I'm so glad I hired James at Nature's Creations. I'd been procrastinating finding someone to dig up the large roots of four bushes I removed from my yard. I liked the reviews for Nature's Creations, and left a message for James. (I'd left messages for 1 or 2 other well-reviewed gardeners on yelp, and had a terrible time getting call backs. I understand those other folks may have been outdoors on jobs, but I was getting very discouraged about even getting a quote.) James returned my call within an hour, stopped by the property while I was at work that same day, and called me with a quote. The price was so reasonable that I asked him to quote the next phase of my project as well: cutting and laying down large slabs of stone to pave over this former flower bed. He completed the first phase within 2 days, and did a thorough job cleaning up and removing all traces of the work. To discuss phase two, he met with me on site during a time I was available on the weekend, walked me through the process, and offered practical suggestions. He provided his own equipment, and took care of the design, the execution and thorough clean up. He completed that within the week, leaving me voicemail updates on the progress. I couldn't have been happier with the service or the final result. In addition to the thorough and efficient job James did, he demonstrated an enthusiastic and professional attitude, and I look forward to working with him again. read more

i saw a review for James on Yelp, and thought i'd give him a try. i was not disappointed. the man knows his stuff, is a hard worker, and with fair prices. I had him clear two yards that were jungle-like, and he did it in less than 2 days - it looks much better now. he also made a point to come back to refill the green containers with all the green stuff he took out. he also made one my trees look like a tree again - he's got a great eye for this :) i would highly recommend James to anyone looking for a Gardener in the Oakland area. read more

James staged our outdoor spaces on a shoestring. We had a beautiful townhouse in the heart of San Francisco , but there was nary a living thing in the backyard or on the rooftop deck. James collaborated with both my husband and myself to add splashes of color and visual interest and comfortable, beautiful seating areas. His ideas and hardwork turned our 12x12 backyard into a private zen oasis, and our rooftop deck into an inviting space to suit two or ten. He used a wide variety of hardy, drought-resistant (and for the roof, wind-tolerant) plants that survived and thrived throughout the time the townhouse was on the market. It all required the bare minimum of maintenance, which was a must given my "brown thumb". In this market, it seems a miracle to get the asking price for your home, and with James' help, that's exactly what we did. read more

James has been fabulous in helping us understand and repair our irrigation system and re-design our backyard. James is down to earth and friendly to work with. He works hard and methodically. For us, he tackled messy clean-ups of trees, bushes and rocks; replaced sod; offered design suggestions and always has endless suggestions for plants and plant placement. He has been willing to break our project into steps and has been patient as we have had to stop and go more than once and his fees are fair. I especially appreciate his love for plants and life and his ability to understand and bring to life our vision of a beautiful yard. We plan to continue hiring James. read more

James has trimmed the wisteria covering our house twice now. It's a big, complicated job, and he handles it with aplomb. I daresay he is an artist whose paintbrush is a pair of pruning shears. I recommend him without hesitation. read more

James Bronson III has been helping me with adding irrigation to my back yard. The work he has done is fantastic. James has also advised me about what plants work in different areas of the yard and has even gone to the nursery to purchase things that will work. James has moved plants around to make the layout of the yard actually "work." I am really happy with his advice and his work and would highly recommend him! read more

James Bronson III knows his stuff... We had a sad looking tree that needed some-thing.... no one else could figure out what the issue was. James took a snippet, did research and now our tree is looking amazing. He's also recently just brought our bougainvillea back too. He 's dependable and really cares about his art form and creations. And he's a sweetheart. Who wouldn't want to hire him? read more

James has an amazing eye and is just a wonderful human being to work with. We worked with him on and off over a year's time to transform our weed-infested back yard into a serene and beautiful dream space. James often referred to the project as a collaboration and that's exactly what it felt like. Not only did we all work together with the vision and details of the project, but James had no problem with letting us know what work we could do ourselves and actually showed us how to do it. That, along with his totally reasonable rates, saved us a lot of money. While he did a lot of "grunt work" such as weed, trash, and soil removal, his greatest asset is his genius and thoughtfulness when it comes to design. He really has an eye for the right angles and balance and helped us pick out the right kind of plants for our space. If you would like to see before and after pictures of the project you can send us a message through yelp. read more

Gardening is my hobby, but there's a lot I don't know, among the art, like how to prune a wisteria. Wisterias are known for refusing to bloom if they don't like the way you prune them and I was terrified of touching mine, which was rapidly taking over the yard, street, and my immediate neighbors. I hired James Bronson III to prune her and came home to find him in deep conversation with the rampant vine. He looked up when he saw me. "Well," said my wisteria whisperer, "I've been talking to your wisteria and I believe we're in agreement on what she wants to do." Hours later, the dormant but newly tamed vine was braiding herself neatly through the pergola. Now it's spring and every single branch has burst into glorious bloom to the wonder of my neighbors and friends. Today a friend was admiring her and had these words to say, " The best thing about it is the elegance. Look at those lines! Your gardener really has an eye for form." My weeping salex, currently disguised as Cousin Itt, is waiting her turn. read more

