We had a new home with no landscape. Alternative took a Landscape design put together by a different company and installed the beds, patio, turf, plants and mulch as described in the plan.
Matt was prompt and professional when we engaged him for an estimate in December of 09 to quote the work. He gave us a very attractive price, we did not even feel the need to consult with other companies. Over that winter, he and his team moved our Playset from our old home to it's current location. During the spring of 10, he and his crew began work on our landscape. They struggled with wet conditions and did not have the ability to dry the area out sufficiently to get the patio installed. Once installed, the grade put in by our builder kept flooding the back yard and patio. I had concerns over grading and had consulted with him on whether drains were needed to supplement the installed swale. He concurred with our builder that this would be unnecessary. Fast forward to June. All bed work, patio and bed plantings were completed. The beds and plants were done well. We have had very little die off. Patio was thermal blue stone. Alternative had never worked with this material which I found surprising. The patio is just OK, it is now settling more than I would expect and some of the stone is calving on the edges. The installed firepit is not attractive and the step solution into our home is a little strange, but we did approve what he suggested. We still has not had our turf installed and were now "backed up" on Alternative's list. The swale was not draining water correctly at all, but again I was assured by Matt that once grass was growing it would be fine. Hydroseed was done mid June and I was assured it would come in if we watered frequently. The grass did not come in in any density and much of what germinated died in the heat regardless of constant (4-5 times per day) watering. We should have waited until the fall to plant the grass - advice I would have expected from a competent landscaper. The final grade was not signed off on by our local inspector, a drain was necessary after all. In the fall, Alternative returned to install a drain paid for by our builder. I had concerns about the end point of the drain as it was emptying into our beds. Once again I was ensured that this would properly drain away by Alternative. The yard (what there was of it) was ripped up to install the drain. No grass was seeded due to the need to allow settling and lateness in the season (I was told by Alternative). A second drain was required in the spring and several low spots required additional topsoil because they were not properly leveled allowing pool of water to sit after irrigation or rain. It took Alternative until mid July of 2011 to finally address the seeding of the drains and dumping and leveling of topsoil on the low spots. I was told they were "too busy with other customers" The low spots I had to seed myself because I did not want to wait any more. I am now in the process of getting estimates from other landscapers to fix the turf, drainage and one bed that needs totally redone because it was oversprayed with hyroseed and is full of grass. I will not use Alternative in the future and cannot recommend them for any work other than bed installation to anyone else. I think they may have bit off more than they could handle with our work. Update: It has been 2 years since our initial landscape install and we have had only 3 pines die off out of all the plants installed. This was much better than I expected based on the amount of vegetation we had added. This also appears to be much better than many of the other newly landscaped lawns I have observed in our area around the same time. Matt gave us a 2 year warranty on our plants, so I contacted him to replace the 3 pines. He confirmed the species and the replacement trees were installed within the time frame he set with me. I have adjusted the overall grade up as well as the quality based on how well this massive planting has fared and the responsiveness on replacement trees.
Service Provider Response
Hi this is Matt Wiegand with alternative landscapes and I would like this opportunity to tell my side of this story. First of all when we began the job we did struggle with very wet conditions and there was no final grade on the property along with standing water which made conditions much worse . We even went as far as to rotitill the entire backyard just to try to get it to dry out so we could get our machinery back there to keep making progress on their patio. After repeated failed attempts to get our machinery in the backyard to work and getting it stuck we decided we had to wait until it dried out more. After continuing to rotitill and dig trenches to remove standing water and everything else we could do to dry the ungraded yard out. We finally got it to the point we could continue. From that point we installed the patio, firepit and steps. Which until I read this comment I had no idea they thought the firepit was not attractive and did not like my cost effective step solution. Which I offered a more expensive matching bluestone step option. Also as far as settling of the bluestone there was about 4 pieces only around the firepit that settled about 1/4 inch if that at the edges and that was probably due to the fact that to try to make the Members happy and get the job done as quickly as possible we managed to install the patio despite the extremley wet backyard before the grading was able to be completed. This caused approximatley 4" of standing water to sit on their patio which we pumped out numerous times. After it dried out enough for the excavator to get the grading done that was no longer a problem. This standing water is what I believe caused the 4 pieces to settle around the firepit( which was repaired ). If the patio is just OK please specify what the problem is. Everything looked good when I inspected it when we were there last. Moving on to the grade. When the grading was first completed within days the backyard dried out significantly. Member had expressed his concerns to me about the water problems he had at his previous house and I assured him this would not be the case at this house. He asked if the swail would function well enough or if we needed to add a french drain. From this point I told him I think we can make the swail work without the drain and if not we can always add it later. Not because I didn't want to do it but because I did not want them to have to pay for something that might not be neccesary. From that point a french drain was installed along the backyard and paid for by the builder. Grass was not installed right away because once again it was very wet and needed to dry out and also settle. But was completed when the weather allowed. In the spring of 2011 Member decided he would like to install another french drain down the side of his house to collect additional groundwater coming from the higher elevation of the lot next to his. This was put on our schedule and completed fairly quickly but was not reseeded right away because it was very wet. I did not think it would have taken us that long to get back to reseed and grade but we happened to have the second wettest spring ever on record here and it really set us far behind this year because we had a lot of work scheduled before his that we could not get to due to the rain. This was taken care of 2-3 weeks after the drainage was completed. We then came back shortly after on a sunday to fill in a low area in the far back that must have settled. When we filled the area in our normal supplier of grass seed did not have the variety of grass seed that we used for his lawn. I told Member this and at this time he seemed frustrated but told me he will wait because he did not want a "hodgepodge" of different grass in his backyard which I agreed with that 100%. Member called me about a week later on a friday asking me if the seed was in yet and I told him it was and I would be there at the beginning of the following week. It was obvious that he was frustrated and asked what blend of seed I used and where to get it and he told me that he might take care of it himself over the weekend because he did not want to wait until the beginning of the following week. So I recieved a text saying that he took care of the seeding and I do not need to do it. As far as any additional work that is needed I will ALWAYS 100% stand behind ANY work that I do and I will go above and beyond for any of my customers including the Members. I understand their frustration with the delays I ran into this spring and I genuinly feel bad for that but please understand the weather was not on my side this year and all you have to do is let me know if you have any issues and I will be there for you. In the post it says you are looking for another landscaper to fix the turf???? drainage????and a bed that was oversprayed with hydroseed??? None of these issues were ever brought to my attention and reading this post was the first I have heard of them. I just wish instead of making negative posts about my company and my work you would have simply called and talked to me about them and I would have gladly taken care of them for you.
