Keystone Landscaping & Design LLC

They did a great job and were great at communicating and understanding our needs. They took the extra time to make the yard look good and do it right the first time. I realize everyone is looking for the cheapest deal in town because hey its just grass right? But it does make a difference and you get what you pay for with keystone. You wont go wrong with this company.

Excellent service including pictures as well as prompt communication upon completion of work.

Too many businesses in South Carolina work hard enough to get by and won't travel a few extra miles for greater profits. Such is the case with Keystone. Add a travel fee and serve those who wish to be your customers. Half of those who do show up are incompetent in their profession, requiring someone else to come out and do the job right. I don't know if Keystone does a good job, but they refused to mow my yard.

This is a hard review to write. Joan and John are very nice and helpful people. Overall, the yard looks really good. My problems and my grade arise out of some shortcuts and problems I have discovered in the week since the work was done. I think it will help if I write these out as pros and cons. Pros: -As I wrote, Joan and John are very nice people. Joan had some great ideas and helped direct me towards getting a good looking landscape overall, since I don't have a lot of experience in landscaping or landscaping design. She found out what my end goal was and made decisions with that in mind. - They were punctual. They set a date a week after I hired them and showed up earlier than I expected and worked hard to get the project done in one day. -Joan seemed very knowledgeable about landscaping and informed me well on how to take care of my new yard and trees/bushes. - Joan was open to any questions I had, and was quickly responsive to any emails I sent leading up to the day of the job. Cons: - I think the ground underneath where the sod was laid(a hard clay soil) was raked, but no topsoil was put down underneath the sod or on the hard edges where the sod ends. Now, I'm not sure if this is necessary, but everything I've read and everyone I've talked to said it should be done to ensure the best possible results for nutrients and establishing sod roots. -Two days after the project was done, a rainstorm rolled through, and the mulch moved around revealing areas underneath the mulch in the beds where grass and weeds hadn't been removed and a piece of plastic garbage. - A gardenia they transplanted started dying two days after project was done. I did water it and everything else as told. - They planted three legustrum trees in the back yard near the property line. The first two trees are in line with one another. The third tree on one end is planted about 1-2 feet in front of the line the other two are planted on. There is plenty of room on the same property line that they could have planted the third tree on the same line as the other two. -They transplanted two bushes to my corner property line, but dug into my neighbors property. they then put down pieces of sod around these plants, but left a square piece of now bare ground in my neighbors property without sod. I don't think they had enough sod. - The new bushes they planted and the ones they transplanted seem pretty loose in the ground. This may be normal though? -I was at work when Joan walked my property, and we discussed what I wanted over the phone. I neglected in this conversation to talk about some old landscape fabric that was put down by the previous owner in the bed along the back wall of my house. This old bed had long since been grown over by grass. This centipede grass had grown over the old bed and landscape fabric by creeping, and wasn't rooted into the ground. I communicated with Joan before the job started but after I received her estimate the possibility of removing this old fabric and sod put in its place, as they were already transplanting bushes from that old bed, and she said she might depending on how deep it was. The day of the job, I talked to Joan about this fabric and how I thought it would be best to remove it and resod. We discussed this as I was showing her the fabric in one spot as an example, but I mentioned how the fabric was in all of the old bed. They only removed part of the fabric. When I realized this the next day, I texted Joan about how she missed about 15 sq feet of it, and her response was that she removed the fabric "where we discussed it", as if that little segment of fabric was the only fabric I wanted removed. Maybe this was a misunderstanding, but I did mention that the fabric had been put down all along the old overgrown bed. The day of the job, she didn't give me the impression that it mattered if it was there or not, as the grass that had creeped over it seemed fine, but that grass is not well rooted in the ground in my opinion, and can be pulled up almost like carpet pretty easily. With all of this said, it is hard to give a C grade. I think the yard looks 100 percent better than it did, and they were very nice and worked hard in 92 degree heat. I would happily give them an A grade, but for the price I paid (and that was with an Angies list discount) I can't after discovering what I feel are a lot of small shortcuts over the course of a week that I wouldn't expect when hiring professional landscapers. I wish them all the best, but I probably wouldn't use them again or recommend them to a friend, especially since after notifying Joan that some landscape fabric was missed, I was in essence dismissed.

My yard was a mess after having a tree and all its invasive roots removed. I knew what I wanted done but not exactly how I wanted it done. Joan had good suggestions and she listens carefully and tries hard to please the client. They did a great job and I am pleased.

WOW! I placed a call to Keystone this morning and they were able to get to my home and give me a quote all this morning. After a phone conversation, they were able to perform the work immediately! They have made me a very happy woman!! Work looks great! I was a bit frustrated because I had contacted two other vendors. I am still waiting on calls and proposals. Oh well I guess the early bird really does catch the worm.