James rescued our Berkeley front yard from complete disarray. My partner and I are terrible gardeners, weren't really sure what we wanted, and had little time for maintenance. Hence our yard had turned into a disaster. We learned of James from a friend; over a period of several months James (truly a plant whisperer) worked with us to help us figure out what we were looking for and instantiate it in a beautiful, easy-to-maintain, thoughtfully designed landscape. He installed a robust and easy-to-use irrigation system, planted edibles, trees, and decorative plants, laid out a beautiful stone border, and created a path. His costs are very reasonable; we were on a modest budget and he came in at the low end of the range he had quoted us. I also appreciated that he helped us think about ways to do things less expensively now, but leave the option for upgrade when we want to invest more. For example he created an inexpensive gravel path but did it in such a way that we could easily install flagstones later. The total costs were much less than another quote we had gotten for the same work and we are extremely pleased with the results. I recommend him highly! read more

James is a very smart, skilled gardener/landscaper, and a sweet, thoughtful man as well. His installation of an irrigation system for us went off without a hitch, even though he encountered truly unforeseeable obstacles that might have caused others to complain or ask for more money. He had lots of other good ideas about our garden, and was not seeking to charge an arm and a leg to do them. I would highly recommend him. read more

We recently moved into an old house in El Cerrito. The irrigation was a hodge-podge of the do-it-yourself variety. It was inefficient, hard to use, and harder to maintain. James came to our home, worked out a plan with us, developed a budget, and went to work - on time, on schedule, and on budget. He ripped out all the junk, streamlined the system, spent time to teach us how to use, maintain, and modify what he'd installed, and got our landscaping healthy again. As a bonus, he brought with him a strong understanding of flora and has a good eye for practicality. He's personable, timely, and makes himself available to work out kinks and answer questions. We'll seek his services again in the future. read more

I found James on Yelp and called him because we needed serious help in our backyard. It was a jungle out there. Weeds, grass up to your thighs, beautiful Japanese Maple that needed some TLC and some older plants we wanted removed. He did a very thorough initial consultation, asking what we ultimately wanted after the jungle was tamed and getting to know us as people. He did a great job on clearing the backyard. Next we moved on to the front yard that had some small trees/shrubs I wanted removed. He got that done in one day and also cleared two flower beds of bark. He really listened to what we wanted and now we have a lovely garden out in the front. He knew what would be best for the plants and installed an irrigation system. More than likely we would have killed the plants in the first week had we not gotten the irrigation system. The garden is effortless, it is really wonderful. He is extremely knowledgeable about landscaping and an all around great guy. Give him a call. We'll be calling soon to have him carry out the zen space we talked about for the backyard. read more

James updated our broken-down irrigation system and got it working great. Good job!

James Bronson III has been maintaining my lawn and small yard for more than a year now. He is reliable, effecient and a true delight to work with. I'm not a gardener but I love coming home to a garden that makes me feel happy just to see it. I highly recommend him to anyone who loves being surrounded by nature's beauty. read more

I would recommend James for any gardening job. James is a hard worker who really understands plants, as well as design concepts. He is great at working on projects: he set up a small veggie garden in our backyard, specifically with accessibility for the elderly in mind. James is doing great work with our lemon tree, which is looking healthier than it has in ages! We are so happy to have found him. read more

Before I found James and Nature's Creations, my yard was a tangled mess of misplaced plants, none of which were thriving. In fact, I believe they were on life support. I called and left a message, which he returned in a timely manner. After surveying my yard, he offered numerous suggestions for design and fully explained maintenance, keeping my budget in mind. As a result of his expertise, my yard is no longer an eye sore. I would highly recommend him for any landscaping project. read more

Nature's Creations transformed the jungle of weeds, overgrown plants and trees in my backyard in to an enjoyable outdoor space. I initially called for an estimate because of tree work I needed done. James took time to explain how he would trim back the tree in a way that would allow for healthier future growth. He offered the best price for the work. He gave me ideas on the rest of the yard and I hired him for the clean up, too. The yard looks great! James gave advice with the placement of the new tire swing and for the vegetable garden. Thanks to Nature's Creations we will be enjoying our backyard this summer! read more

We are very impressed with James' knowledge of plants. He is a hard worker, knows his stuff and makes great suggestions.

If rankings were based on the owner James' charming, charismatic personality, I'd be giving Nature's Creations a 5. However, at the end of the day, reliability and service are all that I care about. We found them via Yelp and after a really good initial phone call, we had high hopes for getting some dead trees and weeds removed from the yard. My poor dad waited around for 4 hours past the agreed upon time for James to show up. We thought that maybe it was a misunderstanding so we gave them a second chance and scheduled some additional work with him. James never called or showed up the entire day, so my dad was stuck around the house waiting for nothing. James finally called the next day and they set up another appointment and the day before he was supposed to come, he left a message saying he wouldn't be able to make it and we should find someone else. Maybe tree and shrub removal isn't nearly as glamorous as landscaping and some of the the more artistic work he specializes in, but he shouldn't have agreed to work that he wasn't planning on completing and certainly should've had the courtesy to let us know if he was running late or going to flake all together. read more