Landscape
 

Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the trianlge
area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off (paid close
to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to this
area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He did a
very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with weed
killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr 19,2003).
I would appreciate your help.

Thanks

Landscape
 

"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
| Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the
trianlge
| area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off
(paid close
| to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to
this
| area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He
did a
| very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with
weed
| killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr
19,2003).
| I would appreciate your help.
|
| Thanks

You feel ripped off because you have weeds? Weeds are a fact of
life unless you want to spray poisons every weekend. The weeds
that were there on 4/19 probably were killed... you just have new
seeds sprouting.
If your yard has just been landscaped then why do you need
another landscape designer? I'm confused.
Jw

Landscape
 

Did he do a bad job in design or are you upset about the weeds? If it's
design related, you can contact Garden Creations (Kendra Douros) at
819-8814. She is a landscape designer who does consultation, drawings,
installation, etc.

As far as the weeds are concerned, I have to say that spraying weeds to kill
them doesn't necessarily guarantee that you won't get lots more. We have
the perfect conditions for weeds to come in groves right now .......warm
weather and lots of wet weather. My yard is sprouting everywhere right now
even after spraying and pulling all in March. You will have to spray again.
Did he mulch the areas very well?

Spring is the time for new growth on everything .....trees, flowers, and
lots of weeds.

Penny
"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the trianlge
area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off (paid close
to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to this
area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He did a
very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with weed
killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr 19,2003).
I would appreciate your help.

Thanks

Landscape
 

Penny Morgan wrote:
As far as the weeds are concerned, I have to say that spraying weeds
to kill them doesn't necessarily guarantee that you won't get lots
more. We have the perfect conditions for weeds to come in groves
right now .......warm weather and lots of wet weather. My yard is
sprouting everywhere right now even after spraying and pulling all in
March. You will have to spray again. Did he mulch the areas very
well?

Speaking of weeds, we have 'em! We had an area tilled with lots of mulch
and there's this one type of weed I just can't get rid of. It's grassy,
breaks off way too easily, and if you follow the fragile white root down, it
twists and turns down as far as I can see. I've pulled, sprayed with Round
up (3x!) and I can't get rid of the stuff. After looking it up, I think
it's one of the nutsedges, and pulling is about all I can do, eventualy
exhausting the tuber.

It doesn't seem to matter if lots of mulch is used since the tubers are
8-14" deep (according to one source) and can even come up through plastic
mulches.

Ah well, it's good exercise.

Landscape
 

In article , Raleighgirl wrote:

"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
| Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the
trianlge
| area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off
(paid close
| to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to
this
| area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He
did a
| very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with
weed
| killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr
19,2003).
| I would appreciate your help.
|
| Thanks

You feel ripped off because you have weeds? Weeds are a fact of
life unless you want to spray poisons every weekend. The weeds
that were there on 4/19 probably were killed... you just have new
seeds sprouting.
If your yard has just been landscaped then why do you need
another landscape designer? I'm confused.

Could be a lurker or a spammer. Kind of hard to tell. Don't remember
that he has posted before or not. Spent $4000 but
got no maintenance instructions and now wants to get another designer to
do what? There ain't no such thing as a free lunch with a yard or
garden. Takes sweat or $ to maintain. Even a rock garden needs to have
leaves and other debris and weeds remove.

--
Wes Dukes (wdukesNOatSPAMpoboxdotcom)

Landscape
 

I was trying to avoid mentioning all the mistakes he made since it
makes me look
rather stupid since I overpaid. Well here it goes,
Apart from the weed problem, he planted 5 trees which he did not stake
to the ground so now they are swaying all over the place and am afraid
will break if we have forceful winds. He planted Kleim's gardenia in
the front (facing East) which gets full sun for atleast 6 hours and
two of the plants are already yellowing. I used Ironite since I read
some thing about Gardenia's needing a lot of iron. Well in any case
that seems to be working so far but am not sure if it will hold up.
I expected a lot more for $4000. Regarding mulch, he used the
cheapest pine straw mulch you can ever get. There was more pine
cones, leaves, twigs than pine needles. My yard looks like a big dump
with green buses sticking out of them.
I will call Garden Creations. Thanks for your suggestions Penny.