It went very well. The problem is lack of sun on that part of my yard.

John and Joan arrived as scheduled and proceeded to collect information re: the landscaping. They took measurements and asked questions related to the project. A week or so later we received an estimate via email. The description of the work involved was very brief ( 1 small paragraph). We attempted to contact them two times with important questions. One of the items we requested was a sketch of how the finished project would look. There simply was not enough information provided to accept the estimate. Several weeks went by with no response from them. We contacted another landscaper and was provided with a nice sketched layout of the area and an estimate that was much less than the one Keystone provided. They also offered several suggestions and options. We have always had confidence in companies with good Angies List ratings, but wonder how companies with this type of customer service can maintain a good rating.

We had agreed on between 7:30 and 8:00 am. They did arrive around 8:30 and 8:45 am. Slightly later than time scheduled nut it is morning rush hour so I didn't really mind. Joan was very knowledgeable regarding landscaping. She informed me that my shrubs and flowers were still growing and blooming and it would be best to wait till later to trim. I arrived home to find the yard cut in front and back with leaves removed. My yard looked so much better. I do expect to see them again in February to trim my bushes and roses and apply mulch. Joan responded very quickly to my message on Angie's list. I was satisfied with the job they had done. I will recommend them to all my friends and neighbors. Thanks again.

John and Joan are great. Punctual, easy to contact and they do a great job. I have used them for a general yard cleanup when I purchased the house in January and for the entire 2015 season. In the fall i had them plant some new shrubs in the front , mulch, and cut down 5 stands of bamboo.They are also very helpful and will go the extra mile to help. When the recent heavy rains and flooding hit the low country I was stuck in New York. They drove by to check my house fore me and even sent me pictures to assure me that everything was OK.. They are very knowledgeable provide excellent advice about what to plant and what works and doesn't work.. I can definitely recommend them

They did a wonderful job. They are highly professional, a well organized business. They are very reliable and truly know their business

My yard was...well, UGLY. It has been for a long time. I finally decided to do something about it. First I had 2 rather large pine trees removed. They were preventing the grass from getting any sun, and were soaking up most of the moisture in the soil. Removing the trees resulted in a really unsightly mess. The folks at Keystone cleaned it all up, raked the whole area and smoothed out the soil. Then they laid new sod. They arrived and went right to work...three of them for a rather labor intensive job. It went very well and they were fast and efficient. After they finished I was given care instructions. I thought it was a bit expensive but I do like the way it looks now (and my neighbors probably do too!). In the end I am glad I hired Keystone to do the work and I will have them back when I need any kind of landscaping/yard work.

I live in Summerville, SC for 6 moths and 6 months in NY. Keystone Landscaping provides me with year long lawn service. In the 6 months that I am in NY, they not only perform lawn service for me but they also alert me (via phone call) if they observe anything unusual on my property or house. They have called me to tell that siding was loose on my house and also advised me of other potential problems. Their concern for the welfare of my house and property gives me peace of mind that I am very grateful for. I don't believe there are many landscaping companies would go above and beyond like Keystone Landscaping. I consider myself fortunate to have found Keystone Landscaping on Angie's list. Angie's List designated Keystone Landscaping for a Super Service Award for 5 straight years in a row. Keystone lives up to that award by providing excellent service.

Always do a nice job and willing to do anything else they are asked to do ....a pleasant and professional family business .

They were "too busy" to do the fertilization so they farmed it out to another company who was charging us $70 a pop...which is pretty high in our estimation. They only cut the grass a couple of times and did an OK job. We had them also replace our pine straw with mulch. That too was an OK job. They did it while it was pouring rain. We thought they were a little skimpy with the mulch. This is a new house with contractor grass that is struggling. We requested that they cut the grass once a month rather than the normal bi-weekly cut because we wanted to give it a chance to grow. They were unwilling to do that. Apparently they don't want your business if you don't fit the cookie cutter mold and are unable to be flexible. If you are on the bi-weekly schedule you MUST stay on the schedule. We apparently were too much trouble for them as they told us they "wouldn't mind" if we found someone else. So we parted ways and we contracted with another party. My overall impression was that they were way understaffed and somewhat disorganized.

During the initial period, the yards were cut per schedule and all was going well. Then around May/June the service began to decline and was only provided after 3 weeks and I had to make a call to remind them to cut the yards. It is now July and Keystone has failed to perform any maintenance on the yards for a month now. I made two calls and left messages earlier in the week during business hours that went straight to voice mail. Neither of my calls were returned. I waited two more days and called Keystone again leaving another message. I politely informed that I was giving them an opportunity to make this right before I discontinued the lawn service and intention to comment about my unsatisfactory experience on Angie's List. Again, my calls were not returned and my yards were not cut. Clearly, their reliability is absolutely unsatisfactory. I'm sure others are quite pleased with their service and I can only speak about my own experience with them. I would not ever use them again or refer them to anyone I know. I hope others will not experience this unreliable lawn service.

