Custom Gardens LLC

very well, reliable, polite workers and hard workers

We have hired Custom Gardens twice, at two different houses, and we have been thoroughly satisfied each time. At our previous house, we desperately needed help with curb appeal. Ellen designed gorgeous landscaping with beautifully colored plantings that required very little maintenance. Our front yard looked stunning and definitely helped sell our house! We asked Ellen back to help us at our new house. The yard was overgrown and in need of expert care. We don’t know what kind of landscaping changes we want yet, so we asked Custom Gardens to work with what we currently have. It looks so much better! Our yard looks well-maintained and healthy. We will definitely hire Custom Gardens again in the future. Ellen really listens to find out what is important to us, and we know we can rely on her expertise to make our home’s exterior beautiful.

The yard looks great. We could not be more pleased.

The results are stunning! For years we battled a poor quality lawn due to several immense trees in our yard. Tired of the battle but not wanting to just go with ground coverage like ivy, Ellen helped us envision something unique that enhances our property and its value.

“Ellen asked about colors and fragrances that I like or dislike. I likes purples, reds, and yellows. She sent me several suggestions for plants and combinations, and explained that the shrubs have root systems that work well on a slope. I chose Aucuba, Gold Dust which is evergreen and has yellow sprinkled on the foliage, and Callicarpa which has white flowers in the spring and purple berries in the fall. They go beautifully with shrubs already in the bed, which Ellen identified as Itea, Little Henry. “The crew worked quickly and effectively and were very professional.

Turned out beautifully -- looks like a fairy garden!

We love Ellen and her awesome team-- we couldn't be happier!

To all considering hiring Ellen Covner of Custom Gardens, LLC, please be aware of her unethical and unprofessional business practices. Ms. Covner performed work in excess of what we agreed to in our email communications, and then threatened to sue me if I did not pay for this excess work. I first contracted landscaping design and installation services with Ms. Covner in the spring of 2015. I was pleased with her work and impressed with her hard working crew. Part of the design included 16 Rozanne Geraniums. Of those 16, only 6 were still alive the next spring. Not to worry, she has a one-year plant guarantee. Since she was going to be on the property to replace the geraniums, I asked if she could also prune various plants on my property. I provided a prioritized list of plants to be pruned with the statement that she was only to do as much as could be accomplished in four man-hours. Her rate per worker is $50 an hour so I was expecting a bill of $200. When the bill arrived via email, it was for $445! I questioned this number as our contract was only for 4 man hours of work. Ms. Covner, previously a practicing lawyer, claimed that 4 man hours was a limitation on the number of hours her crew could be on the property regardless of how many workers there were. What? I sent Ms. Covner the Merriam Webster definition of a man hour. Next she claimed that if I knew her understanding was incorrect, I should have said something. I am not a mind reader. I was relying on what we agreed to in our emails. If she thought the terms of our contract had changed, it was incumbent on her to say so and ask for agreement before proceeding with work significantly in excess of 4 man-hours. I sent Ms. Covner a check for $200 to cover the agreed upon work. She replied with an email saying that if she did not receive additional funds from me within 5 calendar days, she would take me to small claims court. She did reduce the amount of the bill by $45 meaning I only had to pay double that for which I had contracted. I would gladly have faced her in court, but am in the process of moving to Texas. The cost of flying back to the Philadelphia area is far greater than winning a $445 lawsuit. As such, my only realistic alternative was to send an additional check. From the time I first questioned the bill, Ms. Covner not once reached out to me by phone or in person to discuss this issue and try to reach a compromise. Instead she repeatedly claimed in her emails that she did what “she understood” I wanted, and that I could be considered “deceitful” by not correcting her misunderstanding. She performed work beyond the contract and then threatened to sue me if I did not pay. All over two hundred dollars. Ms. Covner’s handling of this situation was both unprofessional and unethical. I cannot recommend Custom Gardens, LLC owned and operated by Ms. Ellen Covner.

My garden continues to grow and settle in each year - I love it! Ellen monitors the progress of the plantings and makes suggestions if a plant is not doing well. The stone border and rain garden have been very effective in managing the water run-off and are beautiful and pleasing to look at too! I look forward to working with Custom Gardens, LLC for many years to come and give them the highest recommendation.

Great! Ellen and her team continue to monitor health and progress of the plants in my garden and make suggestions as necessary. They are respectful of my property and do a wonderful job! I look forward to continuing to work with Custom Gardens for many years to come!

