GREEN ACRES LLC

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This is a reliable company to have design your landscaping. We are very happy to have picked Green Acres to do our project. A very large project I must express. They were one of six companies we had interviewed. Not only did I feel comfortable with Mark Stone but we simply fell in love with his design concept for our back yard. Mark was the only one out of the other five that came up with an actual design. When it came time for plants we spoke with Bill Stone. He also listened to what we wanted in plants and came up with an outstanding environment. And one that is not only beautiful but easy to maintain throughout the year. We needed to extend our back yard. Upon exiting the back door we had a 24 x 24 concrete slab then a mountain straight up the back and the length of the entire house. To our surprise he designed two actual living spaces with pavers, retaining wall, four hardscape planters, a mountain pushed back with absolutely beautiful plants. We also wanted to incorporate a Hot Tub which Mark was able to design a special place for. He had the intuitiveness on how to position the Hot Tub so it would flow with the beautiful retaining wall. Because we had the project started so late last year we were unable to have all of the plants installed. After November it was difficult for Bill to pick up mature plants. I worried about this because I had paid in full the amount due on the project, which included the plants. Bill and Mark are true gentlemen and will stand behind every word they tell you. They installed the remainder of plants due and did more than what I expected. The work crew is also to be complimented. They are courteous beyond what anyone would expect. All tools are picked up nightly when they leave. I left my house unlocked and garage wide open and did not have a worry in the world when I left for the day. They are very, very, respectful and do a fantastic job with Marks direction. The crew has been with Bill and Mark for well over ten years. They all have a special bond which makes the company work. Mark is very prompt in responding to all text and phone calls. Even after the project had been completed I was able to contact him several times with questions and he has always been there for me. We are extremely pleased with what Green Acres accomplished for us. I will ?always? call on them for more work. Thank you guys, Trudy

The owner is great to work with and his team is efficient, polite and very skilled in their work. They transformed a muddy hilside of a back yard into a wonderful outdoor space with a fireplace. They also provided a walkway around our house and a very nice entrance to the front of our house which was treacherous before. We're looking forward to another project this spring. HIGHLY RECOMMEND GREEN ACRES!!!

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The strengths of Green Acres included high quality work on patio areas and walls. They do extensive preparation that so far appears to provide a solid foundation for the patio and walls. The ponds they installed are quite lovely and overall we are pleased with the quality of the installation itself. Bill Garren provided good input on design. The crew generally worked very hard. In particular one member of the crew took the initiative to build a retaining wall out of rocks available at the worksite that solved a runoff problem exacerbated by the Green Acres’ installed masonry walls, but not accommodated by their design. The major issue we had involved the pervasive lack of supervision of the crew which led to mistakes, including the installation of a gutter within the parking area rather than at the bottom edge of the parking area—as we had repeatedly told Bill Garren. While Bill offered to remove and reinstall the gutter, we would have had a large repair in the parking area susceptible to generation of potholes in winter, so we opted to leave it where it is. The hardscaping plan included construction of a bench using a marble slab on site. A Green Acres employee crushed the marble slab by toppling a pallet of blocks on it. The marble slab could have been easily moved prior to placing the pallet adjacent to it or the pallet could have been placed elsewhere. We were offered no recompense for destruction of the slab or failure to construct the bench. They also ruptured the water line to the house and cut the underground phone line; both were repaired fairly quickly. Overall the work could have been done much more efficiently if adequately supervised, which would have shortened the time spent on the job and produced fewer mistakes. Several final details were not completed, in particular, the placement of additional decorative stones, which are plentifully and easily available near the construction site. Application of mortar on the front steps was totally inadequate, with dozens of gaps and holes left. While these gaps and holes were readily observable, the installer (Garren’s project supervisor) refused to comply with the our request to look over all the mortar joints and apply additional mortar where needed. Instead, he initially demanded that the homeowner point out each of dozens of defects. And finally, the crew laid a bed of gravel alongside the project area to facilitate the movement of their equipment across the bare clay. We now have an unsightly layer of gravel, in which we suspect nothing but weed grass will grow, alongside the new walkway. No attempt was made to mitigate or correct this gravel bed. A heavy truck delivering material crushed a brick pillar at top of our driveway because the driver turned in the wrong direction. We accepted Green Acres offer to rebuild the pillar and asked that they move it a couple of feet farther from the driveway. Although relocating the pillar would have resulted in substantially no additional work, Bill Garren refused unless we paid him to relocate it. We rather thought our forbearance regarding the marble slab and the incorrectly placed gutter warranted some consideration on his part. In addition, we would have appreciated candor on the part of Bill in realistically estimating the start of the project and the completion. He said he was delayed several weeks by rain. Undoubtedly the unusually heavy rain delayed him this summer. This does not explain or excuse his empty promises of a full work crew for the entire project, including when he would have people on site to correct discrepancies such as the mortar joints mentioned above and an incompetently installed electric cable for the pond pump that caused the pump to stop working. We did not have the full crew for the vast majority of the work, as the supervisor was offsite doing other jobs or attending to personal matters. Overall I think they are overpriced and I would probably not do business with them again.