RP

"Penny Morgan" wrote in message . com...
Did he do a bad job in design or are you upset about the weeds? If it's
design related, you can contact Garden Creations (Kendra Douros) at
819-8814. She is a landscape designer who does consultation, drawings,
installation, etc.

As far as the weeds are concerned, I have to say that spraying weeds to kill
them doesn't necessarily guarantee that you won't get lots more. We have
the perfect conditions for weeds to come in groves right now .......warm
weather and lots of wet weather. My yard is sprouting everywhere right now
even after spraying and pulling all in March. You will have to spray again.
Did he mulch the areas very well?

Spring is the time for new growth on everything .....trees, flowers, and
lots of weeds.

Penny
"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the trianlge
area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off (paid close
to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to this
area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He did a
very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with weed
killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr 19,2003).
I would appreciate your help.

Thanks

Landscape
 

In article ,
blorefan wrote:
My yard looks like a big dump
with green buses sticking out of them.

I know this was probably not meant to be funny, but it really made me smile at a much needed
time! (I guess I am imagining *my* front yard with green buses... kind of strange!)

Cheers
KJ
--
---
"God help those who have no bowels, only consonants & vowels." - Dylan Thomas
http://www.ibiblio.org/kelly -=*= kelly @ unc.edu

Landscape
 

Landscape
 

Landscape
 

Landscape
 

"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
I was trying to avoid mentioning all the mistakes he made since it
makes me look
rather stupid since I overpaid. Well here it goes,
Apart from the weed problem, he planted 5 trees which he did not stake
to the ground so now they are swaying all over the place and am afraid
will break if we have forceful winds. He planted Kleim's gardenia in
the front (facing East) which gets full sun for atleast 6 hours and
two of the plants are already yellowing. I used Ironite since I read
some thing about Gardenia's needing a lot of iron. Well in any case
that seems to be working so far but am not sure if it will hold up.
I expected a lot more for $4000. Regarding mulch, he used the
cheapest pine straw mulch you can ever get. There was more pine
cones, leaves, twigs than pine needles. My yard looks like a big dump
with green buses sticking out of them.
I will call Garden Creations. Thanks for your suggestions Penny.

Did you attempt to resolve the problem with the original landscaper? It
might be worth the complaint. He could, at least, replace the "mulch" with
something of higher quality and stake the swaying trees. If you don't get
satisfaction, I would suggest complaining to the Better Business Bureau.
(They usually like for you to try to resolve the problem yourself before
calling them.)

Landscape
 

In article , blorefan wrote:
I was trying to avoid mentioning all the mistakes he made since it
makes me look
rather stupid since I overpaid. Well here it goes,
Apart from the weed problem, he planted 5 trees which he did not stake
to the ground so now they are swaying all over the place and am afraid
will break if we have forceful winds. He planted Kleim's gardenia in
the front (facing East) which gets full sun for atleast 6 hours and
two of the plants are already yellowing. I used Ironite since I read
some thing about Gardenia's needing a lot of iron. Well in any case
that seems to be working so far but am not sure if it will hold up.
I expected a lot more for $4000. Regarding mulch, he used the
cheapest pine straw mulch you can ever get. There was more pine
cones, leaves, twigs than pine needles. My yard looks like a big dump
with green buses sticking out of them.
I will call Garden Creations. Thanks for your suggestions Penny.

Yep, you got ripped off bigtime . I apologize for my overly tart
remarks. I have had my own share of such cases where I paid excessive
tuition to the school of hard knocks so so you are not alone. I have
acted in haste and repented in leisure more times than I want to admit.

It is a warning to the rest of us to check references and get additional
estimates before making decisions.

Care to tell us who this was so we will be fore warned?