This is the third time I have retained Ellen Covner and Custom Gardens, LLC. I will continue to use her for landscaping services in the future. She combines a vast knowledge of plants, shrubs, flowers, and trees with a keen eye and good taste. She also has worked with me to stay within my budget while providing the highest possible value. Her work crew are hard working, courteous, and knowledgeable, and they take pains to clean up at the end of each day. I am very happy to give Custom Gardens LLC my strongest endorsement.

Great! Ellen gives great advice and her team carries out her ideas and plans very well. They are considerate and careful of my property and continue to do a wonderful job. I look forward to working with Ellen and Custom Gardens for a long time to come.

This is the third time I have retained Ellen Covner and Custom Gardens, LLC. I will continue to use her for landscaping services in the future. She combines a vast knowledge of plants, shrubs, flowers, and trees with a keen eye and good taste. She also has worked with me to stay within my budget while providing the highest possible value. Her work crew are hard working, courteous, and knowledgeable, and they take pains to clean up at the end of each day. I am very happy to give Custom Gardens LLC my strongest endorsement.

Ellen and her team provided the above services as planned. The work was performed punctually and the finished result was exactly what we wanted. Ellen also provided advice and guidance for maintenance and plant care. She is a knowledgeable professional who provides high quality, dependable service.

At first the proprietor was responsive. Having used her last year to work on our landscaping, we decided to use her again even after her last year project was over $2,000.00 OVER her budget. Which we paid to her! We try to use sole proprietors whenever we can. This year we asked for a plan in January. We finally received it in March. When we originally moved into our home, we had another landscaper do our plantings. She prepared a professional plan on graph paper stating exactly where all the plants were going to be along with proper names and common names. Extremely, professionally prepared. She has since retired or we would have continued to use her. This year the proprietor prepared a plan that was so poorly prepared I cannot imagine she thought it was professionally executed. We paid $500 for the plan with the promise that the money would be applied to our project. We had our proprietor bid on the project she prepared and felt it was extremely high for what she was going to do. So, we bid the project to someone else and decided to go with the second landscaper because his price was lower and contained more soil and preparation. This decision did not sit well with the proprietor. She stated she already purchased the plants - which no one expected her to do or asked her to do. We decided since she bought the plants, we would have her just install them after everything was prepared by the hired landscaper. Which we didn't need to do! From the minute she arrived to our home she was curt and plainly unpleasant to work with. She was looking for any problem she could find from the landscaper who prepared our property. I fairly admit one item she stated was correct. The soil in certain areas was not tilled or enriched enough to accept the plants. She pointed this out in not a very nice way and I decided to just have her leave the plants (which we did not need to do) and have the second landscaper plant them. She firmly stated that she will not guarantee the plants since she did not plant them. If I could have had her come back to install the plants, it would have meant her telling me how her workers were there and the soil isn't right and she needed to reschedule them. I was afraid of the costs of this so I nicely said to just leave them. Meanwhile, she did install 5 other ordered plants in another area that same day. We received an invoice of over $2200.00 for the 5 plants she planted and the original plants she purchased which she will not guarantee! She will not apply the $500 deposit we gave her because she says she didn't do the installation. Baloney! Would I ever use this proprietor again, NO. Am I happy, NO.

We live in China right now, so having upgrades to our landscaping has a degree of difficulty beyond the ordinary. We needed a landscaper who could work with bad soil and only partial plantings, some of which needed corrective pruning or other care. Our goal was to finish the landscape with plants that would blend well with those on site, and be low maintenance. Ellen didn?t flinch at the prospect of helping us. She is such an effective and thorough communicator that we knew our options, the costs, prices, everything we needed to know to make our decisions. She delivered as promised and is a very efficient and dependable landscaper. From the pictures she has sent us, her work looks quite beautiful and achieved our goals. She also helped us find a good arborist and irrigation supplier, so we could easily work with the team and not need to pay a general contractor. Her prices are fair; her work is outstanding. If you are looking for a landscape company that is easy to work with and dependable, I highly recommend Custom Gardens, LLC.

This plot of land was in an area with many trees and the complication of deer. It was a large bare area, having only been mulched. We had very little knowledge of shade plants. She collaborated well with my husband and I - on a couple occasions before we finalized the plan. The crew came when scheduled. They were professional and pleasant. Work was completed in a timely manner. We are pleased with the result and plan to have Customer Gardens do another bed for us in the spring.