Owner Bill Garrin came out just a couple of days after I called to look over what we wanted done and immediately drew a diagram with estimate so we could understand his suggestions. We understood that, ordinarily, we would have had to wait a few weeks while his crew finished up current jobs. As it happened, his next job was delayed because of all the rain we had this summer, so his crew was able to come the following week. They did the entire job beautifully in only three days. We suggested one change, which they accommodated and which, incidentally, reduced our cost. We are very happy with our new entryway and recommend Green Acres LLC highly. One thing to be aware of, the website is www.greenacresllc.com. If, as I did, you enter simply www.greenacres.com, you will get a grocery store website.

Would not return phone calls. I could not even get someone to give me quote, or come out and look what I need done

I am providing an update on the extensive landscape and hard scape work we received last summer (2012). It is spring, finally, and we could not be more pleased with our project, and the plants and trees that were and quot;installedand quot;. We only lost one small juniper (ground cover) and a few small lavender plants...but the hundreds of other plants are in great shape. Our french drain stonework path is not only beautiful, it never contains standing water. We are still very happy with Green Acres LLC and Bill Garren.

On the first day, the trucks rolled in with a Bobcat and a small CAT backhoe. The excavation began and was complete in 2-3 days. Gravel of varying sizes and perforated PVC pipe was delivered, as well as 12 pallets of pavers and support stones. We had selected the color when we signed the contract for the job. Once the excavation was done the hole was draped with a black thick cloth and gravel(s) installed in the hole (up to 2 ft. deep for the area with the drainage problem...Bill shot the elevations using surveying type equipment). The laying of the pavers was one of the fun things to watch as the small "cobblestones" fit tightly and look great, but do allow all water to percolate under ground and out of the area to drains placed in our front hill. The path then continued around the entire front of our house, where it was in a shallower, but well-prepared hole which had gravel and basecoarse in it. The effect of this paving system is stunning. Upon Bill's recommendation, approx. 8 large oak trees were removed from our front hill (steep, appx. 40 deg. angle) which would open up areas to plant and also give our large front porch the benefit of a lot more sun and sky. Next phase was to clear the brush and my own poor attempts at planting flowers and shrubs, and the new plants arrived. We had hundreds of bushes and plants, plus labor to plant them made up $15-18,000 of our budget for the job. The plants arrived in good condition, and the holes (all dug into the NRV yellow clay with ample "Radford Potato" sized river rocks in every shovelfull, were amended with manure and plant food. We had a huge amount of mulch put down, and the place looks fantastic. We fed Miracle Gro on everything for 2 weeks, and now the slow release plant food is "on the job".and was added to the amended soil at planting time. We have soaker hoses and regualr large sprinklers and are watering diligently to give the plants a good start (especially considering this summer's heat). We would DEFINITELY use GREEN ACRES, LLC. again (in fact, I'm dreaming of a cascading water feature...someday). Bill has over 20 years experience doing this, and it's obvious when you talk to him, when he presents a suggested plan for the property, and the execution of what he says will be done, IS DONE, and is done beautifully. We are very pleased and it WAS a DRAMATIC TRANSFORMATION of our "ugly stepsister" home into one of the prettiest yards in the area.

Terrible