Santa Rita Landscaping Inc

Do not work for this company. They will steal from your paycheck. They make everyone buy a set of 75$ shirts despite not being required to wear them. These shirts will fall apart the first time you put them in the wash. The NEW payroll system they use automatically deducts a lunch break from your time clock whether or not you choose to take one. The same time clock system also will not show your clock in and clock out times or prompt you to approve your time sheet. You will only have a count of the total hours you worked that day. Once a new day starts you won’t be able to see yesterdays hours. You have to rely on your manager to manually remove the lunch break from your timesheet. If there is a mistake you have to hope your supervisor was diligent enough to remember fix it. The old system didn’t have this problem we could see our hours for the entire week along with in and out times. So when you go to the labor board to get whatever hours they WILL owe you. Not only will Santa Rita not respond to the labor boards requests you will also not have enough evidence to get the labor board to get your owed pay.

I contacted Santa Rita Landscaping (SRL) in July to get a bid for placement of a new storm drain to address some ponding problems in my back yard/patio due to failure of an old storm drain that was no longer functional. Jeremy Ivey came out within a few days of my request to look at the property, to communicate a plan, and provide a bid. He did so in a timely manner. After reviewing multiple bids and doing some research on the businesses that had provided bids, I chose Santa Rita Landscaping (although they weren’t the least expensive bid) based on SRL long history in the business, generally good reputation in the community, experience with my project, and what seemed to me to be a commitment to quality service based on my interaction with Jeremy which seemed consistent with the focus on quality service put forth on the company website. I was told I wouldn’t be able to tell they had been there at all when the work was completed. The job was started August 3rd. The job was supposed to take 1-2 days. I was concerned about the crew damaging buried water, electrical, gas, irrigation lines, etc. I told Jeremy what I knew about underground utilities in terms of location and he told me he would be contacting “Blue Stake” who would be marking all the lines with different colored markers and the crew would be very careful hand digging the proposed path of the new drain. I later learned that blue stake would only be marking the gas line as there was “no conflict” with electrical and water service. This was distressing to me as I was assured there would be flags all over my yard to alert the crew to the location of the utility lines. I wasn’t aware that there were conditions that would preclude Blue Stake from marking the locations on my property. However, I was reassured by Jeremy that the crew would be very careful digging and if any problems came up they would be taken care of. This was sort of the beginning of the problems. There were a couple of days that work didn’t take place because of monsoon rains although rain had ceased before start time or shortly after their usual start time at my house. On the last day of the job, and just a short time before they planned to leave I checked in with the crew as they had reached the end point of the drain but it was so deep it would have to be extended in order for the drain to be functional and I was informed this would cost an additional $700+ (about 25% more than I had budgeted for). This was quite unexpected and distressing, and I hadn’t been informed earlier that this would be the outcome of having to trench deeper than apparently was originally planned. I was feeling like I had been mislead and not kept informed of the issue and the consequences. I spoke with the crew and eventually Jeremy, to see if there was an alternative. Jeremy said that in order to do what I “wanted” (extending the trench) I would have to pay the extra amount. I told him that extending the trench was not some whim of mine and something I suddenly wanted. It was that the drain would not be functional as a drain if stopped a foot below grade. I asked about why I wasn’t informed earlier as it seemed this could have been anticipated by the SLR team as they apparently trenched deeper than planned. I didn’t feel like I got an answer to that question. Ultimately they did extend the trench a few more feet and some rock was placed to direct the flow of water. The crew then told me they were told to leave and not do any more work. They left shortly thereafter. The site was not returned to it’s pre-work state with debris remaining. They didn’t take care to compact the dirt around the drain grate and it was collapsing when tested to see if pooling water could make it to the grate. It drained around the drain but not through the grate until enough accumulated to finally go through which only caused more erosion of the the dirt. Other issues were communication problems with Jeremy: several no shows/no calls for scheduled appointments because he was too busy or hadn’t been aware of the time, and information given was incomplete or misleading. In the end Jeremy did not charge extra and did commit to having the crew return to clean up the worksite and to deal with continued erosion around the drain if it persisted as a problem in the future. I did give him the final payment and I hope he will keep his word on his commitments for the crew to return to finish. Unfortunately I can not give a positive review of my experience with Santa Rita Landscaping.

