Avoid this landscaper. I interviewed 5 or 6 different landscaping companies in the area and wanted to go with one of the companies that gets good reviews here. But, against my better judgment, I caved to my mom's constant pressuring to use the person she used, Proud Keeper. Basically the pitch was, whatever proposal you get, I'll beat it. He underbid the project and is now trying to make up for the miscalculation by giving me a crap yard. HUGE HUGE and very costly mistake. Not to mention, work started in early December and the yard has yet to be complete despite promises that it would be done in maybe 6 weeks.
Total budget is over $60k for a fairly basic design (which, coincidentally I had to do most of spending countless hours on Pinterest despite paying their affiliated designer $1,500). Mostly drought tolerant plants with the most complicated feature being a water feature in the back yard. I didn't get the water feature I wanted because the owner of Proud Keeper insisted it wouldn't work. He also insisted that I should use a certain spout on the water feature that I didn't like. Poured concrete in various areas without ever asking me - though design clearly showed tile with surrounding rock in a particular location. I was out of town and literally came back to a yard with concrete borders eeeeverywhere. Fought me tooth and nail about putting in bamboo solely because it's more expensive than the material he normally recommends and uses to those who do not do their own research.
Every step has been a battle of trying to make the owner listen to what I want, only to have him do whatever he decides & then being told that things were already done so could not be undone. Then I was told I would get planting that he would select. NOPE. My yard looks like one of the cheapie yards I see with baby sized everything. Most of what was brought for planting consisted of puny items. My husband is an avid gardener so I'm very familiar with good quality and bad quality plants and what was brought to my house and planted was sub, sub-par.
Now I'm out $59k and have a balance left and I'll have to have my husband rip out most of what's been planted and redo our front yard. Cannot begin to articulate how peeved I am. I know landscaping is a huge headache anyways but this has been a disaster. DO NOT USE THIS LANDSCAPER and avoid my mistake. Every time I think about how much money has gone down the sink I cringe.
Total budget is over $60k for a fairly basic design (which, coincidentally I had to do most of spending countless hours on Pinterest despite paying their affiliated designer $1,500). Mostly drought tolerant plants with the most complicated feature being a water feature in the back yard. I didn't get the water feature I wanted because the owner of Proud Keeper insisted it wouldn't work. He also insisted that I should use a certain spout on the water feature that I didn't like. Poured concrete in various areas without ever asking me - though design clearly showed tile with surrounding rock in a particular location. I was out of town and literally came back to a yard with concrete borders eeeeverywhere. Fought me tooth and nail about putting in bamboo solely because it's more expensive than the material he normally recommends and uses to those who do not do their own research.
Every step has been a battle of trying to make the owner listen to what I want, only to have him do whatever he decides & then being told that things were already done so could not be undone. Then I was told I would get planting that he would select. NOPE. My yard looks like one of the cheapie yards I see with baby sized everything. Most of what was brought for planting consisted of puny items. My husband is an avid gardener so I'm very familiar with good quality and bad quality plants and what was brought to my house and planted was sub, sub-par.
Now I'm out $59k and have a balance left and I'll have to have my husband rip out most of what's been planted and redo our front yard. Cannot begin to articulate how peeved I am. I know landscaping is a huge headache anyways but this has been a disaster. DO NOT USE THIS LANDSCAPER and avoid my mistake. Every time I think about how much money has gone down the sink I cringe.