Groundsmasters Landscape Services

Description of Work: I's been 7 years since Brink did the design and installation of our landscaping system. I agree with the previous commentators that his design work is good but implementation is another matter. We used Brink because our neighbors were generally pleased with his work, though they did caution us about frequent delays and slow responsiveness to arising issues. Both concerns happened to us as well. My specific problems are the quality of plants and the masonry work. First, my wife wanted a lot of color in the plantings and I wanted as much xeriscape (though not extreme) as possible. Among the plantings were three crepe myrtles. Now this is a plant that I figured in Austin one can't go wrong using for color and durability. Au contraire. First, he gave us a color that I had not specified but this issue didn't become apparent until they bloomed, which is the real issue. Brink gave us what must be the only non-blooming crepe myrtles God ever created. They bloom, but not until late summer: August and September, are short and puny bloomers, and then peter out. I complained and Brink said this was "just the type" of variation and to add potassium (as I recall, but used whatever he suggested) to push out blooms the following years but this has not worked. I didn't care if the issue was "the type" of crepe, I just wanted blooms. He said if this supplement didn't work he would replace them, but I hated doing that since it was such a waste, but after three years of non-performance I tried to contact Brink to say, sorry, I want blooming plants. He never responded. I fume every time everytime I see blooming crepes around Austin and mine are just sitting there clogging up the landscape. The second issue is masonry. First, he brought in expensive large limestone rocks for accent. One of the main ones, at the entry to our yard area and seen every day by anyone walking by, is one that was badly miscut with the defect obvious. I asked Brink to flip the rock before his crews finished but he refused, "joking" that I could lift that sucker if it bothered me, his crews wouldn't. This may sound petty but when you pay a lot for a service you should get a little more responsiveness to an obvious defect than Brink provided. Next problem is the masonry workers installed our BBQ pit (which we purchased on our own from a reputable dealer) in such a way that we cannot access the pull out trays for cleaning. This was pure stupidity on the part of the mason. To this day cleaning that d*** thing is a real hassle and requires gyrations to reach down between the burner elements with paper towels to clean out the bottom of the pit to partially clean normal grilling debris. I can never get it fully cleaned. All of this is clearly avoidable had the masonry been installed correctly so one can access a normal cleaning function provided with the equipment. Brink laughed when he saw it and made no effor to rectify the problem. When the grill needs replacing I will be forced to tear out the masonry and start anew, not a cheap matter when one considers what this part of the project cost in the first place...several grand tossed into the fire, so to speak. I am not particulary pleased with the company that did the landscape lighting (we had a short that started a fire during the 2011 drought and had we not been lucky and seen it occur, would most likely have lost our home) and irrigation system (very complicated control box with no instructions with ill-defined zones and the sprinkler heads keep malfunctioning and not fully covering areas of an expensive lawn) but these are probably issues to take up with that company which is actually pretty responsive to our problems to this day.

Description of Work: Design and landscaping of backyard; e.g. all new plants installed, new paths, gardens, etc

Description of Work: Brink provided a landscape plan including a french drain, all new grass, plants, stone walkway, stone patio with disappearing fountain, raised stone garden, and landscape lighting.