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#1
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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 |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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 |
#4
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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. |
#5
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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) |
#6
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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 |
#7
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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 |
#8
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#9
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#11
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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.) |
#12
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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) |
#13
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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 |
#14
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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 |
#15
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