Le's Landscape & Yard Work

Thanks for making my borders look so nice Mr. Le! Very professional, great ideas, good listener, and he asked lots of questions to make sure I would be pleased with his work. Prompt, courteous, and fast. I had a few thoughts but mostly just told him to make it look nice and that is exactly what he did. He rearranged some current plantings, brought in some new ones, pruned what needed to be pruned, and all the weeds are gone. I LOVE the dark mulch he used instead of beauty bark. I am very proud of my borders now and VERY HAPPY with the work of Mr. Le. He told me he has been doing this for 30 years, he knows what he is doing!

We have been using Mr Lee for 3 years. We use him every year for a winter clean up. We have also used him for thatching and re-seeding our back yard. This year he built a pathway in our front and side yard using pavers. His crew did an excellent job. Mr Lee is very creative and has some very good ideas. I highly recommend Mr Lee. He is very punctual, his response time is the best I have seen, and the quality of work is excellent.

Punctual, professional, knowledgeable -- Mr. Le is a real gardener who knew every plant in our garden and had great ideas. He was exceptionally responsive and a good communicator. The work was done quickly and well, for a reasonable price. We feel incredibly lucky to have found him and plan to retain him to do lawn maintenance as well as future projects.

Le came out and got a full project description, gave an estimate and crew showed up three days later on time and got right to it. Two partial days of work for 4 guys the first day and 3 the next. Looks good and I would use him and his crew again.

Mr. Le relandscaped parts of our front and back yards. He removed shrubs, leveled the terrain, relocated and calibrated the sprinkler system, and laid sod. The job was done quickly and efficiently and getting the quote was straightforward and fair. Overall, great work - I will use again.

Work was well done; cleanup very good. The only other time I had this done the cost was 1/3 of what Le's charged. I don't know if Le's was really high or what I paid previously really low.

Mr. Lee gave us a free estimate. He said he'd complete the work in a day, on a Thursday, but he started late on Thursday and his partner did not show up. When it started raining, he left. As a result, he had to come back for two more days and worked a few hours each day before finishing the work by mid Saturday. He was courteous and professional in his work; he did not leave a mess.

Initially I just wanted a small lawn put in the center of my garden, and suggestions about how to get rid of the wild clover that had completely taken over my landscaping. But as each of Mr. Le's ideas made sense to me and was added to the project, in snowballed into a very expensive job for us. I made the classic homeowner error of accepting a bid on impulse. I feel like I paid way too much, but on the other hand, Mr. Le and his crew got the job done faster and better than I would have thought possible. Only time will tell about the quality of the materials and the success of his plans, but so far, so good. Update 5/17/14-The lawn was dying a lumpy, patchy death. I called to ask him to come and take a look. Initially he told me I had the wrong company, although I pointed out that I was calling the same phone number. When he saw the lawn, he said it was our fault for failing to maintain it. He was partially right, since I was a lawn newbie and he had previously not answered my questions on how to take care of it. He asked me to buy lawn seed and fertilizer, and then gave me a $1500 estimate to clear and mulch the top level of our back garden, which was another overgrown mess. I agreed. He arrived with three guys, walked through the job with the foreman, and then left, saying I could direct them and they'd be there for four hours. I found myself dropping my plans for the day to supervise Mr. Le's employees. Apparently, Mr. Le's Vietnamese accent did not mesh well with his foreman's primarily Spanish comprehension, so the foreman kept being surprised when I reminded him to do things Mr. Le and I had agreed on. Still, they did a great job of weeding and mulching, though it was hard and unexpected work for me. They had not brought any lawn tools, so they used our weed-whacker. They DID toss seed and fertilizer on the lawn, but then they drove off early without checking in with me. Mr. Le offered to come back and "fix it" but there was really not much to fix. The workers did well enough--it was Mr. Le's weird behavior in leaving me to supervise his crew that upset me. Update-10/12/14 Despite our best lawn care over the summer, the lawn did not really improve. I pulled out the sod and had the lawn re-seeded by a lawn specialist. He said that no matter how poorly we had maintained the sod, it was poor, very cheap sod, grown in heavy clay to begin with, and would not have rooted well. I have not called Mr. Le because I don't want him to blame me for it, and then talk me into another several thousand dollars to clear another chunk of my property. So. One year, thousands of dollars and much distress later, the small lawn I asked for is pretty much bare earth. The rest of the garden, front and back, really are very nice, thanks partially to Le's landscaping. I just don't feel like they're $7500 nice, and the process was pretty awful. In sum, Mr. Le is a creative, skilled landscaper, with an engaging personality and infectious enthusiasm. However, I found his work to be extremely overpriced and that he dealt with problems by blaming the customer and then changing the subject. Not best business practices. Bottom line, let the buyer beware.

