K&J Lawn and Garden Service LLC

The difficulties with the arrangement arose from there being construction done on my street at the time the company came by, their claim that no place to park, and no real effort to work out something with the homeowner. When the work hadn't been done, I called the company and was told that they had come by and were not able to find a place to park and wouldn't be able to perform the work. They arranged a refund through Angie's List. There was city work on the water system going on in Ghent, so there was a parking problem, but the company didn't handle the situation very professionally, it seemed to me. Under other circumstances, the work of the company may be exemplary, but not in this instance.

No ground preparation prior to dumping top soil in area not well seen from the house. Now looks like grass covered speed bumps. (Discovered post landscaping final walk through). The first sod delivered was very fresh/just cut. Additional sod less fresh with odd patterned growth, coloration and weeds in some patches . New flower bed edges irregular. When these concerns were discussed with Kregg he insisted the "speed bumps" were tree roots (not so according to several post installation consults).

No pre-project drawing or diagram. This was a large project for Kregg by his own admission. Since he would not provide a viewable plan, we opted for our own design and plant selections with which we are happy. I emailed Kregg about two weeks ago because one of the foundation anchor plants, an Alberta spruce had died. I requested replacement. He did replace it; however, with a plant that is less than 1/2 the height of the other Alberta spruces. The size discrepancy throws off the visual balance. When I emailed him in this regard he stated that was all his plant supplier/ nursery had. Similarly, during the primary planting an 8'-12' evergreen was to be planted between two windows. He arrived with a 4' tree of a different species. He said he was not going to bring a different tree or come back as he would be finished that day. I immediately went to McDonald's nursery and purchased a larger tree, which I brought home in my SUV. He installed the tree I purchased. No pre-planting soil amendment or weed removal from the base of the plants was performed for any of the shrubs. He did not water the plants following planting stating that the soil was already moist. I thought watering after planting was necessary to eliminate potential air pockets. He said no. 12 tons of Brown River Rock, which was supposed to be 1-3" in size was instead 5-10" in size, was dumped in the driveway without discussing the size discrepancy. This creates a different look than what we originally had planned. In an attempt to reduce maintenance, we reduced the size of a flower beds in the center of the front yard with sod. The area looks like a speed bump as he did not prep the area beyond removing a few spindly azaleas. Kregg's communication skills are limited. He is easily irritated and prefers text messages to actual conversation (as he is too busy for the later). Kregg is not a details oriented landscaper. His price may initially be tempting, however, I would recommend that you choose another company if details are important to you. Retrospectively, other companies would have been about the same cost.

I am overall pleased with the job. He replaced the few plants that didn't live. Everything looks good. I think a miscommunication led to a second trip to fix the drainage channel and an extra charge. I would recommend his services.

The work was completed satisfactorily.

I "highly" recommend AGAINST dealing with K&J Lawn Service or Kregg Deur! On 09/03/2012 I paid $90 for a 5000 sq ft. lawn aeration via Angie's List. Kregg Deur (the owner) showed up on 09/21/2012 to perform the aeration. I have been waiting since today, 09/28/2012 for Kregg Deur to contact me to discuss the discrepancies in his job performance. I was going to be out of town at that time, so I contacted Kregg Deur on the phone 2 days prior to the scheduled aeration, and instructed Kregg Deur to contact me when he arrived, so I could discuss the areas to be aerated. Up to this time, I had no personal contact, or even verbal contact with Kregg Deur, or anyone from K&J Lawn Service. K&J Lawn Service accepted my money through Angie's List. I expected a personal visit to walk the area to be done, or at least a phone call to discuss the aeration project. When I arrived home from my trip, I discovered an invoice for 2000 additional sq. ft, which was totally bogus. This additional sq footage was NOT authorized to be done, or even existed. I measured each sq foot myself & it was below 5000 sq ft. In addition, I discovered 3 "major" areas of bare lawn area that had not even been done, plus edges along the entire border of the lawn that had not been aerated. When I contacted & explained to Kregg Deur that he did more lawn than he was "authorized" to do, Kregg Deur's only response was "the contract says $38 for each additional 1000 sq ft." Kregg Deur never provided his measurements to explain the additional area. Why Kregg Deur failed to do the bare spots is beyond me. Why Kregg Deur did not visit me to discuss the situation (like any concerned business owner) is beyond my understanding, as well. I have experienced the "B.T. Barnum" attitude before ... basically "a sucker born every minute, so sell everyone once" and I can only believe this is Kregg Deur's philosophy. On the other hand, Kregg Deur could be just be a person with some lawn equipment that has no idea of what a businessman is. For whatever reason, I now have to contract another aeration service to re-do the lawn aeration correctly. I "highly" recommend AGAINST dealing with K&J Lawn Service or Kregg Deur!

My experience has been excellent. Kregg does what he says he'll do and in a timely manner.