My driveway was over 25 yrs old and the asphalt was coming apart. Not only was it unsightly but dirt was regularly tracked into the house. There was also an issue of drainage after rains which often backed up on my carport and drained into my neighbors yard. After consulting with several contractors considering both concrete and paver options, we chose Santa Rita Landscaping. The price for the pavers was only about $2000 more than concrete and provided a much more aesthetic look that matched our adobe block house. In addition, Ryan was the only one who offered a solution to the drainage problem which was to install a small drain in the tree swale and route the water via a 4 inch pipe to a lower point in my backyard which could water trees with the excess water. The workers did a great job in all stages of removal of the old asphalt, configuring the elevation so water would drain gently to a particular point, and carefully installing AB sand/gravel underlayment, then sand, then the pavers and finally a coat of fine sand between the pavers. I am very pleased with both the appearance of the finished product and its functionality. Many people have commented on how attractive and well done it is. the Crew was great to work with and kept me informed of progress and any issues along the way. I would highly recommend them for this type of work.

Ryan and Jeremy were great. Great communication and proactive. Will do business again with Santa Rita Landscaping. Very pleased.

Very pleased,, We were not here but when we returned it exceeded our expectations and were prompt to address a few issues that occurred,

We were not there to observe but reports are that they did very professional job and were a pleasure to work with during design and planning stage. Knowledgable, about local vegetation, hardscape and process. First located by researching the local firms on web and their projects seemed superior to others. Would definitely recommend

My experience with Santa Rita was horrible and I would never recommend this company to a friends. Santa Rita was the highest bid we received, but at the time they sold us on the fact that they 'said' they'd do the job the best. And, I am willing to pay good money if the job is done well. This company did far from well. No return calls, few return e-mails, the lawn was put in so poorly the first time it had to be redone (the redone lawn is still sloppy work), and the trees and plants died in weeks to months later. To get this company to come out on warranty items was a huge pain. It such POOR communication. If you want the job done well or even have good communication, this is not the company you should hire.

Everything went very well. They are a very organized professional company.

They did fantastic work. They had to rip out some prior work, level the surface so it was ready to be landscaped again. The price was intimidating for a little bit but after I sat back and they were done, it was worth it.

The first round or so with SRL was a bit rocky with an inexperienced design manager. After reaching out to the company, their responsiveness was top notch. They went above and beyond to live up to the excellent reputation SRL has earned. Special thanks to Garrett Ham, Veronica Leyva, Tanner Spross and John, the field supervisor who made sure the job was completed in an exceptional way. I highly recommend SRL and encourage early communication with the company if questions or concerns arise. They are committed to quality work!

Project completed as requested.  When Santa Rita ran into some issues with the construction, John, the Santa Rita foreman, and Garrett, the Vice President, did an awesome job resolving everything to my satisfaction.  Very refreshing to work with folks who were so professional and customer-oriented.  

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The design phase took some time as there was some discussion of what was needed, what was wanted and what would be in our best interest.  Lots of back and forth regarding what we wanted and what would work.  They were exceptional in wrinkling out what was important to us and how to ensure that the high points were met.  First of all, they coordinated their schedule with the pool company (Omni Pools - who were also awesome) to begin the transformation as soon as the pool was completed.  The estimated time of the project was two weeks but expanded to four due to the flu bug making the necessary staff unavailable as often as they normally would be. 

what was done...

they cut down a superfluous desert willow
modified the driveway to allow a more pleasing display of our front yard
moved landscape boulders
installed artificial turf in the front courtyard and back yard
added screening trees and shrubs for privacy
modified the irrigation to the front, side and back yards
installed a stacked flagstone fountain in the front courtyard
allowed some water retention areas
trimmed existing trees to provide canopy feel and enhance views
laid gravel and crafted mounding for plant display

so, all in all, a comprehensive overhaul of the main features of my property. 