!I've retained Mr Le for just over three years -- yes, based on earlier Angie's List reviews -- and I can't imagine the disaster my yard would be without him. After a fairly substantial restoration and cleanup effort at the beginning of the relationship, we've settled into a perfect twice-monthly routine. My lawn looks beautiful, the Douglas fir's copious cone-and-needle offerings are corralled, and the edging and all those little tasks that finish the look are beautifully executed. His people are friendly and responsive, and they're really forbearing when it comes to our backyard, which often as not has random projects, debris, or bicycles cluttering up the lawn. Great on big projects, great on ordinary upkeep, just generally great. I recommend him to all my friends.

Mr.Le and his crew were on time and finished sooner than he had quoted. They did a great job, and we went to monthly service with him for all our yard care needs!

Mr Le agreed to come see the work I needed doing and said he would call me to review the estimate. I did see a truck outside my home but he did not get out and he never called back. I assume he doesn't need the work.

Mr. Le was very personable online and was willing to reschedule to accommodate our schedule, HOWEVER, on the day the estimate was to be made, he showed up nearly 90 minutes early (9am arrival, but the scheduled time was 10:30am). He offered to come back another time, but rather than have him have to make another trip, I made it work. Work desired: 1. Weekly mowing. Mr. Le was very clear that he would not do ANY weekly maintenance. We needed weekly mowing and that was part of my online communication with Mr. Le, so I felt he should have let me know ahead of time. I would have saved him the trip. 2. Blackberry Removal (two areas: 10x15 hillside, 30x5 county ditch), and weeding of multiple tiered planters at the side and rear of the home Estimate for just these two items was $1500 3. Improve drainage in back yard. This item added an additional $3000 4. (updated) Retaining Wall was discussed but not provided in the estimate noted above. That would have been future work only We felt that the estimate was prohibitively high, so we got other estimates and ultimately were able to get what he was planning to charge $1500 to do for $675. Money was well spent, and we actually have someone that's willing to do the maintenance too.

it all went very well. The work was finished before the completion date we were given. What more could you ask for?

my whole experience with Le and his crew was phenomenal. He gave me ideas for how to make improvements, took the time to consult with me on the approach and gave me options to choose from. He handled my request right away and by the next week, his crew was at my door with all of the supplies to handle my project. He estimated 2 full days of work, but his crew worked so professionally and thoroughly that they were able complete everything within 1.5 days. I really liked that Le supervised his crew and was involved with most of the project, but he also has a very strong crew so he was able to leave them to the tasks on their own while he handled other affairs. You can tell that they all work very well together and really enjoy the work they do. I LOVE my new front yard and when I'm ready to do more landscaping, Le will get my business. I HIGHLY recommend them.

Mr. Le came out, looked around for a couple minutes and gave me a price. I thought the price was ok, not great and the speed at which he coughed up a number caused me some concern because I hadn't finished describing what I wanted done. Maybe the price was for the whole property and everything I might have wanted. He did assure me that I would love his work.

He said he'd be at the house "Saturday between 1 and 2 pm." He actually showed up at 11:00 am and we were not ready to talk to him. My husband went out to meet with him instead (since I was in the shower). He told Mr. Le we expected him between 1-2 so we weren't ready to talk. Mr. Le said he was very busy and couldn't come back at that time. He quickly left. We were very surprised by how he reacted since it was his error not ours. Later that week I emailed him to let him know we weren't happy with how our first meeting went, and that we won't be needing his services. I said "next time don't show up any time you want, or at least call and ask if it's okay. Our time is just as valuable as yours. Not a good business practice." He did quickly reply to this email (which I appreciated) and said he was in error and confused our house address (and street) with another one. Yes there is another street of the same name with "SE" instead of "NE". He asked if he could come back but I didn't bother to reply. I would of said yes, if our initial meeting went better. He just seemed rude and very rushed to get out of there so that didn't sit well with my husband. He might of done a very good job based on other reviews here, I don't know. He was clearly in a big hurry and didn't want to spend the time we needed. I'm not about to spend $5000 without getting to know the person and their company. A quick 3 minute visit won't do it. Show me why I should hire you versus the other 1000 landscapers in the area.

Mr. Le was the first and only provider to respond. He was quick to come out and give me a bid, as well as quick to respond to any questions. The job provided was very good and the crew was professional.

