Susan Friedman Landscape Architecture

It's been such a joy to work with the Keane's - from design through final installation. They now have a backyard they always dreamed about - a place to entertain and create lasting memories!

It is an honor and a thrill to work with amazing clients like these who embrace the beauty of nature and enthusiastically supported our "team" as their dream landscape came to life!

We are so happy to have been selected to design new landscapes for both homes, complete with all the bells and whistles for total outdoor enjoyment! Neda and Ali are so fun to work with!

It has been a joy to create a new landscape design they love! The best is yet to come as the planting gets installed and comes to life!

We are grateful for clients like Katia, who are passionate about their outdoor space and who put their trust in our design team and our process to deliver the detailed landscape plans they've been dreaming about! Wonderful to work together and the results are amazing!

It's such an honor to work with such wonderful clients like Mizes'! They truly confirm the reason our team loves doing the work we do!

In response to this client’s review, I am compelled to address these issues in detail that this client has raised. This review is an unfair criticism containing inaccurate descriptions that I will address one by one.

DESIGN: With all of our clients, including this client, we provide a collaborative and iterative design process allowing our clients to make decisions during every step of the design process. We start with a concept plan and budget showing the intended shape of the design based on their specific desires. After gaining client approval, we go to the next design step where we refine the design, and start to choose plants and lighting. Once again, after gaining client approval we finalize the plan set to include the final planting plan, lighting plan, irrigation plan and other details. This client was involved with every aspect and approval of all features of this design process.

BARK & PLANTS SELECTION: As stated in the design process, we formulate recommendations and refine selections of materials and plants based on our client’s desires and receive the client’s final approval. Specifically, we showed this client many drought tolerant plant options and we used those plants that James chose. We also informed this client (and all of our clients) to expect about a three year fill in period between plant installation and plant fullness/maturity. This client pointed out that it’s been less than one year since the plants were installed, so his plants have 2 more years to reach maturity. Because it’s early in the growth cycle, of course the growth still looks sparse. Note that we’ve had an exceptionally dry year, so that also affects plant growth rates. Regarding the non-plant materials, we spent time with this client at a masonry yard looking at options to choose specific landscape materials such as gravel, boulders, flagstone and bark mulch…and James approved these selections too.

IRRIGATION: This client is correct in the fact that there were leaks in the newly installed system that had to be resolved. But these leaks were not the result of a faulty design. To resolve the irrigation installation difficulties, and at no cost to the client, a professional irrigation auditor was engaged to inspect and provide solutions for repairing the installation. After these repairs were implemented, the auditor conducted a final inspection and the leaks stopped.

CHOICE of LANDSCAPER: As a point of clarification – the landscaper is not part of my team and does not work for my design/landscape architect company – we are separate companies. If the client asks, we will provide landscapers for the client to consider, but we do not select the landscaper for our clients. The client has the responsibility to interview and make the choice of landscaper, and then contracts directly with the landscaper they chose. This is the process that this client followed.

SUMMARY: This client was involved in the design, the selections of what was installed, and chose the landscaper who did the work. Based on what the client wrote, it is clear that the client wants to accept no responsibility for selecting and approving everything along the way.

FINAL COMMENTS: At SFLA, we work hard to get the best results for our clients and are very proud of the positive feedback we have received on Houzz with a rating of over 4.7 satisfaction from our clients. Our customer satisfaction rating is a stronger indication of how we perform, rather than this client’s review which is not a full representation of the facts. Our customer reviews speaks loudly and I believe that in 2 – 3 years when the plants mature, this client will actually love the results.

This project was such a fun transformation! Mark & Sandy were great to work with and so appreciative of pollinator and wildlife friendly environment we created for them. All the features are just right for them and happy they don't have to travel very far to feel like they're on "vacation"!

It was our pleasure to work with such enthusiastic clients like Stu & Ja Nell! They were fun and engaging throughout the entire process!

We really enjoyed working with Karen! She has very good taste in style and happy we could provide a new outdoor space that matches her vision!

It was such a joy to work with Cliff & Donna! Always so cheerful and positive to be around. Many fun details and surprises went into their project. I'm so happy they love the results!

We love working on highly detailed projects like Mindy's as every piece of the landscape puzzle has to fit together perfectly and get well implemented by a highly professional and skilled contractor. It was a great team effort!