Our company has supplied materials to Hillside Nursery for many years. Under the prior ownership of Bruce Schneider, we never had any issues and always found him to be fair and reliable. Since the business was purchased by Mitch, however, we have faced challenges. Hillside Nursery currently has an outstanding balance of more than $6,300 that has been past due for over a year, despite repeated attempts to resolve the matter directly. As a supplier that has served Sonoma County since 1943, we believe strongly in fair business practices and honoring agreements. Unfortunately, in this case, we delivered as promised, but have not been compensated for our materials. He has stopped answering our phone calls. We encourage others to take this into consideration when choosing to do business with Hillside Nursery under its current ownership. read more

Poor time management, little attention to detail, ineffective communication. Frustrating experience. Not worth the money. We were deceived. We were very pleased with the service we received from Hillside in 2019. In 2022 the company was sold. All new team and management with the same company name. The old owner led me to believe that he was still involved, but in reality he was just selling us on the project based on our previous experience. He disappeared as soon as things started going south (which didn't take long). The project timeline was estimated to take 6 - 8 weeks. We started at the beginning of May, and was forecast to end in early July. We did not finish till mid October. Communication was a huge problem with Hillside. We would give explicit direction verbally or written in email, and that was rarely communicated effectively to the workers. There were rarely any responsible supervisors on site, and the workers were left to do whatever. Many work items were not completed according to contract specifications, were implemented poorly, or otherwise needed to be corrected. This poor workmanship resulted in significant delays and frustration. Some days the crew would not show up at all, with no communication to us whatsoever. I'd have to call/text the owner to learn when they were planning to come, and only half of those earned a response. Every single estimated milestone was missed, and when I asked for new estimates, they were also missed. One stand out example was when Hillside used a sub-contractor to pour the concrete patio. They forgot to install drains before pouring concrete. I withheld payment until they demoed portions of the concrete, installed drains appropriately, and repoured the concrete. Of course the second pouring doesn't match the exact color and texture of the first pouring. I had little faith that by making them redo it again, it would yield better results, so now we must live with a mismatched patio. Approximately 20 minutes after the sub-contractor re-poured the concrete, one of the Hillside guys walked directly across the wet concrete. He didn't know I happened to see him do it, so he tried to fix it himself with a trowel. I had to call the owner to ask him to have the sub contractors come back and retexture that area immediately, even so the texture of that area doesn't match the rest of the patio. Additionally the concrete is supposed to cure for 72 hours with a top color powder finish. On the second repouring, they only left the cure on for 12 hours, further accentuating the mismatch. Once again I noticed the same incompetent worker was rinsing off the finished powder, so I called the owner and he said, 'yeah he should be rinsing that off yet', but the damage was done. Sourcing materials was another pain point. Hillside refused to inquire on the status of our material order which was delayed. I had to contact the supplier directly in order to get accurate status updates. It turns out there were problems in production. The delays could have been mitigated with proper planning, but the owner was too worried about stressing out the relationship with the supplier to ask for status updates. The Hillside workers also took FREQUENT LONG BREAKS. They would leave trash like bottles and cans littered all over the worksite (our backyard), until I complained and told them to use our garbage cans. It seems absurd that I'd have to specify something as basic to a contractor as "don't litter, please use a trash can". I don't want to say only bad things. To their credit they completed everything I asked them to do, although I had to withhold payment in order to get to that point. The owner only swore at me twice in 6 months during tense discussions, and he apologized afterwards. They did complete several smaller items that were not in the contract in good faith, like relocating some existing plants and trees, and hauling away some junk for us. For this good will, I will give them 2 stars instead of 1. That being said, I would never use Hillside again. read more

Clearly, the good reviews were for the former owner, not the current one. Mitch did so much damage to our property that we were required to hire another contractor (at great cost) to make the repairs. The second contractor was shocked at Mitch's incompetence and pointed out all his mistakes, including one that posed a serious health hazard. He advised us to immediately report Hillside Landscaping to the California Contractors State Licensing Board. The CSLB told us his license was expired, therefor, he was not legally allowed to contract for work. read more

I hired Hillside not knowing the company had been sold - I had a recommendation for Bruce, so assumed that was who I was hiring. The new owner Mitch was great at first, very personable and accommodating. The work started and halfway through we ran into a septic issue that I had to remedy, which took a few months. When I reached out to Mitch to resume the work he ghosted me. I got no response to multiple texts, emails and phone calls. I am out nearly $5,000 with a job half done, and poorly done at that. The drain he installed didn't work properly and it cost me $1,000 to repair. My septic guy repaired the leaking irrigation. Mitch's crew also damaged my garden gate. They used very cheap landscape fabric when I requested heavy duty. Not only do I not recommend, I would strongly warn you not to hire Mitch. read more