Mr. Le showed up Saturday morning as planned, with two of his crew. Did a great job in weeding, clearing out old growth, barking a huge area and trimming/prunning all our shrubs and plants. The next day he showed up and built the stairs and landings with the same crew. Mr. Le was very knowledgable about all aspects of the projects and did a superb job on designing the stairs and landings. He commuicated regularly and carried out the job in a very neat and professional manner. I highly reccommend his services.

Here is a brief explanation of needs from our e-mail exchange - "Mr. Le, you are recommended on Angie's list. The condo's are located at : 6968 134th Ct SE Newcastle, WA 98059 - We have 24 units that would require landscaping. We can talk frequency and specifics during a get together, thank you." He had trouble finding the condo's saying the address was not located where the condo's were. When we were finally able to meet, he did not get out of his truck. He looked up the road at the condo's. I said, "is the job too big for you"? He said, "yes" and did not have the courtesy to get out of his truck. Even though it was made clear to him (see comments above). I would not recommend him to anybody that needs a professional.

We bought a new house and the yard was very overgrown with weeds everywhere. Le came in and gave us a fantastic bid. He completed the work ahead of schedule and stayed true to his bid. The yard was beautiful and much easier for us to maintain. They were fantastic to work with and I'm sure we will use their services again in the future.

We had no idea what to do with our backyard, so we called Le's Landscape. It took Mr. Le little more than a few seconds to recommend a plan that would be easy to maintain and look great. We trusted his judgement and accepted his offer. The crew started just a few days later by hand loading and spreading two very large dump trucks of topsoil to level out the yard. Then they planted arborvitae "fences", relocated plants, installed new plants, a tree, built two raised garden beds and planted grass. They also installed a river rock "walkway" that winds across the width of the yard. Mr. Lee installed a soaking system with a timer and they finished off the work by spreading bark. The yard looks great, the crew worked hard and they cleaned up very well. Mr. Lee was a pleasure to work with. Very knowledgeable, friendly and caring of his work. He has followed up with phone calls to make sure everything is to our liking and that the plantings and grass are looking healthy and growing. A very satisfying experience.

He had originally scheduled for 2 days later but called to see if he could come earllier! They arrived on time and began working. They did a fantastic job. Our yard looks better than it ever has - they really know their stuff. He also laid gravel in front of the house the same day. They were efficient, came in at cost quoted and were very easy to work with. I cannot recommend them any higher. Out of 10 they get a 12!

It went great! We were super happy with Le's professionalism, punctuality, eye for beauty, and dedication to doing the job right. We didn't know exactly what we wanted the final result to look like, and Le did a fantastic job of designing the shape of our new lawn to have an organic, flowing look that matches the wooded nature of our lot perfectly. During the bidding process he had many good suggestions we ended up taking him up on. It was clear that he wasn't aiming to do the minimum amount of work to get the job done - he wanted to do it right so that the end result would be beautiful, and he did. We will definitely contact him again next time we have landscaping needs.

We recently purchased our home with a very mature and integrated landscaping schema. We chose Le's landscaping because of the reviews despite them being the highest price of all the landscaping companies we reviewed. We requested mulch, weeding, pruning and other spring maintenance to get our yard in a manageable state. Le showed up and performed all tasks. We found that our grass areas were not weeded and Le subsequently came back and weeded our lawn, but stated his services normally don't include weeding. This should have been a red flag. A month or so later we started finding issues with the quality of work. The mulch that was used in our beds started sprouting invasive weeds. Other weeds that were previously growing in the beds prior to Le's service reappeared. We then called on a master gardener for consultation and were told the quality of work was indicative of a "mow and blow" company, not a professional landscaping outfit. Pruning was performed using hedge trimming sheers instead of individual cutting and there was damage to several of our plants. The biggest awakening was when we were told thyat the mulch that was provided was form a low cost provider that had not adequately sterilized the soil. Although the initial look was good, we found that a big cover up job was performed, and the quality of product used introduced new weed species to our yard, and we are still recovering. We will not be using Le in the future.

I contacted Mr. Le to do some clean up work of the landscaping around a small duplex we own. He met me on a Sunday morning (!), was there early, walked around the property with me and made some excellent suggestions for things we could do to clean up and simplify the need for maintenance there. He had a great sense of what we wanted and how best to accomplish that work. We made the agreement via handshake, and he was out the very next day to get the work done, including removing some large, overgrown greenery, lay new bark, address weeds, and prune. The cost quoted included both materials and labor. His promptness and responsiveness blew me away. I'll be using him on a continuing basis to provide maintenance work there.