Sunshine Garden Services & Landscaping

Last time we tried to hire was not acceptable.

unknown

unknown

No concerns, prompt, courteous.

I have hired another landscaping contractor to do my yard, but would have loved the chance to find out what these guys could have done for me and at what price.  Apparently they are so busy, they don't need my business.

There was a bit of trouble connecting and getting the gentleman over here for the quote but when he did come over he was very professional and courteous.  I understand that he was a bit overwhelmed with the response to his offer of an estimate.  The job we wanted was a pretty grungy one for a professional contractor so I assume he bid it appropriately.  If I wanted the work done then I would be paying a premium.  I decided it was too high for what I wanted.  Nice fellow though and I know that my neighbor was happy with the work his crew did for her.

It took longer than they thought it would mostly because the quality of our land is not that great. They had to bring in extra stuff and it took them a couple of months. It also rained really hard that summer, too, so things had to be put off until it stopped raining. All we had in the backyard before they started was dirt and now we have a gorgeous, landscaped back yard. They did a good job.

This company responded promptly (within a week) to a request to bid a small landscaping job. They showed up on time for the bid appointment. He had helpful suggestions for the work, and left to prepare a written bid. The bid was received within a few days by email; it was higher than other services that were also bidding so they were not selected for the job.

The work on the lawn was done promptly and professionally and looks neat.  It is full of promise for a new, safe and friendly lawn, after a summer of head-high cow parsnips!  At the time of this review, the new grass seed has not yet sprouted, and unfortunately a few weeds are coming up, but only a few.  We worked with the company owner, Mike, on this project.  He was always friendly and courteous when we spoke to him, but we had some problems with communication.  At the beginning, he was late to the appointment to give us a quote, although he did call and arrive later that evening (when necessary, he has shown up late in the afternoon/evening, after the working day, to complete a task).  The quote we received was the lowest of four for the work we needed done, and the contract he created was detailed.  Once we had signed the contract, however, work was delayed for over a month because we had not understood that the company required a 50% payment before scheduling work (rather than on the first day of work, as we had experienced with other contractors).  I called the company office 3 times over a month to ask when the job was scheduled to begin, and did not receive any response as to when work would start or why it was delayed.  Finally, we called and said that we were about to withdraw our contract, since the company had been so unresponsive.  At that point, the secretary determined that work had never been scheduled because we had not submitted a payment.  Once we had made the necessary payment, the work was scheduled and completed within about a week, and we are happy with the results.  Apart from a frustrating miscommunication, we had an excellent experience with this company.

In May I called to have all bark in yard refreshed and an estimate on possible other services.  I chose at that time to have only bark refreshed.  My customer service went into gutter at that time.  I could not get Ted to call me back.  At that point I contacted Mike and the bark was put in.  Since, I have 3 bushes under warranty that did not survive the winter and ask Office Staff to contact Ted and advise or replace.  I have called at least 6 times, always left messages to please give me a call back.  Only 1 time did I receive a return call. I called around June 16, June 17th Pam in Office called stating the shrubs would be replaced.  I called again on July 22nd,spoke to Office Staff , as once again no service, calls, nothing. I let them know how unhappy my husband and  I are with the Manager's customer service.  Let them know we feel they don't see us a good repeat, dependable customer and if they want to continue doing business with us every year, to please have someone call us back. It is now July 26th.
We still  have no call back.  We will be taking our business elsewhere.
This is very disappointing as we have always been willing to pay a little extra for good quality service.

I received a flyer in the mail and decided to give them a call.  THey were quick to come to the house and I got a quote April 27th from Sunshine and I accepted immediately.  We emailed a few times back and forth trying to button up details and the date kept pushing out.  Not a problem - however,  I called several times leaving messages in June asking for a potential start date and nothing. It is now July 10th and I have still yet to hear from them.  I was hoping to have my landscaping finished early summer- hence why I called in April, and now its pushing mid July and I have to start from scratch with a different contractor.  I am highly dissapointed with the service.  I will never reccommend Sunshine to anyone and discourage anyone from ever using them.