I first met with Ellen of Custom Gardens in the Fall of 2014 to begin work on a landscape design for my pool. She asked me about colors, textures, size, desired maintenance involvement, viewing angles and of course budget. She was very thorough. It was obvious that her goal was to create something not just to meet my basic gardening needs, but something that would bring joy when I looked at it. She was successful on both fronts. On the day of installation in the Spring of 2015, Ellen and her crew were a well oiled machine. They worked efficiently and quickly. Since the installation, Ellen has checked in with me and always been quick to answer any of my questions. Ellen takes pride in her work and it shows! I highly recommend. Just as a side note, I am posting my review several months after the work was completed on purpose. I don't believe a fair assessment can be given until time has passed as almost any landscaping you have done looks good on the day it is completed.

We met with Ellen to discuss the look we wanted for new landscaping in the front of our home. She put together a well thought out design that we reviewed in a second meeting. She had great ideas on how to use the existing plants, trimming and relocating some to fit the overall design. We did alter it slightly as the project progressed to achieve the best look. She is very easy to communicate with, great with e-mail and keeping us up to date on the time line of the project. Her team arrived at 6am to start the work, and that was a mutual decision...it's hot as the day wears on and it helps to start as early in the day as possible. The team was easy to talk to and knowledgeable about planting and care of new plants. Ellen was on-site for some time each day to review the plans and check on progress. Plant selection was great, colors on blooming plants were as expected. We are very happy with the results and will use them again!

Ellen is courteous, punctual and well-knowledged professional who takes pride in her work and in satisfying her customers. She provided reasonable estimates and worked with us proactively to alter the scope of work to fit within our budget. She followed up on all the project details, making several personal visits to ensure the planning and actual work was done to our satisfaction. She visited the site several times to follow up on the work as it progressed. Her crew was efficient, courteous, and conscientious. We would recommend her highly and plan on using her services in the future.

Met 3-4 times to plan the project with Ellen, my wife and I. Got final quote for the landscaping we decided on. Two weeks later workers came, completed the project on time and cleaned up everything each day. Wife and I very happy with the results and are planning new project next spring to be done with Custom Gardens.

I am not happy with the landscaping. Custom Gardens LLC insists that they arrived promptly at 6:30 am as scheduled however we were never scheduled for 6:30 am. We were actually scheduled for 7:00 am. I told her that I wanted color put into the garden and she continued to plant green plants and I wanted color in my garden. I also wanted plants dug up and she insisted that they just be cut back. I had called because I was unhappy about how these planters were hung on the garage wall. Once they started growing the short plants were in the back with taller plants in the front covering them from view. I told her I was unhappy with that and I'm still unhappy with that. She had ordered rocks that were going to be placed around the house and around my mailbox but the ones that were meant to surround my mailbox were never placed there although she said that she had over ordered and that was not my request. She was very helpful with the plants. Of the $3,000 budget, $2,000 had went to the labor. All she did was plant things I already had that were not colorful. This was a waste of my money and I don't want anybody else to waste their hard earned money.

Our yard slopes in two directions, and had been badly damaged by erosion caused by water run-off. We solicited bids from three contractors. One found the challenge too great, and refused to bid. Another came in with a detailed plan, but was not sensitive to our budget and therefore proposed an approach that was more than six times larger than our stated goal. Ellen Covner of Custom Gardens recommended a water management solution provided by another company, and then spent several hours working on a landscaping plan, consulting with us frequently and modifying the plan to accommodate both our budget and the outcome of the water treatment. When the plan was finalized, she engaged the necessary subcontractors and oversaw the selection of materials to ensure the highest quality. Once work commenced, the work crew members were prompt, courteous, knowledgeable, and very hard-working. Over the course of two days, Ellen and her team transformed our yard, and gave us additional recommendations for work that we could undertake on our own. We are delighted with the results, as are our neighbors. As Ellen herself told us at the outset, she is neither the most expensive nor the least expensive landscaper in the area. But price is not the only factor in evaluating a job; quality is equally important. In our view, Ellen provides the best value, and we would strongly advise anyone with landscaping requirements to hire her.

It went very well, 4 men were at my home from 6:00am to about 3:00pm. They worked very quietly so not to wake anyone up because of the time. My property was over run by weeds and they removed them all plus trim my evergreens. They are very knowledged on the different types of plants that I have and how to take care of them.

Ellen incorporated our preferences into her overall design plan for the project. She spent additional time researching prospective plantings to accommodate an allergy to strong fragrances. All selections were reviewed with us before the plan was finalized and implemented. Ellen transformed our property, she and her staff were courteous professional in their work.