GRO Outdoor Living

I had GRO perform three large projects on my 5 landscaped acres around my house in Oregon City. They started out well, and completed two of them without much in the way of complaints, but the third project they fumbled pretty badly at the end. I had them prep and install irrigation, lawn and planting beds to a little over an acre of land in my south lawn area. They hurried to apply the hydroseed in mid- to late-September 2022 to give the lawn time to establish before the Oregon rains arrived in late October, but did not have time to pre-water the dirt and then spray the weeds that would come up, a standard practice before hydroseeding. I questioned the job foreman about this, and was assured that they would return in the spring of 2023 to spray and kill the weeds that were not killed in the previous fall. Spring came, along with plenty of weeds, but GRO refused to honor their commitment. They also failed to install 3 or 4 sprinkler heads around the lawn east end, so now I have dead grass there, and they now also refuse to fix this problem.

Sales representative came to property for about 10 min and listened to landscaping ideas I wanted done. They did not offer any suggestions or ideas nor did they measure anything. They turn sent me a ridiculously overpriced estimate. Backyard is maybe 1000 sq feet and I simply wanted a large concrete patio and address some drainage issues and a bit of landscaping and their quote was over $16,000. Other landscapers quoted $7000-7500 for sand job. Ridiculously overpriced.

First off, I wish that Kyne/G2 (now called GRO Outdoor Living) would update their Angie's List profile. I've wanted to write this review for a while. The GRO team did an incredible job with our back yard. This was a huge project for us, one where we saved up for years to be able to do it. I'm a bit embarrassed to put the total cost of service in this review (more of my desire to keep it private), but GRO was neither the cheapest nor the most expensive. They were probably closer to the most expensive bid. That said, we decided to go with GRO because they had the most transparent process for creating a plan and the associated bid. The total bid was broken down by each individual process (excavation, retaining walls, irrigation, etc, etc.), whereas the competing bids were a single number. GRO's plan was also the most specific and detailed. If anything, we were probably overwhelmed by the level of detail at first. In the end, we felt that the risk of any "gotcha" charges was much lower if we chose GRO. We were still very nervous when we signed the contract. We had never done a project of this scale before (in terms of complexity and dollars). But within the first few days, we knew we made a great decision. The entire project was done in about 17 working days (they worked Mon-Thurs each week). The amount of progress they made each day was amazing. You could tell they had a plan, since there was almost no wasted time or effort. When one phase was done, the next one started the following day. We didn't make many adjustments during the process, but the few curveballs we threw at them were handled easily. One of our kids would have been devastated if her "climbing tree" would have been cut down. But instead, they curved a retaining wall around it, so we could save the tree. They also had some additional stepping stones left over, which they used to create another staircase on the existing property (at no additional charge). Finally, a walking path through the garden had to be re-done a couple of times, just to make sure it was wide enough. Not a major change, but they didn't put up a fight on that small detail. The project was completed about 4 months ago, and we have run into zero problems with the new lawn, the garden and the retaining walls. Even though our son has "stress tested" those all summer. Granted, the true test will come this winter when the rain comes. Hopefully the new irrigation system will allow us to use the back yard in the winter. Something we have never been able to do in the past. Finally, the best indication of their solid work is the fact that our neighbors quickly signed up GRO to do their back yard. And that was BEFORE our yard was complete. They saw GRO in action for about 7-10 days, and immediately knew how professional they were.

We've seen many fantastic landscape designs from Kyne and were excited to meet with Kyne (now Gro Outdoor Living) to see what they'd propose for our space. We met with Cody in September, and he told us he'd get back to us with a rough proposal in the next few weeks. I didn't hear back from him; so I reached out to him in October. Cody apologized for his lack of communication, and we scheduled a meeting to review his plan. That meeting went well, and we asked Cody to get us some idea of the cost of the project. This never happened because Cody said he needed to meet with Garret. We reached out to Cody in November and in December to see if the meeting with Garret had taken place. The answer both times was "I hope to meet with him in the next couple of days." It's now March, and we've given up on getting a final proposal from Cody. My rating for Kyne is based on an overall lack of professionalism and responsiveness. If there isn't time for our project, please let us know that. It's frustrating and disappointing to think you are going to be creating a fantastic backyard, but now need to start the planning process over again with a more responsive company.

*Update*- Glad to finally hear back from you Rob... Perhaps you could elaborate on why I was not a good fit for your company? Not that we really care, we just found it amusing. Do you guys not build retaining walls? Do you not have the equipment for excavating? If that's the case that should be made aware to potential customers rather than saying they're "not a good fit for your company." That just makes you sound pretentious and even more unprofessional. Still even after this review you could not man up and call to say you didn't want the job. Why didn't you say that to begin with? Why did you say you would submit a bid when you had no intention of doing so? Your utter lack of professionalism is astounding... For other Angie's listers I caution you against Kyne. This is based off of conversations with others companies in their field which need not be repeated here. Thanks again for FINALLY responding Rob. I'll make sure to spread the word about Kyne/G2. Merry Christmas!

We hired a landscape designer to give us ideas about hardscaping and landscaping for our south yard, located at the end of a dead end street and on the edge of a steep bluff. With the designer's drawings in hand, we interviewed and got bids from several landscape contractors before selecting Kyne Landscaping. The crew was able to begin work within a month. For the first three weeks they worked daily -- through some miserably hot weather -- to install the hardscape. Each paver and yard of gravel was installed precisely to match the design. The remaining work took another week and they finished on the timeline we had been promised. Every task and item of material on the original bid was accounted for, and the total cost was very reasonable for all that was accomplished. Rob Kyne is a delightful and professional person, and all of his crew members were polite, efficient, and careful in their work. We have called Kyne Landscaping back for three smaller jobs since the original work. We have recommended them to many friends and neighbors and will continue to do so.

We couldn't be happier with our new patio. Rob and his team were professional throughout the project. Their expertise is evident and they did what they said they would do, on time and on budget. The design is aesthetically pleasing and adds significantly to our outdoor living space and enjoyment. Rob was responsive to our requests - but we also really appreciated his ability to present alternatives that were better than some of our original ideas. His team cleaned up the site every night before they left. We would recommend Kyne Landscape without hesitation.

Went very well. All workers very timely and worked very hard while at site. The only think I didn't like was, they poured sand about 3feet out from the patio over my existing grass and it still hasn't grown back in. That doesn't look too good but my patio looks great! I just wish they would of told me this is "standard" prior to the job. Would use them for any landscaping needs I have, very professional and overall great job.

I bought a house that has been sitting for two years. They reconditioned it and did a good, thorough job. They were professional and pretty knowledgeable. They have a good supervisor. They are accountable, so if there is something that we don?t like they would fix it. They are also a big landscaping company that isn?t cheap. I wouldn?t use them for fence building in the future as they are not in that business. They hire a third party for it.

They did a wonderful job. It was on time and on budget and it was perfect. We had a designer who had suggested that we interview 3 different contractors. He had several suggestions at the beginning. We spoke with the designer and he agreed. It worked out just fine. I appreciated that he had good reasons for his suggestions. He was here almost every day. The crews were here early in the morning. They were quiet and cleaned up after themsleves every day. He brought in very high quality plants. He added around 300 and only 1 had to be replaced. The rest are thriving.