Adventures in hiring a landscaper

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Old 08-19-2010, 09:19 AM
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Back on topic

The landscaper has been selected and work starts in September.......

to be continued
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Old 08-26-2010, 06:28 PM
SUNSCAPELAWN SUNSCAPELAWN is offline
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Thank's Army Guy for the responses. For any other uneducated information we have 2 locations. Look in the phone book please.

3475 CR 521 Wildwood, Fl. 34785 (south of Wildwood on Hwy 301)

18 LaGrande Blvd. The Villages, Fl. 32159 (on villages property)

To answer another question, yes we are doing aftermarket jobs for homeowners.

Members please remember to not always listen to unsatisfied customers without hearing both sides fairly and equally. It doesn't matter who you choose to work with but do it with educated decisions and unbiased information. Remember there are 2 dogs in every fight.

Thank you. I didn't try to hi-jack your thread but I felt that I needed to address incorrect information.
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Old 09-01-2010, 08:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Army Guy View Post
Gosh, Mel they are putting you thre the wringer! Did you try Mansfield? A lot in our CYV neighborhood have used them and they seem good, but don't know price. Of course my first choice would be Sunscapes but many are down on them right now. As I have said many times, Sunscape has always done right by me.

Army Guy
Sunscapes landscaped my yard before we moved into a new section of Buttonwood. In looking at the neighbors yards out plants were clearly inferior in size, quality, quantity and price, not to mention the beds were smaller. It is my understanding that we all paid the same amount for basic interior landscaping. When I asked the landscaper about it, he said that he has stuff brought to his yard by the truckload and he counts it out and tells his crew to plant it. Other people don't do as many houses as he does per week so they can afford to go and hand pick the plants that would look good in each yard. He doesn't have time to do that. My yard shows the results of this approach. His comment was, "They'll grow."
We will have to augment the landscaping now and I doubt he'll be in the running for the job. I hate to be short changed, I worked hard for my money and I need to conserve it.
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Old 09-01-2010, 08:55 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by SALYBOW View Post
Sunscapes landscaped my yard before we moved into a new section of Buttonwood. In looking at the neighbors yards out plants were clearly inferior in size, quality, quantity and price, not to mention the beds were smaller. It is my understanding that we all paid the same amount for basic interior landscaping. When I asked the landscaper about it, he said that he has stuff brought to his yard by the truckload and he counts it out and tells his crew to plant it. Other people don't do as many houses as he does per week so they can afford to go and hand pick the plants that would look good in each yard. He doesn't have time to do that. My yard shows the results of this approach. His comment was, "They'll grow."
We will have to augment the landscaping now and I doubt he'll be in the running for the job. I hate to be short changed, I worked hard for my money and I need to conserve it.
Salybow, that was a great post. Concise and coherent. I figure it won't be long before all of Sunscape's work will be aftermarket. Good luck then.
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Old 10-14-2010, 08:36 PM
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Used Manfield and I am satisfied. Called him on Monday and he came the same day and gave an estimate and the work was completed on Thursday. I like that.
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Old 10-15-2010, 07:01 PM
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We just had our landscaping done by Sabrina McGowan. We love it. It was done in a very timely manner. Employees did a great job. She asked for the money after coming back to inspect the job. I would use her again!
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Old 10-15-2010, 08:05 PM
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Many of our neighbors and we have used Sabrina. She has a fairly large scale operation that is well supervised. She does not ask for money up front.
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Old 10-15-2010, 09:14 PM
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I've heard nothing but great things about her. Last time I was down, I was talking to a neighbor and complimented his beautiful landscaping. Yep, Sabrina McGowan.
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Old 10-16-2010, 07:26 AM
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When I got down to the finalists Sabrina came in 2nd. The difference was minute and I am sure she would have done a great job also.
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Old 10-16-2010, 08:52 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by springfield View Post
I have met with Wendy at Village Palms and was very impressed with her knowledge and ideas. She seems to know plant material and what to plant and not plant. We want to add a waterfall and will probably use them. They have some water features at their place for you to look at and get ideas.

