Sara Jacoby Landscape Design

I'd say overall, not too well. Firstly, I chose Sara since she had been highly reviewed by others on Angie's list. Secondly, her schedule was full, so I had to wait a month to have her come to take a look. I thought, well I'm willing to do that if she is the professional I thought could help me out. Her first visit was brief and she left, I felt, with a good understanding of what I wanted; a complete plan that I could implement on my own. I needed her design and layout expertise. On our second meeting she presented me with a conceptual layout, which was a beginning, I thought of something that would develop into a complete design. There were awkward moments of conversation during both of our meetings, almost like she was not interested in doing the job. She gave me some good ideas verbally which were helpful and implementable, but other suggestions that she made were not as good, such as using plantings that would be inappropriate because they could not stand up to reflected heat from my decomposed granite. After she left, I sent her a check to cover her expenses up to that point, knowing that she was not the person that I wanted to work on the design. Too bad, since she is a pleasant person but we just did not click.

Left an inquiry using the portal on her website. Sara responded within the week. We scheduled an on-site meeting during which I gave her a tour and explained what I wanted out of the backyard, and what the constraints were. I asked Sara to take that framework, and add her own inspiration and creativity to produce a schematic. She took about three weeks to complete the scaled rendering and I am very pleased with the product. Any landscape architect can produce a professional looking draft, but Sara brings a keen eye to the process as well, and has created a concept which matches my lifestyle and fits within the "culture" of the property. Next step is to choose a contractor to build Sara's vision.

Excellent !! Sara is extremely knowledgeable, professional, punctual and follows through on every detail. We selected her because of her creativity and knowledge of desert landscapes.

I’ve paid her to design a top-of-the-line landscape for me, and it is magnificent. She came out to the house and came up with the design within a week of my request. She is going to work with me with the landscape company I choose to redo the whole yard. She is very available and flexible. She returns calls, listens to me, pays attention to what I am asking for and works within my budget. I would use her in the future.

In the beginning, I hired her to prepare the landscape design. But as time went on, I decided I also wanted her to 'manage' the project when it came time to work with the landscapers. She was assertive in refusing inferior plants / trees selected by the landscape firm; she was precise in directing them where to plant trees / shrubs according to plan and she was a firm manager of the installation. In several instances, she would have them move a tree several times so that it would be installed according to plan! (The landscape company was very casual about placement.) I could not have gone to work every day and expected the landscapers to actually perform according to plan without her supervision. She exceeded my expectations and she was a far better manager of this project than I would have been. I felt she provided 'turn-key' services and she was worth twice the amount I paid!