They follow through, efficient, cleaned up after themselves and they did a good job.

We hired them when our neighbor was doing work on their yard and we were very happy with the service and price. However, when we called them 3 years later (2013) to do some more landscaping, their price was 3x what others were quoting. Their quality is excellent, but their pricing is not competitive.

Ted came out to give an estimate for a lot of brush removal from our property.  Ted was punctual, friendly, and knowledgeable.  He offered (free) advice about other landscape questions I had.  The estimate for the work was exact, and the worker sent was very, very good at removing the brush.  I didn't even realize brush could be removed so well!  They sent a bill through the mail, and accepted payment over the phone.  Overall, yes!  I would use them again.

This project went extremely well from
start to finish.
 
For the garden work, it was all manual
labor. The guys that performed the work were tireless, even in the heat of
early August. They were prompt, worked hard all day and did not work past
normal quitting time, so they were done when we arrived home from work. The
tools were picked up each night and the area left clean and tidy. These are
some of the hardest workers I have seen in a long time.
 
For the flag pole patio, Mike had
fabulous ideas for how accomplish our goal of having the patio slope up to meet
the edge of the driveway without interfering with any snow removal equipment
and to back fill our sloping lawn to meet the top of the retaining wall giving
our lawn a new, very much improved look. Mike also had the idea to edge the retaining
wall with a 3 ft. planter strip to provide a buffer between the grass and the
wall which we topped with redwood bark mulch. As for the patio itself, we used
hexagon paving bricks. The first idea was to use larger paving bricks to create
the slope from the patio to tie into the driveway, but after Mike saw the
appearance of the large pavers, he changed his mind, had the large pavers
removed and the smaller hexagon pavers cut to create the slope necessary for a
smooth transition to the driveway. The Sunshine mason is by far one of the best
I have ever seen. The pavers were cut with compound angles and laid with such
precision, it is impossible to see the interface from the patio to the sloping
pavers unless you are looking for it. Very impressive. In addition to working
to complete our project, we needed to have a different contractor come in
during different stages of the landscaping work to set the base for the flag
pole. Everything went very smoothly with two contractors working in the same
200 sqft area. Again, as with the garden workers, the tools were picked up
every night and the area left in a very tidy fashion.
 
I hope that Sunshine Garden and
Landscaping Services is around for a long time. They are a family run business
with integrity, knowledge and skilled, hard workers. Everything was completed
in a timely manner and to our complete satisfaction at a fair price.

The owner did his best to rectify a difficult situation.

We have a large back yard, but we're on the side of a hill so it wasn't very useable. I wanted to put a swing set up for my granddaughter but didn't have a place level enough to place it. Mike from Sunshine had lots of ideas for making the whole yard usable. I wasn't sure I would be able to afford getting the entire yard done at once, so I asked him to break the estimate out multiple ways. I got quotes from 5 different landscapers and Mike was the only one that broke the estimate out the way that I asked for it to be done. We ended up doing the whole yard. Yeah!

The first day they showed up right when they'd said they would (as they did every day). Access to the back yard is very limited, all uphill and of course it was raining. But if you live in Alaska you know that it rains a lot this time of year, if you let the rain stop you you will never get anything done. They laid down a plywood road up the side of the yard to protect it, added traction strips and got to work cutting trees down, pulling up roots and leveling the ground. The work continued for a several days (mostly in the rain). They even worked through the weekend to take advantage of nicer weather. They hauled in topsoil and built a pea gravel pad for the swing set. And finished off with hydroseed.

We've gone from an unlevel, grown-over piece of land to a back yard that we will enjoy every chance we get. Next summer is going to be awesome in our NEW yard!!!

looks good

They showed up on time and were professional. They had fair prices. Next time I need landscaping done I will not even call around for quotes, I will just use them.

I was not sure about their pricing, which is why I gave them a C. I would use them again in the future.