Bruce was a pleasure to work with. Not only did he help to create my vision, but he exceeded my expectations. Bruce went above and beyond by inviting me to go along with him to pick out my plants. He was professional, personable and transparent. I had a budget, which he graciously accepted, without trying to convince me otherwise. The most fun part about working with him was the pride and joy that you could see he felt when he delivered his finished product to a satisfied customer. I truly enjoyed the entire process. In addition, his employees were professional and clean. (If you have ever had work done on your house, you know what slobs contractors can be)! Thank you Bruce! We would love to have you over this summer for a BBQ! read more

The crew were knowledgeable, friendly and skilled. The work was more than up to full value for the money. I love their view that home is sanctuary and they are sacred space creators. A big hurrah for them. read more

This is a great company with knowledgable crews who can do anything and everything they do is done right. Bruce and Mitch take great care and pride in their work. We had a whole backyard redo with new irrigation, plantings, stone work, and a fire pit. Lots of earthwork was also done. They did this ahead of schedule, turned up nearly every day and made sure our property was protected during the recent big storms. I can't say enough about this excellent company. read more

We cannot say enough good things about Bruce and his team! We ended up working with Bruce to raise our fences, and from there, he was able to help us with several other projects in our yard. We were beyond grateful that he was able to work with our vision and our budget to create a space that we love so much!! In addition to that, Bruce is beyond professional, kind, helpful and polite. He met with us on multiple occasions to make sure we were happy with the work, he texted to make sure we were satisfied with cleanup at the end of the day - his hospitality and customer service is top notch! Bruce's team is some of the best we've had! They showed up on time, paid attention to detail and made sure we were happy with everything. So happy we were able to work with Bruce and his team! Thank you for all the hard work and for the amazing backyard you gave us! read more

Incompetent and extraordinarily slow. But the workers have very long and social breaks and meals.

I enjoyed working with Bruce and his crew. They were prompt and did a great job. Bruce was able to stay within my budget and I was really pleased with the results. It only took them a week start to finish. Thanks Bruce for a job well done. read more

Hillside Landscaping recently redeveloped our front yard (from a closed off hedge surrounding dried up grass to a modern low maintenance drought resistant black mulch covered garden, with night time lights, along with a nice little concrete patio). Bruce provided great ideas for its design, allowing us to participate, and was very accommodating to our tastes & needs. We are very very happy with the results and highly recommend Hillside if you have any re-landscaping needs. read more

Bruce is absolutely wonderful to work with. I met with several local Petaluma landscapers and instantly clicked with him. On the initial walk through of our backyard project, he spent more time than anyone talking with me about what we wanted to do. I knew he was going to be great to work with based upon his knowledge, experience, and communication. We had Bruce do a design plan to scale and accepted his competitive proposal, which included an area of sod, a raised vegetable garden, kid-friendly plants and trees, and a complete irrigation system. His crew was friendly, hardworking, and efficient. Bruce and his foreman kept me informed of the daily progress and overall schedule. They completed the project on time and it looks so amazing! It's hard to pick my favorite part of our yard - the Japanese maples that Bruce grew himself, the custom redwood raised vegetable area, or the lovely butterfly garden for our daughter. I recommend that anyone looking for a landscaper with vast expertise and great attention to detail contact Bruce. It was a truly wonderful experience working with him. We look forward to future projects with Bruce and Hillside Landscaping. read more

Bruce and his team at Hillside Landscaping have done several projects for me and I extremely happy with not only the end result but also the quality, expertise and professionalism. Bruce made my yard look incredible and changed the way my family lives in it! Also Bruce is a great friend, humanitarian and someone I can always depend on. In my mind anyone can do a decent job landscaping these days but to have someone that is dependable, friendly and is an innovative landscaper that delivers at a good price - that is hard to find! Most recently Bruce took a sloped, rocky, unusable backyard and turned it into a level, grassy, beautiful landscaped area for my family. When we started the project Bruce came in excited - not just about changing our yard but changing the way we live in our yard. This is different than other landscapers I have worked with. He then started immediately designing WITH me to give me options that fit our lifestyle, budget and timeframe. As the work began I also met his team and they were neat, courteous and hard workers. Bruce always kept me informed each step of the way of new ideas he came up with and where he was in the timeline of our project. You can really tell Bruce loves his job too by the enthusiasm he showed daily! An extra benefit that I didn't expect was the "go green" recommendations he had on plantings, water and more. Finally I have a backyard that I love and is used daily! I can't thank Bruce at Hillside Landscaping for perfectly creating our dream yard. I would certainly recommend Bruce and his team to anyone and everyone! Kristi Petaluma read more

I was looking for a local landscaper to plant juniper trees along our fence for privacy. I was on Nextdoor and saw several recommendations for landscapers. I called three and Bruce at Hillside Landscaping was the only one to call me. And am I glad he called! He was always prompt (at least once he was early) to our meetings. His crew worked very hard and did an amazing job. We were so pleased with the work that we hired him to finish the backyard. After seeing how well that came together, we decided to have the front yard landscaped too. I highly recommend Bruce for any of your landscaping needs. He is reliable, honest and trustworthy and does a great job. We are so pleased with the results. read more

