I've been working with Jean Brooks Landscapes for just over 10 years now and I've never had a single problem with their team. The work they did in redesigning and installing my property far exceeded expectations. Their design process was incredibly thorough and creative. They had plans for my garden I could have never imagined and honestly doubted was even possible but they delivered, which is exactly why I had wanted to work with her in the first place. Jean Brooks Landscapes came highly recommended from people in my neighborhood, I had seen her trucks and gardens before, and I had heard their segment on NPR which gave me a lot of confidence. Over the years my garden has matured beautifully with the care of their maintenance team. I haven't lost a single plant! We've made some changes over the years, added things and transplanted others and everything has been so happy since the first day. I'm not certain of the other reviews on this site, but everyone I've ever spoken to about Jean and her team had nothing but cheers for Jean and her team. I still have a copy of the original, hand-drawn, incredibly beautiful design plan for our garden which I really appreciate. Call me old fashion but I admire their commitment to detail and design. I will admit that the work is not cheap, but it is well worth it. If you are looking to create a space that is well thought out, precisely installed and has character, rhythm, and soul then look no further. My wife and I highly recommend Jean Brooks and her team to anyone looking to create a beautiful and unique space. read more

I found this company on Houzz. There were many positive reviews on the site. So, I decided to call and ask for landscaping services. I spoke with Jean Brooks on 9/15 at length about what we were looking for. She communicated that her company could meet the need and asked me to schedule an appointment. The appointment was made and confirmed with/by Jean Brooks. I have the email she sent me to prove this. On the day of the appointment, I waited 5 minutes before I made a call. I called the number she had given me when we spoke on the phone on 9/15. No response, so I left a voicemail. I then called the company's number on their website. Lots of annotated rerouting happening. Bottom line, I reached no one and certainly not Jean Brooks. As other reviewers have noted, this company has proven itself unreliable and unprofessional. Do not consult them for your landscaping needs. As is clear from my experience and those of others who have reviewed this company, Jean Brooks will not show up. Very disappointed, but grateful for the ability to help others avoid a disaster. read more

I used the service for many years. It's slowly deteriorated to the point where I was forced to choose a different company. Among other problems, I was charged for work that never happened. The owner lied to both me and my daughter about treatments supposedly performed to a nailing 300 year old Beach tree. Other mistakes such as pruning my hydrangeas at the wrong time of year prevented them from blooming. It was the loss of trust and the lies that convinced me to leave this company. I am now using Pemberton Garden Services and I am very satisfied. read more

I can't review because Jean Brooks never showed up for the appointment I made with her by phone. No call, no text, no email, just didn't show up. I changed my schedule to be home at a designated time. I texted her when she was late, no response. Disrespect is not a good way to get started with a new customer. I understand things come up, but please call or text or let the customer know you aren't going to show. read more

Unfortunately, I have to agree with the previous reviewer. I didn't want to cast the first stone, but I do want to warn others. We hired Jean Brooks for our .1 acre plot in Cambridge. We were impressed with Jean herself, and were confident we would have a good experience. Long story short, since my blood is starting to boil already and I don't need the stress, our first invoice was exactly 2.5 times bigger than what was quoted. This was _after_ my stressing at the project outset that our budget was solid. I called to discuss the invoice and was absolutely _floored_ by the response. Jean, who had previously been sweet as pie, became absolutely irate with me for asking for more detail on how the invoice had ballooned so badly. I expected a reasoned explanation, and instead got a very unpleasant, unprofessional, childish response. I almost dropped the phone. She insisted that we had given her the go ahead to do additional work-we had _not_. Or, it had not been made clear that she was doing additional work. The work itself: we asked for a lawn plan, complete with actual names of plants and placement. Instead, we got a general drawing which was basically what we had described ourselves at project outset. The design was executed entirely by a very nice but very young and inexperienced new hire. Additionally, when we allowed her to submit a competing bid on what could have been a very lucrative driveway job, she _charged_ us for coming up with an estimate! E.g. time to measure the site. She screamed that she had spent professional time "designing" the driveway...hello, peastone with cobble bands is what we had said we wanted, and that is exactly what we got in the "design". The most expensive back-of-the-envelope drawing I've ever purchased. In short: if you have money to burn, save yourself the unpleasant personal experience and just write them a check for doing nothing. read more