Now for the areas where weeds were sprouting, you can use Preen as a
preemergence to reduce this from happening. It seems to work as long
as the soil is not disturbed but if it is scratched up the weeds will
come back. Of cours you will have to kill the existing weeds again with
weedbegon or roundup.
"Penny Morgan" wrote in message . com...
Did he do a bad job in design or are you upset about the weeds? If it's
design related, you can contact Garden Creations (Kendra Douros) at
819-8814. She is a landscape designer who does consultation, drawings,
installation, etc.

As far as the weeds are concerned, I have to say that spraying weeds to kill
them doesn't necessarily guarantee that you won't get lots more. We have
the perfect conditions for weeds to come in groves right now .......warm
weather and lots of wet weather. My yard is sprouting everywhere right now
even after spraying and pulling all in March. You will have to spray again.
Did he mulch the areas very well?

Spring is the time for new growth on everything .....trees, flowers, and
lots of weeds.

Penny
"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the trianlge
area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off (paid close
to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to this
area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He did a
very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with weed
killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr 19,2003).
I would appreciate your help.

Thanks


--
Wes Dukes (wdukesNOatSPAMpoboxdotcom)

Landscape
 

"Jennifer Richards" wrote in message .com...
"blorefan" wrote in message
om...


Did you attempt to resolve the problem with the original landscaper? It
might be worth the complaint. He could, at least, replace the "mulch" with
something of higher quality and stake the swaying trees. If you don't get
satisfaction, I would suggest complaining to the Better Business Bureau.
(They usually like for you to try to resolve the problem yourself before
calling them.

I did call him the day after he completed the job but I had bigger
issues then.
He had "missed" planting one of the shrubs that was in the original
quote and had broken the sewer (white pipe) pipe. He replaced the
broken pipe and planted the shrub, but was very upset that I had asked
him to do so. I guess your suggestion about BBB sounds good to me.
Thanks

Landscape
 

Hi,

After reading the whole thread here, I wanted to share my sympathy about
what happened. We have had some various things done to our property that add
up to probably the most money we've spent on anything, besides our cars and
house. We've had relatively good luck, but I usually get pretty anxious when
a lot of money is involved. After having had stone retaining walls, large
trees, a fence, deck, patio, sidewalk, and arbor put in over the past 4
years, and not really being able to wholeheartedly recommend any of the
people who did any of them (although overall I am pretty much satisfied with
the work), here are my 2 cents:

-- Get at least three estimates. This means you probably have to call 6-8
companies because a lot of them don't bother to show up.
-- Whenever possible, get a recommendation from someone you know who has
used them.
-- Do a lot of research about what you want and have magazine photos and/or
drawings ready when you get your estimates. If you sense that the company
can't or won't do it, do not pick them.
-- Ask them how they would do your project and wait for them to explain the
whole thing. Sometimes you can sniff out people who don't know what they are
doing that way, even if you don't know how to do it yourself.
-- Do not act casually about your project. Act as if it is really important.
People respond more attentively to a picky customer than a casual one. I
learned this from my picky neighbor.
-- Ask to see photos of their work or get addresses of references to visit.
-- Ask if they guarantee to finish the work by a certain date. Some jobs
seem to go on forever.
-- Get the estimate in writing and ask for a satisfaction guarantee.
-- For large projects, the company should obtain utility marking and permits
for you.
-- Do not hand over the final payment until you are completely satisfied. As
soon as you do, you may not hear from them again. Most people want a deposit
for materials, but you should hold back most of the money until the very
end. If they say they need it, just tell them you'll have it ready when they
come back to finish the last things you want done/fixed.

This all may sound cynical, but it's reality. Anyone have more to add?

Elizabeth

"blorefan" wrote in message
om...
Hi!! Can anybody suggest a good landscape designer in the trianlge
area. I hired one from Apex recently and he ripped me off (paid close
to $4000). He was very knowledgeable with the plants native to this
area and promised low maintenance landscape so I hired him. He did a
very poor job. All the beds that he supposedly sprayed with weed
killer are sprouting already (the beds were planted on Apr 19,2003).
I would appreciate your help.

Thanks

Landscape