This was a long awaited project and I wasn't disappointed. Bruce bid the job competitively and then took the time to do it well. He put us in touch w/a landscape designer saving us the time and effort in finding someone competent. Both she and Bruce were knowledgeable and efficient and had a focus on California native/dought resistant plants. His workers were friendly and particularly patient with my yellow lab. We may have some follow-up work in the future and it feels good to have Bruce as a resource we can count on. I also liked that we used a Petaluma-based company :). read more

I have worked with Bruce on several projects. He is competitive and very complete with his work. He communicates well with the client and goes out of his way to make sure everyone is happy. Bruce is very knowledgeable when it comes to species and design and will do everything it takes to create a masterpiece. He is high on my list for sub contractors that I feel confident recommending. read more

Bruce is great to work with and knows his business. They renovated our yard for drought tolerant climate appropriate and native grasses and shrubs. read more

We recently completed a total front and backyard makeover with Bruce. He really took the time to listen to my many, many ideas, formulated those into concrete plans and got to work turning the yard into a gorgeous sanctuary for our family. His crew was professional, extremely courteous, friendly and wonderful to work with. We are so pleased with how everything looks. It far exceeds what I ever imagined, just beautiful! I highly recommend Bruce for your landscaping needs, you will not be disappointed. read more

Bruce recently worked with us on a complete makeover of our front and back yards. He listened carefully to our requirements, then produced a plan that met them very well. His crew went to work immediately, and carried out the work expertly, with Bruce overseeing their activities daily. Every member of Bruce's crew was hardworking and friendly, and they asked us to view their work frequently to make sure it was meeting our expectations. As an example of going above and beyond, they moved a large, very heavy fountain in order to pour a new patio. They returned many weeks after completing the landscaping job just to put the fountain back in place. Bruce and his team did what they promised, even offering to replace a few flowers that wilted in a brief heatwave after their work was done. We are very pleased by the results Bruce and his crew were able to achieve. read more

This is the second yard that Hillside has done for us and it is even better than the last! Hillside was professional and got the job done on time and on budget. They listened to my concerns and were flexible as I changed my mind with certain design aspects of the project. They were very clean and courteous. Even showing up on weekends to tweak lighting and watering issues. I would recommend Hillside to anyone looking to do any landscaping. read more

We had an extensive project on our property completed by Bruce and his crew, and the results are wonderful! We are very pleased with the thoroughness and workmanship of the project. We look forward to working with Hillside again on another project. read more

Just want to echo what the other reviewers have said about Bruce and his crew: competitive bid, beautiful, quality work and attention to all the details, constant communication about what it was we really wanted, and a real willingness to take on a challenging brick design. Bruce is an extremely approachable and thoughtful person, and his crew is thorough, polite, and pleasant to have around. Would definitely work with him again. read more

Bruce and his team did a wonderful job creating beautiful backyard space for our home. The whole crew takes pride in their work and were very cooperative about changes and additions we had during the project. The job was completed on time and on budget and exceeded our expectations. read more

I have known Bruce for many years and I've seen his excellent work first hand. He has done work for us and several of our neighbors. Bruce has a real passion for landscaping and although he has decades of experience, he incorporates best practices and sustainable, low impact designs. His crew is fast and efficient. He also works with talented designers. Bruce knows landscaping. read more

Hillside Landscaping just completed an entire re-do of our front yard. We are so very happy with the outcome. Bruce and his crew are top notch! Bruce stayed in contact throughout the project and was each to talk with. Bruce pays attention to detail and his crew is very efficient. We had hard scape and soft scape work done with a low water requirement. The premises was orderly and clean at the end of each day. We can highly recommend Hillside Landscaping. read more

THE BEST!! Our landscaping project was multifaceted and involved construction/ extension of a wood structure (pergola) to match an existing one; adding and MATCHING aggregate paving to a (1999) existing patio (a particularly remarkable feat!); installing a flagstone path; removing loads of rocks and replacing and installing new irrigation, trees and plants (on a steep hill) as well as lower levels; landscape lighting . . . well, you get the idea - pretty extensive. All this executed by Bruce at the helm, and his exceptional crew. They were here EVERY morning, from day 1 of the project to the end, and it was completed on schedule. Bruce focuses on one project at a time and gives it his complete attention, which in my experience, is rare. His lead man is multiskilled and the entire crew has an admirable work ethic, which starts at the top with Bruce, who has very high standards and takes great pride in the work. He is extremely knowledgeable, makes the project enjoyable, and goes to great lengths to achieve the desired result. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE? NOPE!! THEY'RE ALL THAT!! read more