I called Keystone and talked to Joan. I was putting a house up for sale after it had been rented for a couple of years. I needed the lawn to be cut, edged and trimmed. I also needed some holes that a dog had dug in the back yard filled along with some ruts filled in near the drive way. Joan said that she thought she could do this and sent someone out to look at the property to give me an estimate. She called me that night and said that the person who went out to look at the yard said it was a mess, there was glass all over the yard and she would not be able to take care of this lawn. I was not aware of any glass, so I went over there the very next day and looked over the entire area. There was no glass anywhere. The grass was overgrown, but that was all. So I called her back and told her what I saw. I also told her that my husband was coming over to mow the lawn and asked her if she would be interested in coming back and just keeping the yard up, once it had been trimmed and edged. she said that she would have to talk with the person who went out there and look at any pictures he might have of the house and yard and would call me back. I never heard back from her.

Provider showed up later than expected. She told me she would email me an estimate in the morning which she did. The estimate was vague in regards to the additional work that would be needed occasionally (shrub trimming). I emailed back asking for the cost on that. When I decided that I would give them a try, she emailed me back a lengthy blah blah blah about trust and communication crap.

My wife and I decided we couldn't afford this at the time so we wanted three separate estimates. One each for the front, back and side yards. After they got back to us with the first Estimate, we never heard from them again. I questioned their pricing practices. 1) Last year I bought 100 backs of mulch at approx. $3.00 a bag, so mulch would be $300. 2) A small trencher for edging the flower beds costs $95. for 1/2 day at Ace hardware. 3) I found out from another landscaper, the front yard couldn't be repaired (after they stated they could do it). The reason being, I have a river birch with roots coming up through the grass. The landscaper basically said to me it's either a nice tree or nice lawn. He also explained to me a river birch eats up most of the nutrients when installing a lawn. Keystone never mentioned this to me. So after adding up the $300. for the mulch and $95. for 1/2 day rental for trencher, (which equals $395.), the actual labor charges were awful high. Plus as I stated above, I was never told the lawn could not be repaired after being told by Keystone in our face - face meeting they could fix it.. So if I did have the job done, what would I have been paying for? As a note, they did send me a pdf file with the estimate (the first time), but nothing was actually broken down into detail. When I requested a second estimate and stated I wanted more detail, I never received that second estimate (for the front, back, and side yards)..

We contacted this company as our yard is essentially a clean slate, with too many trees. We are new to the area and are not familiar with they types of grass, shrubs, trees, plants, etc. After talking with John, he was very honest and said that we should take down the trees first because anything we do with the landscape would be wasted as the trees would destroy it (no sun). He recommended a tree service - we were hesitant as the two previous tree bids were astronomical - Mike's Tree Service. That was the best referral ever. Mike took out all 8 trees for what would have been the same prices as 3 trees with the other companies. We are now ready to call John and discuss a plan for our back yard. John was honest, down to earth and timely. We will definitely use this company when we are able to complete the landscaping for our home. We strongly recommend this company for your landscaping needs. They are awesome!

I have been using them for about a year and a half now. Their prices are excellent. Everyone that works for them has been fine.

I contacted Keystone Landscaping for an estimate to clean my son and daughter-in-law's yard. There was an upcoming retirement party to be held at their home so it was important that the yard be neat, clean and presentable. Because of so much preparation for my son's retirement ceremony, there was no time for family members to do this. I had used Keystone Landscaping at my own home and was very satisfied with their services, therefore, I contacted them to see if they could help us. The party was to be held January 30th; I called Joan January 22nd, giving them only about a week's notice. I explained the situation to Joan and she told me she would go out to the property either that afternoon or the next day to see what needed to be done and call back with an estimate. They went to my son's home the SAME day and called me back with a fair and reasonable price. With all that needed to be done, I wasn't only surprised at the cost but the fact they were able to work us in so quickly with all that needed to be done. They arrived at my son's house at the specified time and contacted me upon completion to let me know exactly what had been done. Upon our own inspection, we were all extremely happy! This family owned business is wonderful! They are professional, prompt and eager to please. They strive to do their best and insure that you are satisfied. Their prices are very reasonable. I would also like to point out that Keystone goes over and above by providing you with helpful information to better maintain your lawn and property - I like to think of it as preventive maintenance. Very nice, down to earth, easy to work with company. They have great respect for our military men and women! I highly recommend them! Thank you, thank you, thank you, Joan and John! You were lifesavers!!

I am frustrated because I had to really push to get a response . I am wondering if I was going to hear back from them at all.

I was very happy with the results. They were prompt and dedicated and kept me informed as to there progress. Quality work and a great group to work with.

Arrived in time, got the job done...that's all I need.