landscape company recommendations

I'm in the middle of doing my back yard landscaping with Jo and expecting to finish in this week.
I still need a week to write my review but my experience with Jo was so far so good.

I actually read the old thread between Jo and studio/bones/dealcatcher before I contacted him. And after reading the thread, his last apology made me to contact him to ask my landscaping quote.

After getting quotes from multiple landscaping companies, my final candidates came down to KS landscaping and Jo's Echo family. KS landscaping was nice too but their price was way more expensive than Jo's quote for exact same works.  And I especially liked the fact  that I can go to nurseries with Jo to see and select my plants, trees and stone choices.  Jo actually spent longer than 2 hours in a couple of nurseries and stone slab yards to ask my preferences. He also explained and recommended many things I wasn't aware so that I can make right decisions.  He was very knowledgeable about landscaping plants.

After my third meeting with Jo in nurseries and stone slab yards, he wrote down my plants/stones and gravel choices. And finally he gave me documented landscaping plans including price break down.  Until this stage, I hadn't paid any dollar to him. To me, it seems he takes extra care for TI members (Yes, I mentioned him I saw his thread on TI) and he gave me some TI discounts too. I gave him many concept images from the internet to let him know what I exactly want to make.  He well takes care of my requests so far.

It seems he's usually very busy to work with other customers and multiple houses but he's very diligent to work from early morning to late night. When I asked something, sometimes he came to my house after sunset to catch my requests/concerns. I saw him working on even Saturday and Sunday. So at least, I know he's not a type of slacking contractors who make customers frustrating to work them out and ignore customer's concerns.
 
Same here .. we are getting Jo even after reading the TI thread (actually I didn't know his company before the TI thread).  I just decided to give him a shot.  We are now awaiting HOA approval on the plan.

The main thing that really impressed us about him is he has done a LOT of yards in the nearby area (PS and LR) and he is pretty good at remembering which house he has done what.  During just in our second meeting I think, we saw a very nice stone layout in one of his pictures and was hoping to see the actual and off we go to Quinterra to look at a sample of his work using that stone.  We want to look at another stone pattern, off we go to another house in Colibri to see it.  Then my wife was looking for some special layout idea, he thought for a while, made a call and off we go to Lambert Ranch which shows pretty close to what my wife was thinking.  We all did these in one night.  He could probably had shown us more houses if we want, but we were okay as we have found what we want more or less..

He was also very patient with us through several revisions of the plan (probably close to 10 revisions as we keep on changing mind on what to put where).  He drew the plans by hand so it must took him some effort to do it as well as having to recalculate the total price per revision  (although he uses a template).. All this without the assurance that we will even get him. 

Finally, he does know his landscape plants especially roses.  MrsGH is an avid rose fan and wants the yards filled with roses and they did connect when talking about what kind of roses to put etc etc ..
 
I hit up Jo today, it appears he's booked for the rest of the year.  Time for me to visit Home Depot's parking lot.
 
The man is booked solid until 2015.  Why? cause he stalked people here and then defended himself. 
He didn't even have to sponsor the site.

It would be interesting to know how much business TI has given him.
 
zubs said:
The man is booked solid until 2015.  Why? cause he stalked people here and then defended himself. 
He didn't even have to sponsor the site.

It would be interesting to know how much business TI has given him.
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Funny how things work.  Resort style backyards sponsors the site and turns out that he contracts out everything and doesn't like to follow up.  Jo defends his business with passion and gets a lot of business.  I know of at least 2 other TI members that have booked him since that incident so I'm sure there are more. 
 
zubs said:
The man is booked solid until 2015.  Why? cause he stalked people here and then defended himself. 
He didn't even have to sponsor the site.

It would be interesting to know how much business TI has given him.
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I hear good things about Uncle Jo.  :D



 
Yup, Jo's workmanship stands out.  It's easy to see which yards were done by his crew.  I think I snatched up him right before he got too busy so he stated that he could finish my job before the end of the year.  I definitely think The TI incident helped him as it showed his passion and sincerity.  I just hope he doesn't kill me for wanting some last minute changes.  Here's a thumps up to Echo. 
 
irvinehomeowner said:
zovall should add a section where we can post reviews/ratings of vendors.

Sort of like Yelp, but TI-centric.
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Great idea.  I understand why ppl post a new thread with questions that's been answered in the past cuz sometimes you have to read through a bazzilion pages on old threads.
 
Yep... that's what I'm aiming for... so if you have categories, people can just look for the reviews/recs there rather than making new topics in the forums or trying to search.

An old forum I used to be on had something like that where a new member can post a review and people could add on but the first post had all the main information so you don't get lost in a conversation that sidetracks to schools or ethnic profiling.
 
How does Jo's designs compare to Jefferson Rand?  I head they do a lot of the nicer homes in Portola Springs but on on the high side >$50k.  Does Jo design the fireplace and bbq courtyards with lush trees that you see out there?
 
lovingit said:
anyone use jefferson rand? are they worth the cost??
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I've had a close friend use Jefferson Rand, and they were happy with their work...it was a very large project tho (pool, waterslide, basketball court, lots of synthetic turf, playground, etc.).  Lots of details and moving parts, and worth the money.  For smaller jobs, I don't think they are very competitive price-wise, and you should be able to find quality alternatives at a much lower price.
 
shadyoc said:
How does Jo's designs compare to Jefferson Rand?  I head they do a lot of the nicer homes in Portola Springs but on on the high side >$50k.  Does Jo design the fireplace and bbq courtyards with lush trees that you see out there?
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Yes, he's done most of the bigger projects in Lambert Ranch as well. His designs are well liked and he does design fireplaces and bbq courtyards / hard scape with lush trees but the soft scape will depend on your preference so you can have it as lush as u want, but it will just cost more.  Most of his jobs are $50k plus I believe.  Although our work is still a WIP, so far it looks great. His crew also works fast and are reliable.
 
gasman said:
I've had a close friend use Jefferson Rand, and they were happy with their work...it was a very large project tho (pool, waterslide, basketball court, lots of synthetic turf, playground, etc.).
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Basketball court!

Now you need to introduce this friend of your,  I want to be his friend too. :)
 
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