Friendly, courteous and professional workers. I let Kreg pick out the flowers and was extremely pleased with his selections. Our flower bed has never looked so good. Any concerns I had were addressed the same day and a date was set to correct one problem. Always showed up when they were supposed to and worked until the job was completed. If there were to be any changes Kreg notified us before hand. A good experience dealing with this company. Your lawn is in good hands with K & J Lawn and Garden Service.

Called KJ off Angies List. He came out on time and gave me a written estimate. Walked the site and went over the details. He started work on time and worked through the completion and clean up- a total of 3 days. He is so easy to talk to and when ever we asked about something he already was on it! He has been completely honest, and easy to deal with.

K and J did a wonderful job. The owner replied back to me quickly and made me feel at ease about my landscaping needs. My grass looks beautiful and the men were professional and worked efficiently. I am pleased with their job and I will continue to use them. Thank you so much, K and J!

Access to the pond was through a single gate approximately 32 inches wide. This required the men to use wheelbarrows and manually remove each piece of slate by hand. This alone took several hours of working in 100 plus degree weather. After all the slate had been removed they started filling the hole. This again was done by bringing a wheelbarrow at a time full of dirt.Both Kregg and his helper were untiring in completing this heavy backbreaking task. After the hole was filled and mounded they proceeded to clean the area of all remaining dirt and even washed down my driveway. One would never have suspected the amount of work that had gone on here. Kregg only left the worksite when the job was completed, ensuring that everything was to my satisfaction.Well Done!

great job My husband came home and wanted his yard back otherwise they would still be doing it!

OK, except the company does not respond to email request and telephone requests. They are rated A+ in Angies list and I definitely do not agree with that rating. There are numerous lawn service companies in the area I would think a company would be more responsive. I am currently looking for somebody to do general weeding of flower beds. Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated

bought through Angie's List Deals and they are great!!! Very courteous, prompt. Yard looks great!

In late June I contacted K & J via e-mail regarding my interest in having some mulching and edging work done. It is a sizable job--large flower beds in both the front and the rear of my home. Within 24 hours I had a reply to my e-mail and within 3 days Kregg came to my house and I had my estimate. It was fair and included everything I had asked for. We set a date within a reasonable amount of time and today the job was completed. My flower beds again look well manicured and I am pleased with the work! Kregg and his crew were professional, timely, and proficient. Every step of this process was smooth and there were no surprises--a rarity in today's marketplace. There is no doubt I will use K & J's services again and will defintely recommend the company to others without hesitation.

It was a horrible experience. The owner is a very dishonest person. He was polite when he was selling and was very rude after the contract was signed. For example, his mulch price was almost as twice as others. When I asked him about it, he reduced his quotes on mulch. He charged me one day of work for two people for $720. However, his supposed employee never showed up. He worked two half days, and still charged me full price. The work quality was very bad. Instead of cleaning up weeds on my flowerbed, he pour mulch on them to hide them. A couple days later all those weeds came up again. When he plant flowers, he did not even bother to dig a decent hole, so all the plants he planted were well above the flowerbed, on a mount. They died later because water ran to lower point. I contacted him regarding those dead plants, he replanted them ( he came at a random day when I was not home ) and sent me another invoice because he said that I did not maintain them properly. All the replants he did had the same issues, well above the flowerbed. I end up dug them out and replanted them myself. I felt very stupid that I paid him $1300 for the horrible job he did. He is a dishonest rude person and did not take any pride in his work. Run away from him.

They did a spectacular job. The yard looks fantastic. People in our neighborhood (Riverwalk) walked by and drove by and told the guys as they were finishing up that the lawn looks the best it has in years (it had been neglected). We could not be more pleased. We also have K&J do weekly lawn service and they do a wonderful job keeping up with our tall thick grass. It has been a pleasure to have them working with us over the last several months. We recommend them to all our friends and neighbors.

The first three times were good. The last visit was really bad with lots of damage. I took pictures but ended up deleting them to make room on my camera disk, I wanted to send them to the owner. They got so close to my fig tree it took the bark off all the way around it. They back up their big mowers over my flower gardens and broke off my new spring flowers that were coming up. Very unhappy. I did not contact the company about the damage since it was a rental and I was moving out April 30, if it was my home or if I was staying then I would of contacted the mowing company. I did show it to the owner when we cleared the house but since I had planted the tree and flowers I did not have to replace them. No other mowing company was used when I lived there and the damage was done in MARCH. The mowing company seems to be confused and trying to put the blame elsewhere. I have no reason to make this up about this company.

They were very efficient, very timely, and communicative. We were very happy with them. I do not use them anymore because I got a new lawnmower and at the time I did not have one.