Awesome unique touches involved:

using ash and sissou trees and mountain laurels instead of the traditional mesquites and palo verde varieties
Arranging landscape boulders to create features for plants
the use of kino blue rip-rap to add color to the 
the stacked flagstone fountain also using kino blue stones to add iridescent color to the feature

If you want to see it, ask the vendor, they took quite a few pictures

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The plans did not fit our property layout exactly, it was more of a generalization but it was very thorough.
The cost to implement the plan was almost $40k which was well beyond our budget. 
The effort Santa Rita put out was far more than the price they charged us for their service. It was a really great value.
If you have a large project, I would highly recommend contacting Santa Rita.

The experience started off great.  They set up my initial appointment and I meet with the Landscape Designer.  We discussed what I wanted and he started the design.  I meet with him about 4 weeks later to review the plan.  I asked for a few changes and the designer was very accommodating.  After a few emails back and forth a design was settled upon, a deposit was made, and I was told that the scheduling person would contact me in the next day or two to schedule the work at my site.

This is when things went downhill.  I did not hear from anyone for almost 2 weeks and I finally called the scheduling person and left a message.  When I did not hear from the scheduler after a few days I called the designer and left a message.  I finally received a call from the scheduler and she had scheduled my job the exact week I had told them not to schedule my job.  After several calls to her answering machine she finally called me back and we discussed a reschedule.

At 6 PM the day before they were to start work on my project I received a call from the scheduler informing me that their previous job had run over and they would not be starting my job the next day, but the day after that.  I called her back and informed her that the new start date would not work as I had already arranged to be there on the original day and no one would be there on the new start date.  We finally agreed upon a new start date, but the weather was looking unpredictable so she told me she would call that morning and let me know if the crew would start.   The weather was questionable that morning and I expected a call from her first thing to tell me if the crew would start, but she did not.  I finally called at 9 am to make sure they were not coming.

In the meantime their subcontractors had delivered landscaping materials to my job site.  One materials company delivered rocks in such a careless manner that they spilled and covered ¾ of the roadway and they did not bother to move them.  My husband returned home to see this issue and went out and moved as much of it as he could so that at least half of the roadway was passable.  Our streets are not lit so we parked our cars on each side so that someone would not hit them when traveling by at night.  The next day I requested that Santa Rita bring some traffic cones over so that we could move our vehicles and they responded to my request promptly.

Once work started the landscape execution team arrived promptly every morning to work on the project and they were very friendly and professional.  This job included paver work and it is beautiful.  A couple of the plants are not doing well and the foreman is going to replace them.  

Overall the landscape turned out beautiful, although I felt the cost was a little high.  I was very pleased with the designer (A), not pleased at all with the scheduler (D), very pleased with the foreman (A) and especially pleased with the landscape execution team (A+++). 

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After reviewing several contractors, my wife and I contracted  with Santa Rita Landscape (SRL) to design and complete a backyard project for a new home we purchased in Marana, AZ.  From the design phase to the completed project, I have nothing but praise for how the job was handled.  Rich Doering was insightful throughout the design phase and was extremely patient with us as we fine tuned the initial design.  By the third draft we had what we wanted. 

The work began and finished in the time frame that was established, and the crews were fantastic to work with.  Arriving each day at pretty much sunrise to start the work and at the end of the each day, the work areas were cleaned up and all trash/debris was removed.

All the crews (landscape/patio pavers, barbeque, fire-pit, trenching, water system and others) were professional and knowledgeable. The foreman for the project, Ismael Valle, nicknamed (Smiley) was on top of the project in regard to the work crews, equipment, supplies, and schedule.  He was accessible and easy to work with.  I will note, as with any project of this scale, a few issues did occur.  Smiley handled each issue and the discrepancies were immediately addressed and rectified.  I was also a bit surprised to have the owner of the company (Richard)  and his Vice President in charge of operations (Garrett) show up at the site one afternoon just to check in and see how everything was going.  We spent some time talking and it was obvious to me that they were very genuine in the desire to ensure the project was going well and in the manner that I expected.  A very personal touch that was much appreciated. 

In the end, the backyard looks great and we are of the opinion that we clearly made the right choice for our project.  I would highly recommend Santa Rita Landscape (SRL) for any project you may be considering.

Tony and Kim

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Very good plans and service.  
Ed Fagin and the other office folks were very professional and nice.  
I felt very comfortable working with the architect, Ed Fagin.
Ed listened to me and presented a design which was in line with what i wanted.  He remained flexible, allowing me to change my mind.

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