[Laurie2]

Village Palms gets my recommendation.

Here’s the rest of the story for those of you who are thinking about having landscaping done. (If this interests you, maybe look back at Post #4 in this thread. I wrote that post while my project was underway. Now, it is finished so I can give you this report.)

Derrick, at Village Palms, was the designer. He listened to what I said about the effect I wanted to achieve. I got what I wanted. Derrick is highly knowledgeable and professional.

We have a pre-owned home that already had an upgrade to the landscaping. But I wanted to retouch a part of the backyard. It was a relatively small job, but Derrick gave attention to detail and treated the job as being just as important as a really big job.

That is when I knew, for sure, I had found my landscaping company.

Once I had the first part of the job done so nicely, I decided to have them do a patio.

The patio is natural stone, quarried in Tennessee. For this part of the job, Derrick sent the paver crew. (Jon, Steve, Rob, Brandon, and Eric.)

The installation of flagstone -- if done right -- is where engineering and artistry meet. Jon studied the lay of the land, made sure the drainage was right, redirected our downspouts, and made sure the irrigation system was working properly to hit the landscaping that remained after the turf was removed and the ground prepared for the stone.

Then came the art-part. It was fun to see Steve's artist's-eye at work, and the rest of the crew, too, as they chose the stones individually for their color, shape, and striation. We now have a mosaic of beautiful sedimentary stone, perfectly installed in our backyard. The Village Palms paver crew works together like they are choreographed.

Village Palms is located at 740 CR 466, east of Morse, a relatively short distance from The Villages. On the right side. There you can see walkways, etc., of every kind of paver they use, including flagstone like ours. Their nursery is open to the public. Their plants are nice.

Their phone number is 352-753-4772. I recommend asking for Derrick. If he is not in, he will call you back. He is good about that. And once you are into the job, texting works great, too. Derrick stays in communication.

If we had stars, I would give Village Palms 5 out of 5 stars. (And I do not play fast and loose with my stars.)

I found Village Palms by reading recommendations on TOTV. There are a lot of them here. Those posts were very helpful to me, as I was a stranger in a strange land. So I wanted to pass along my experience. I hope that your own can be just as outstanding.

If you want to read other posts about Village Palms, go to the search line and type in “Village Palms” – using quotation marks will give you a better chance of hits. (Don’t forget -- no s on Village)

Good luck with whoever you choose.

Now, I am going to go outside in the sunshine and stare at those eons-old, beautiful stones. Geology is the only science I ever truly loved.

Sedimentary Laurie