I contracted with this company after reading reviews, thinking that a landscape maintenance company…read morewould do better for my garden than a 'guy with a lawn mower' service.
Ron Walker, the rep, seemed knowledgeable and it seemed the company was doing good work. He came out, measured my garden and gave me a quote and a contract a few days later, which I signed.
Now, included in this contract under 'Special Services" were Irrigation (to be turned on in May and off in October) and Insect and Disease Inspect (to be done once per month).
Irrigation was NOT turned on until JULY though I mentioned this repeatedly starting in May to the gardening team that came out weekly. It wasn't until I sent Ron photos of my DEAD AREAS of my lawn in July (only 2 months without water) that he finally came out and turned on the irrigation, doing a minor repair and only charging me $93 extra. Meanwhile, only 2 or 3 plants along my driveway died for lack of water.
As for the disease and insect inspection, well, that was NEVER done. NOT ONCE. I brought it up to Ron, and he tried to tell me that insect and disease inspections were considered to be turf maintenance. Excuse me, but the contract schedule clearly stated that it should be done, but it was NOT listed under turf maintenance, which had its own section on the maintenance schedule. Anyone reading that schedule would rightfully assume that inspection would apply to my entire landscape. (And that's what the attorney I showed the contract and schedule told me.)
There seemed to be an enormous disconnect in communication between the boss and the workers. If I wanted something done or something needed attention, I had to ask Ron for it. (If I asked his workers to do something, I would be directing his employees, and all they could/would do is tell him of my concern, which would then apparently fall on deaf ears.) If I called his office, I could leave a message.... but I'd have to call back or wait for him to call me. Why have an office if you're going to tell me to call you on a different phone number??
After losing 2 rose bushes (one they transplanted, after cutting its roots off -- gee, how was that rose going to survive??) and some of my driveway plants to the lack of water issue, I only lost 2 more roses because of irrigation issues (water aimed at rose leaves will encourage black spot, guys) and then... my beautiful Japanese maple, infested with I know not what insect is close to death.
Maybe this company has too many clients for their workers to cover. I will say that Eddie and Ramon (José, according to Ron) were very nice people working hard but having no authority, couldn't really help when issues arose. I could tell them, but not ask them to do anything; all they could do was talk to Ron or some other guy there. The problems at this company come from the top down.
In the interim, I've contracted with a different landscape company. When they came in to do the estimate, they had a lot of questions for me. "Why didn't they prune your shrubs? Why is your lawn filled with weeds? What DID your old landscape company do?" And the sad answer is, I paid Solitude Landscaping over $2,700 for landscape maintenance. And in return I received a yard so well-kept that I had to pay the new landscaper $1500 to clean up the mess, prune in preparation for winter, get rid of the weeds and TRY to save my Japanese maple tree.
I'm sadly not able to recommend this company. They breached their contract with me.
