The Curb Guys

We used The Landscape Guys, aka "The Curb Guys", to do a landscape project for our new home. Butch Mogavero, owner, gave us a quote for the "curbing" (which is a concrete border system made to look like brick), as well as all of the plants for our front yard. We agreed that he could put a sign in our front yard to help advertise his business. He completed the concrete curbing very quickly and a few days later, upon returning home, I was alarmed that they had begun planting. I asked for a landscape plan, which he had promised, but he had not prepared one. I began asking about the plants, but neither he nor his crew were even familiar with the names or the plants and shrubs, nor their appropriate exposures. Most of the plants his men unloaded required full sun and our yard, with its large trees, is almost complete shade. His work crew had not "prepared" any of the beds (they did not dig up the root systems of the previous plants) - they just laid tarp over the beds and added ugly "black" mulch. This methodology - no prepared beds and very shallow mulch - would not adequately support new plants, according to the professional that I consulted. The plants that had been planted were not only wrong for the sun exposure, but also not positioned in a visually aesthetic manner -- e.g. purple sage along a shady narrow sidewalk to the front porch (sage gets very tall and also requires full sun). I explained these problems to Mr. Mogavera and he even admitted to me that "he knew very little about landscaping, but 99% of people would never know the difference". We returned all of the plants to Mr. Mogavera and asked him to please remove the black & red mulch, as well as to rework the fence that he had built for us on one side of the yard - the cedar planks were too spread out (cheaply done) and also the gate did not close properly. Unfortunately, we had already paid for our project. Mr. Mogavera would not return any of the money, nor would he fix the fence or remove the mulch. In fact, he didn't return our phone calls. My next door neighbor had used him too and she had similar problems and had to hire others to finish her job. I hired another landscaper and we began again. The curbing looked OK, so we kept it, but it was not functional - the landscape company had to re-engineer by building retaining walls inside of the curbing in order to keep the soil from eroding (the beds were sloping downward). The new landscaping looks lovely... after having paid twice for this project. I only wish that we had done our research, talked to others who had used the Landscape Guys, and demanded a landscape plan BEFORE he started the work. The Lanscape Guys (what a misnomer) are not professionals and do not know anything about "landscaping".