The Good Earth Garden Center

They did all of that work in three days. There were three guys. They knocked it out in three days and it was beautiful. We purchased plants at Good Earth before, so we knew of them. Then Chad Oppenheimer, I think his name was, is the landscape architect and he was really good to work with.

They are great at the store.

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In front of our house we had 25 year old bushes that had grown tall and were unsightly.  We also had crepe myrtle trees.  The old bushes were difficult to remove but they had a tractor,  The new plants were planted without problems and the ground covered with mulch.  They did break a sprinkler pipe but fixed it. The only problem was they were a day late starting.   They were very professional.  We are extremely pleased with the design and final appearance of the landscaping project.  I give the landscape architect an A+ and the workers an A.

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Good Earth was 1 of 6 companies I contacted regarding the installation of a residential irrigations system, but they were the only one that came out to look at my property and provide an estimate.  First contact was in April and it took 3 additional phone calls over the next couple of months before they finally came out to look at my property (Responsiveness: F). I kept calling the other companies as well, but none of the others would return my calls. I explained I wanted the front yard and the right side of the house and that I wanted to bore UNDER the driveway to get to the right side of the house (I did not want to cut through the driveway).  As I was speaking to the guy that did the job (Zack), he was looking at my property on line and asked me if I wanted the back yard done as well.  I said no, but he could include an estimate if he wanted.  Estimate for front (and I thought right side of the house) and back yard was $7800!  I told him that was more than 2x my budget and asked for an estimate on just the front and right side of the house and I reiterated I wanted to bore under the driveway). He said he'd have to recalculate things and would call back.  2 days later he called back w/a $3800 estimate.  Although this was still above my budget and seemed to be a steep price for the size yard I had (65'x55' for the front and 28'x12' for the side), he was the only one of the 6 I called willing to do the job.  He told me it would be 3 zones which basically came out to approx. $1266 per zone. Talking to my coworker, their average was $750-$900 per zone.  Obviously, I was paying a premium.  2 more months passed and a couple of more phone calls later and they finally arrived in September to do my yard.  They were quick!  Practically did the entire front yard in a day.  I happened to be home that day and when I saw them put the trenching machine away I went outside and asked about the right side of the yard?
NOW THE PROBLEMS BEGIN!  The foreman doing the job informed me he didn't know anything about the right side of the house. When I explained my conversation w/Zack included the right yard and boring under the driveway he said he'd have to call the office and get back w/me. About an hour later Zack called me to explain the right side of the yard was not part of the job, nor was the boring under the driveway.  A very heated conversation then ensued ... He was only doing the "front yard"; 2 zones, which now amounted to $1900 per zone!!!  I told him to stop work, tell me what I owed him for the trenching, and take his men and equipment off my property and that I would either finish the job myself or get someone else to do it at a more reasonable price.  I told him his price was outrageous for what he was now proposing, AND NOT THE FULL JOB I HAD HIRED HIM FOR OR THOUGHT I WAS GETIING!  There was no question in his mind I was dead serious and I think he went into a defensive posture to try to salvage the job and asked me to give him some time to see if he could work something out.  I gave him some time and his foreman approached me about an hour later with a proposal ... It would take about another week to finalize the job because they had not planned on boring and they'd have to get a guy that owns a boring machine to provide an estimate and then do the work.  I was not happy, and I was even less happy when about 30 minutes later I was informed that a phone estimate with the boring contractor was roughly $1500.  Knowing this would be an instantaneous deal killer, they had devised a Plan B before revealing the additional $1500 cost.  ?They would run a line through the crawl space under the house to get to the right side and forego boring under the driveway. Additional cost: $280. They would do so by drilling a 2" hole through my crawl space vents to run the 1" PVC piping under the house to the right yard on the other side.  Although I was not happy with the prospect of them rendering 2 of my automatic open/close crawl space vents inoperable (essentially breaking stuff in order to finish the job [who does that?!]), I wanted the job done.  Fortunately for me, it was Friday and they would not be able to finish the job until the following Monday. I seized the opportunity and decided I did not want them breaking my vents.  I purchased over $150 of masonry bits and boring tools, crawled under my house and spent the next day doing the work of boring 2" holes though cinderblock and brick, adjacent to the vents they were going to break so they could use the holes I made and leave my vents intact.  Monday came around and the foreman told me he was happy to see the holes I had drilled since he felt bad about drilling though my vents.  Although I didn?t verbalize to him, I wondered why he?d just not do the job right instead of doing a sloppy job instead?  I?m sure he was just happy he didn?t have to do any drilling himself and didn?t give a crap about breaking my vents.  Freaking contractors!  But the fun hasn?t stopped yet.  Oh no.  Now comes the question of where to put the control box?  I already had a plan to have it installed in my outdoor shed.  I had spoken to Zack to that fact and had bought 100? of 1? flexible tubing to run from the zone controllers to the control box.  It?s a good thing I had done that, because Zack had forgotten that conversation and was planning on having an electrician come out to install the wiring for the box.  That would have been more added costs not included in the original estimate!  So ? typical of all contractors, the estimate is not the real estimate!!!  It?s as if this is the first irrigation system they?d ever installed.  Long story short, the job got completed by Tuesday (3 days for 3 zones) and so far works like an irrigation system should.
Lessons Learned: Get a written estimate that covers the entire job from A-to-Z.  Know what you?re getting and how much is will cost.  I made the HUGE MISTAKE of going on a verbal understanding of what I wanted and my understanding that the guy on the other end of the line understood.
Work and expenses I accomplished:
1.     $150 of supplies to bore 2 holes through cinderblock and brick under my house
2.     $50 for 100? of 1? flexible tubing.  I drilled the holes and ran the tubing myself
NO CREDIT GIVEN BY THE CONTRACTOR FOR WORK AND EXPESES INCURRED BY ME FOR WORK AND EXPENSES THEY SHOULD HAVE INCURRED AND ACCOMPLISHED THEMSELVES.
 
Second Lesson Learned:  I WILL NEVER USE GOOD EARTH GARDEN FOR ANY CONTRACTUAL WORK ? EVER!
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BUSINESS FOR CONTRACTUAL WORK.  Very pricey for average work and a lot of problems along the way for what should have been a very simple job.
Post-script: I?m a quick learner, don?t mind getting dirty (that?s why I crawled under the house and bore the holes), and like to tinker.  I had no idea how to install an irrigation system and why I hired Good Earth to do the work. After having watched them do the work, I saw how it was done; that was a $4200 ?academic? lesson.  Anyhow, within a month, I personally installed an irrigation system in my backyard over the course of 2 weekends.  2 Zones; total cost: $150.  I was a one-man show.  Good Earth had 4 men doing the work.  They used a ride-on trencher; I dug by hand (pick and shovel; which was the part of the job that took the longest).  After that, the rest was easy.

The Good Earth Garden Center were the ones who responded to my phone call. They were reasonable and I liked their ideas. I did have other people in mind, but they never showed up. They were recommended to me and didn't return the phone calls or whatever because they were too busy with other jobs I guess. The guy from The Good Earth Garden Center showed up and talked to me and I liked his price and then I went with him. I think they're expensive, but that might just be the way landscapers cost.

My experience was good. They were very clean and did the work and their price was reasonable. They were willing to do the job that not many people would even come out to do. I would grade them C for responsiveness because I tried to get a hold of them a couple of times since that point of time as I had a question about the bill and they just have not responded back. I would use them again in the future if necessary.