Land Art Design, Inc.

We hired Land Art Design to complete our landscaping project in July 2016. We had an erosion problem on the side of our property which we needed addressed and we also wanted to transform the back part of our backyard from a weedy, overgrown area into a usable and beautiful space. In addition, we had a stone wall expanded and stone steps re-done. Our landscape designer was professional and a pleasure to work with from our first meeting with him through the last follow up visit after the job was completed. The plants and trees he chose for our project fit right in with our natural setting. He answered our questions and addressed our concerns through the entire project. We carefully reviewed the contract with our designer, made some final tweaks to the plan and scope of the project and the job began on the agreed upon date. The landscaping crew skillfully and carefully maneuvered the bobcat around existing trees and regraded our property and did a remarkable job planting, installing the stone wall and steps, and laying down the sod and mulch – especially in the daily 99 degree heat wave we had. We found the masonry crews to be highly skilled as well. The crew was a dedicated group of workers. Now-a-days, it’s not uncommon for employees to come and go quickly in this line of work. But in speaking with them I learned that they have all been with Land Art for a number of years, which is a good reflection on Land Art Design. The day after the project was completed, there was a torrential rain storm which washed some of the freshly laid sod down the slope. Land Art came back the very next day to relay the sod and applied another layer of mulch to the mulch bed. We've had no problems since then. Land Art stood behind their work! We had a great experience with Land Art and highly recommend them for their professionalism, knowledge of plants and trees, ability to suggest solutions to landscape problems, and for having a dedicated crew.

We were greatly disappointed with our experience using Land Art Design. Prior to contract signature and payment, the communications were at a very high level. Unfortunately, that's where it stopped. I recall questioning the change in service quality and I was actually told that it may be because my project was "smaller" than they are accustomed to. Please note we spent over $10,000 and as a business professional myself, I would never alter my service based on the project size. If we were "too small", then I would have appreciated they simply decline my project. Below is a summary of the a few of the key issues we had. 1) Communication about project scheduling As mentioned, our design consultant was very communicative during the design process. However, once we sent in our contract with the initial deposit, proactive communication from LandArt about scheduling our project was virtually non-existent. It took over 2 months for our project to get started. The lack of proactive communication alone would have been frustrating enough, but we have also been working with a contractor to schedule a new fence be built right after the backyard project is completed in order to prevent known animals/deer from disturbing the newly planted trees. Having no guidance about our start date (until 5 days before the actual project start), it has been impossible to properly schedule our fence contractor. With no fence up, animals/deer have come into our backyard and ate the tree leaves; there are visible bare spots on many of the trees now. 2) Extra Mulch One main aspect of this project was to clean our backyard debris and mulch the area to provide a clean, park-like look. The design was certainly done with this in mind, and the contract clearly has "mulch" as an item. You can imagine the frustration when the project was stated as "done" but about half the back area has zero mulch on it, instead left in a muddy, barren state. They indicated towards the end of the project that the mulch was under-estimated and would require additional charges; this is truly frustrating, as we thought the whole point of having a contract was to state the proper requirements and materials. And to under-estimate by almost half the area, and then ask for significant overage fees was shocking. 3) Unnatural plantings and sod line Another important aspect of the design was a very natural, park-like feel. This was indicated in the design with uneven tree plantings and a curvy sod/grass line. So it is disappointing to see the trees (specifically those on the right side along the back fence) planted in a straight line with exact separation distances from each other - it looks like a tree farm and very unnatural. The sod/grass line is also a straight horizontal line across the backyard with no curves, and thus a very obvious unnatural look. They did come back and resolve this concern. 4) Extra disposal fees The contract clearly states "haul away all debris" and "disposal fees" as a cost line item. So it was very frustrating to be told that the disposal fees for a stump grinding (that was determined after the fact) was separate, and would be extra cost to us. This was a complete surprise as it was never indicated that somehow stump disposal was different than "all debris" and "disposal fees". We knew that stump grinding itself was additional, but having the extra disposal of that separated out and tacked on as extra fees with absolutely no prior notice was again unexpected. .For each of the issues above, we have the correspondences and timelines associated to support the claims. We have worked with many contracted professionals and this has been our most disappointing experience.

We have been working with Land Art for a couple of years now. Originally they designed our garden space in the front and back yard. We are very pleased with how the garden has matured. They also created stone walls and a lovely brick walkway. Since then they have been providing yearly maintenance, pruning and mulching. We would highly recommend this company!

Claire is getting five stars; her designs and implementation for neighbors is outstanding. After an on site consultation with Claire at our home, and advice from civil engineers, we reluctantly chose a more hands-on, incremental approach employing our gardener of many years to address drainage issues arising from the grading of the lot when the house was first built. When the ground has settled and it is time for hardscape -- to fix the front walk and create another exit from the basement level -- I will call Claire.

Landscaping the entire backyard to include year around colorful foliage, rerouting water, and a berm with noise barrier trees. Created a new outdoor living area to include patio, stone chimney, bar, deck, and stone water feature with sitting wall. Clare and the Land Art team have an exceptional eye for creating a beautiful environment in the space available.

I've worked with Clare on various projects on my property over the past ten years. Clare is creative and conscientious. She pays attention to details. She originally changed the bushes in the front of our home and did some stone work. After that she did a complete redesign of our pool area, adding stone walls, a much prettier stone stairway and a lovely pergola along with changing the look of the pool and surrounding stone, This work was done on time and her crew has always been pleasant and easy to work with. Over the past few years she's put in numerous new plantings and I expect there will be more projects in the future.

Clare, the owner and designer is a gifted artist and seasoned professional. She'll create a design that is unique to you and your home. We've hired her company several times over the last 10 years to do different projects (on two different homes) and we've never been disappointed. Their prices are reasonable and the quality is excellent. She stands behind her work and will come back if you've got a concern. Her #2, Jimmy, is awesome. You'll see that she's less expensive than some and more than others. The big difference for us was in the quality of the work. There are a lot of contractors out there who will give you a "Home Depot" job for a low price. But, if you want something that stands out and that you can love forever, then go with Land Art.