Tom's lack of flexibility and personal interest should have clued me in not to hire him for my project.

Tom was great through the entire process - he returned phone calls was on time for appointments. Designed the landscape plan and was very flexible in working with me on the process. His team was on the job every day until the project was completed, they were polite and respectful. All of the subcontractors that were used were of the highest quality and there when they were supposed to be. I am extremely happy with the job that was done and the follow up and responsiveness of Tom the owner of the company and Eric the job supervisor. This is a great company that I will use again and one that I have referred to my friends.

Tom was great through the entire process - he returned phone calls was on time for appointments. Designed the landscape plan and was very flexible in working with me on the process. His team was on the job every day until the project was completed, they were polite and respectful. All of the subcontractors that were used were of the highest quality and there when they were supposed to be. I am extremely happy with the job that was done and the follow up and responsiveness of Tom the owner of the company and Eric the job supervisor. This is a great company that I will use again and one that I have referred to my friends.

During the permit process, multiple county agents spontaneously commented that the prices were very high. Very little work has yet been done, but one day unsupervised laborers tore down the current deck. Six months later we are waiting for additional deck work to be done. I complained that the old deck should not be taken down until we were ready to begin the new deck. I give them very low marks on organization, and interacting with clients. My experience seems like one signs a contract and they disappear until it suits their schedule to begin the work. The project never really got off the ground, so I cannot comment on actual work performed.

NATURESCAPE DID A GREAT JOB. THEY UNDERSTOOD WHAT KIND OF WALL WE WANTED AND THAT IS WHAT WE GOT. THE WORK WAS DONE WITHIN THE TIME THEY SAID. THE PRICE WAS WITHIN RANGE OF OTHER ESTIMATES.