After repeatedly driving by a pretty (and postage stamp sized) garden being designed by Jean Brooks Landscapes, I decided we'd have her design our small sized garden, too. WHAT A COSTLY MISTAKE!! Being a new home owner/new to owning a garden and having no idea what plants/flowers would be the best for us, we put our faith (and unfortunately, our pocketbook) in Jean's (and her cohort, Nicola) greedy little hands. Our budget of $20K-yes, that's right, $20,000, quickly ballooned because they couldn't do "much" for less. So, we bit the bullet and went ahead with the plans. The work crew, headed by Brad (Jean's beau) did a pretty good job clearing our land and planting the bushes (though Brad did take a few chunks out of our fence that he merely tired to paint over, but didn't match the color). Our real problems started with Nicola, our garden designer. She was very passive aggressive and didn't like being questioned about her proposed choices and their accompanying expenses. She was actually pretty snotty in her responses. Nicola was more than happy to suggest planting hundreds of dollars of bulbs for that splash of color (that were incidentally, mostly eaten by squirrels before they even bloomed) that would make our garden "pop". What she neglected to offer was to plant flowering bushes that would do the same, year after year, without us having to incur the yearly cost of planting-VERY SNEAKY! And, of course, they told us that we needed several pots of flowers to add color, too (3 pots in front and 6 pots in back) that cost several hundreds of dollars more. To frame the front of our house, a $4K fence was installed-it's nice but even after I twice pointed out that they missed an area of the fence that was supposed to be painted white (and in the sunlight you can see it's beige, not white), they never came back and painted. Also, we've had continual drainage problems w/ the irrigation system that resulted in the over watering and ultimate death of one of our bushes, that we brought to Jean's attention several times but was never replaced. We ultimately were credited for the bush. And, the expensive irrigation system's LCD panel has broken due to excess moisture-go figure, an outdoor instrument that can't handle the elements! After all was said and done, our garden looked pretty good for that first summer. Then, POW, guess what folks? There were PREVIOUSLY UNMENTIONED maintenance fees to now deal with! Jean came up with an estimate of $800/month for our garden maintenance! And that's for almost 12 months of the year! We never knew you needed to care for your garden during the winter months-did you?? What was this expense that we were never informed of during the start of this whole venture???? Appalled, we told them we'd plan on them performing maintenance on a season by season basis (clean up in spring/fall and some plantings in the spring). Well, this apparently didn't go over too well with Jean and believe it or not, we received a "DEAR JOHN" letter from them the following spring telling us they were sorry but they were no longer able to care for small size gardens in our home town any further. WE WERE STUNNED! We were never informed that this could be a possibility. After all the money we'd invested in our garden under their recommendations, what were we to do? They suggested some local companies (that interestingly enough, Jean had bad mouthed during our initial conversation with them, and I believe Jean referred to them as "grow and mow" companies). But, thinking it was likely due to the bad economy, we accepted this termination and thought we'd just deal with our maintenance ourselves. You think that's the end of the story? WRONG! Not long after our termination, I drove by the original small garden that drew me to Jean Brooks in the first place-and what did I see with my own eyes? Jean Brooks landscape workers dutifully caring for the postage size front lawn! At that point, I woke up and smelled the coffee. Apparently, Jean doesn't want to deal with a customer who questions the prices/costs of plants/services before approving them (which is what I always had to do w/ Nicola, since she was constantly offering to plant $300 worth of bulbs here, $500 worth of potted plants there). My husband and I felt COMPLETELY DUPED by Jean Brooks and very angry at this outcome. Had I known we would have been treated this way, we would have NEVER HIRED Jean Brooks. We thought hiring a small local firm would be good all around, but we were sadly (and expensively) mistaken. I will NEVER RECOMMEND this firm to anyone, since I find their deceptive business practices totally unacceptable. As it stands now, we have to hire another landscape company and incur further costs to repair what Jean has done. BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY! read more

Working with Jean Brooks Landscapes for the past 5 years, I just had to let people know that her and her team are just amazing. The professionalism, skill and knowledge that her and her company bring to the table are unmatched in my opinion. Every visit is done with the utmost speed and precision. Her staff is always friendly and helpful and will jump to do whatever I ask of them. If you want a good job done and done right give these folks a call. read more

We approached Jean with a very tight timeline considering that others had left us in the lurch failing to provide promised estimates and we wanted to transform our yard for a memorial weekend event. Although not inexpensive, we feel you get what you pay for and Jean was very professional. She worked with us to revise our estimate and then, once we agreed on the work, came in with her team and efficiently transformed our small city backyard into a beautiful and useable green space. The final cost was exactly the contract price. We recommend going straight to Jean if you need landscaping work. read more

I will add my awful experience to the others. This woman belongs as a designer working for someone who has a business sense. I cannot remember ever having such a bad experience working with a professional, from the estimate that was over-run, to the daily change in what the original plan was to the nightmare of sorting out the mistakes in the billing, all with an attitude that she is never wrong in her interpretation. I truly do not know how she stays in business. Very sad, really because she has some very nice staff. I would definitely go elsewhere. read more

I wish I could disagree with these other reviews, but unfortunately we had a very similar experience. To be fair, the design and concept of our project came out great, and we are very happy with the finished product. If money is no object, if you don't have strong opinions on choices, and have no particular deadline, you might be happy. Their communication was poor, pricing outrageous and poorly explained, and attitude sometimes unpleasant. So many issues made the project angst-filled. They do not seem to care about seeing the finished product or about keeping our business going forward. Such a shame. read more

To be honest I am shocked by the other reviews! We have ONLY had a productive, pleasant relationship with Jean and the company. We had our original design and construction done by the company as well as all of the maintenance. Despite the fact that neither I nor my wife have any knowledge of gardens or plants, the designers were able to go off of our vague descriptions and create a space that is beyond what we ever had imagined. From our first consultation to our continued maintenance we have had the support of Jean and her team. We shopped around with a few landscaping designers before we settled on Jean. For what we were asking for Jean had by far the best price. Based on their previous work we were able to decide that they were going to create an environment that matched our aesthetics. Not only did they deliver exactly what they promised but they came in exactly on budget and on time. After the initial design we considered having our maintenance done by a company that only did maintenance, but their prices would have saved us no money and we would have missed out on all of the bonuses of having the designers do the maintenance. Two and a half years since the project was finished we have lost only two plants, both thanks to our pesky pups. Jean replaced both despite the fact that it was not in anyway the fault of the company. Our garden looks beautiful year round and we could not be happier with the service we receive from Jean Brooks. Their service is not cheap but you get what you pay for. If you are considering the company it's a 100% yes, go for it. read more