He arrived on time with two other young men. He started immediately to trench the new bed. This seemed fine. He then began to spray the grass with Round Up when I saw this I came out and asked why he was not removing the grass from the bed. He said, " This will kill it and as it dies it will create nutrients for the new plants. I was skeptical and really didn't like it but I decided to trust his word. After spraying he then put mulch on top of the grass. I again went out and said aren't you going to loosen the soil and plant the plants before you add mulch. He then said this mulch is rich in nutrients and lugustrums are really hardy plants and it is why I placed them on your plant choice list. They will be fine. Again against my better judgement I went away. He then use some kind of drill to dig the holes in the bed thru the mulch. I saw his workers just placing the plants in the hole without loosening the plant's roots. Again I went out and said shouldn't those holes be twice as wide as the plant and shouldn't you loosen the roots before placing them in the ground. Again he stated the hardiness of the lugustrum but did instruct his workers to loosen the plants roots before placing them in the hole. The plants were covered with mulch not top soil. I stated my concern and requested a warranty in writing. I did not desire to feel this way again so I insisted he amend the soil in the foundation beds with top soil or top soil/compost blend and that he remove all weeds and plants to be removed completely not just spray them. We had another new bed being created and I insisted that he remove the grass completely before adding the top soil. I also insisted he plant the plants before mulch was added. I insisted on his digging the holes for all new and transplanted plants to be twice as wide as the plant. He was annoyed and countered all my request with reasons why they were not necessary and how internet research is not always applicable to our zone. He had many excuses for why he could not do what I ask like existing tree roots and sprinkler systems. However, the tools he used to trench the new bed in the backyard and the tool he used to dig the holes could have caused damage to the sprinkler system and tree roots but he had no problem using either of those because they saved him labor. He finally asked if I wanted him to do the job I told him I did if he did it as I desired it to be done. He said it would cost more and I stated I never asked him to monitor my budget or work for free. He sent and new invoice where he increased his labor cost by $1200.00 to honor my request. I accepted because his cost were still less than other contractors I had interviewed and because overall I still desired to have a positive experience with him since he really is a very nice man. I aasumed I did not get the results I desired from the first project because I had not been specific enough about what I wanted and I tried to correct that for the foundation beds. On March 22nd, he and the same two young men arrived on time and worked hard at removing the plants we wanted removed as well as the border stones we did not like. It was back breaking work and they did an excellent job. I had concerns about how the plants that were being transplanted were treated dug up and left out of the ground for hours before being moved and replanted. However, it is now May and they seem to be doing ok. My other concern issue was he ordered about half too much top soil and mulch. I ultimately ended up giving it away to neigbors. Surely that was money that could have been saved. They worked hard for three days and returned on a fourth day to attempt to use up some of the soil on a large exisiting hedgerow in the back yard not the newly planted hedgerow although when I asked that they smooth out the dirt and not just dump whole wheelbarrels full next to each other one after the other he became annoyed and said I didn't plan to be here all day. At that I thought then you should learn to etimate better. He attempted to dump more mulch on the newly planted hedgerow in the backyard to get rid of all the left over mulch. He did a half job of cleaning up. Thankfully, one of my neighbors that received left over mulch and top soil power washed for us. I had to call to get the dumpster removed two days after he was finished. Oh and I forgot I also had to call to get the utility lines sprayed before the second job. He never did it not for the first or second job. Overall he is a nice man and even though he sounds knowledgable about plants and things his practices reek of someone attempting to do a job with the least amount of effort possible. If I have problems with the backyard beds I hope he honors his warranty. I will certainly let you know how they do after summer. I can only recommend using K & J because the foundation bed work looks amazing. If you can give him very detailed instructions about how you desire a job to be done, double check his material estimates and be there to monitor the work to ensure no short cuts are being taken you will most likely be satisfied with the results. I gave him a D because I expected the experience to be better and I the back beds were done so poorly.

I just bought a lawn care package from Angie's List. I'm really pleased. The coupon is for the whole summer and fall. The guy is great as he's very responsive. They are professional, responsible and friendly.

Mr. Deur was very nice, but I would have liked a detailed drawing. This is what I consider a complete landscape design. He did give a detailed estimate of work and plants/shrubs with prices. However, I was expecting more. Angie's List or Mr. Deur should have corrected the misleading entry regarding the one hour of labor.

My initial communication with this company was through email due to my work schedule. We communicated many times through email before actually speaking by phone. I feel Kraig was very professional, courteous, patient, responsive and very timely with his email responses. He did contact me when he was going to be late for our face to face sit down. Unfortunately, I did not choose this company because of the conflict in our working schedules. If it wasn't for that, I would have used his services. The B rating was because I was not able to see his actual work performed, but I was able to comment on his professionalism and dependability. Therefore, I believe it is a fair rating.

They arrived on time. They cut the bushes back and did a great job cleaning up. They carted all the clippings away and my yard looked great when they left.

It was the first time I used them, I decided to use them because of the reviews I saw on Angie's List. I would give them straight across an "A". I got an estimate right on the phone and they followed through. I Actually plan on using them again in the spring.