Also interested in waterfall until some posters suggested that snakes and mice are attracted to waterfalls, plus expensive upkeep....scared us away!
  #26  
Old 10-19-2010, 07:43 PM
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Default McGowan and Village Palms

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Originally Posted by Rag ****** View Post
Try Sabriena at McGowan. They have an office at wedgewwod. They have done lots of work in Amelia and other newer neighborhoods.
We had major landscaping done last May. We live near Wedgewood so we tried to find her office..it does not exist. She did not even bother to return our phone calls.

We ended up getting an extensive landscaping job by Wendy and Bill at Village Palms and they are great to work with. We had our rental house landscaped in the Village of Amelia. At Village Palms you can pick your trees right off her lot so you know what you're getting. My friend used McGowan and he told me she does NOT have her own nursery so you cannot pick out your trees, etc.
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Old 10-19-2010, 08:03 PM
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Another indorsement for Village Palms. Wendy and Bill and their entire crew are incredible. We have a large corner lot and they did a fabulous job. I went to the UF newcomers briefing about landscaping today and everything I heard from the agent during the briefing I first heard from Wendy.
  #28  
Old 11-14-2010, 06:05 PM
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Default C and E Landscape

It is a bit scary and boils down to luck of the draw but this summer I paid a surprise summer visit to my empty house and fornd my lawn to be non existent -- Trugreen and a guy mowing seemed to forget to tell me the lawn was completely burned out and I found bare earth. Annoyed I picked up the Daily Sun and responded to an ad for a landscaper -- the name was C and E from Lady Lake -- they came in ripped everything out and put in a who;e bunch of native plants, a few palms and all decorative stone.
I lucked out -- it was a quick, honest job and I love the new look.
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Old 11-14-2010, 06:57 PM
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Hope you fired TruGreen and your mowers. . . .
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Old 11-22-2010, 08:08 PM
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Default Yes, there are two dogs in every fight.

Quote:
Originally Posted by SUNSCAPELAWN View Post
Thank's Army Guy for the responses. For any other uneducated information we have 2 locations. Look in the phone book please.

3475 CR 521 Wildwood, Fl. 34785 (south of Wildwood on Hwy 301)

18 LaGrande Blvd. The Villages, Fl. 32159 (on villages property)

To answer another question, yes we are doing aftermarket jobs for homeowners.

Members please remember to not always listen to unsatisfied customers without hearing both sides fairly and equally. It doesn't matter who you choose to work with but do it with educated decisions and unbiased information. Remember there are 2 dogs in every fight.

Thank you. I didn't try to hi-jack your thread but I felt that I needed to address incorrect information.


I had Sunscape work on a drainage problem in a CYV I had just purchased. We had not moved here yet. Part of the work was done when we were here visiting. They were to lay sod to replace sod was damaged by the drainage problem and the sod damaged by their work. We returned to our then home and I emailed Jeff and he said the sod had been laid. NOT SO. I had a friend come and check...no new sod. She took pictures. Also the drainage problem was not fixed. I have pictures of standing water with soda bottles (the crew left) floating. I emailed Jeff several times and left phone messages. He NEVER returned my calls or answered the emails. We moved here in December and again, no response to emails or phone calls. I also ran into his sidekick, Burt, this summer and asked him to have Jeff call me. NO CALL. Surprise, surprise. So. Jeff, your actions - or inactions - speak for themselves. I would gladly take a refund for what I paid which was 1. a job that did not fix the problem you were hired to fix, and 2. a job that was never finished. So bark all you want. Your tail is between your legs at this point. There are too many people that were screwed over when you thought you had a new line of work and didn't need them anymore.

We are having Wendy at Villages Palms do some landscaping now and it will be interesting as they dig to know if you even did what work you said you did.
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