A Passion For Gardening

He did it pretty quickly. I liked the fact that brought me samples and worked with me to pick something out. The color we picked was the perfect color. He did have a guy to cement down the brick. The guy kept smoking back there and there were cigarette butts all over my yard. I don't think Pedro would be very happy to know that. Pedro is the owner and I think he is very careful about making sure that people are polite. If he smoked out there no big deal, but he needed to bring a can or something to put his cigarette butts in, instead of throwing them in our yard. He was very pleasant though.

They were very responsive and came out a week after I purchased the deal. They brought about 10 guys for 1 day. I wanted a cleanup of my backyard. I specified that they should cleanup overgrown parts. I left them to go for to work for the day. When I came back that afternoon, they had completely destroyed my backyard. They had cut everything out and left it there. I had a really pretty honeysuckle tree that they chopped down to 8 feet. They did not manage their time well and they wanted to leave the trash on my property. I wouldn’t let them do that so they came back the next day to pick it up. They charged me for the trash removal. Overall, the quality of work was awful and professionalism was poor. It has costs me $20,000 to remedy what they did: to replant and re-irrigate. They did not remedy situation.

This landscaper was contacted to take care of my front and rear yard. to include mowing, edging. weeding, taking care of plants and trim trees when needed. The first few months were fine then things started to go down hill. They actually killed three of my plants and it took Pedro a couple of months to replace them. He only replaced two and planted one of them in the wrong place and it died. The back yard looks 100% better than the front. The front is overtaken with weeds and the edging is out of wack.. There was total lack of supervision with his workers. All they did was mow and leave. Neither him or his wokers paid any attention to detail. They used a blower to blow the leaves from around the plants and that took a lot of bark that I had laid down. They did absolutely no weeding which is why my front yard is ruined. I would not use them again nor would I recommend them.

We read many reviews of Pedro's work but believed he could provide just the service we needed. We are do-it your-selfers, so for most of the re-landscaping project we are doing our own work. However, we wanted to install large pavers to enlarge the patio area of our backyard. The weight and volume of gravel, sand, and pavers just seemed like too much for us. Pedro brought in a great crew that did the final leveling, moved and compacted gravel, moved sand and leveled and installed large pavers. He was even very flexible when we discovered a gas leak right before he was scheduled, and worked around the plumber. Final results look great. He provided us just the services we needed at a very reasonable price.

great he removed some old plants and suggested new plants that look great. delivered planted them all spread mulch.

The team was responsive and very professional. They really knew a lot about the plants and the irrigation system. They met me at a plant nursery and helped me select plants that would work well for my yard and look beautiful. Also met me at a stone place to select all the stone for my yard and walkway. Very hard working team, and very professional. I would definitely use them again!

Pedro and his crew were excellent. We needed a rush job to sell our house and Pedro came to the property to assess. I will admit there was a bit of skepticism when we first met because immediately the cost seemed to increase. After talking with Pedro the second meeting he explained how the deal worked and that to upgrade to certain things (like rocks instead of wood mulch) would increase the cost. We decided to stick with the basics and a slightly upgraded mulch for the extra $60. I have to say Pedro really surprised us, he came on the first day and really prepped the area for the plants and these guys worked hard and had it done in only a few hours. The next day they came back with the succulents (which were beautiful and a great mix of types), planted them and added the mulch. These guys really busted their butts and it shows with some great work. We are confident the front of the house will look great for potential buyers. We will likely be calling Pedro back for the new house!

The 6 men that arrived, including Pedro Yanez, were all very courteous and obviously very knowledgeable about sprinklers and plants. They did not all speak English, however Pedro Yanez is very fluent in English and communicated directly with his crew. They buried most of the new poly pipe they installed, so the sun would not rot it without damaging already growing plants. My yard is very different than most. I have an acre on a 30% slope that is terraced. Because of very mature landscaping and the age of my low flow sprinkler system (at least 25 years) the installation took longer than it normally would, all of the 40 hours. There are a few minor sprinkler things that will still need repair, however they are now manageable. All in all in am extremely pleased with the work and caring attitude of A PASSION FOR GARDENING and their employees.

It mostly went well except they had multiple leaks in the sprinkler systme which flooded my yard a bit. They did end up fixing it no questions asked.

Started trimming bushes first day seemed to be going ok. Second day when I was on the phone he knocked on front door and asked my wife if we wanted juniper bushes trimmed out of irrigation ditch. Of course she thought he was a professinal and knew what he was doing. When I went out to look 30 year old juniper bushes were hacked on one side and completely trimmed wrong and ruined. Junipers are very slow growing bushes and they will never recover from this hack job. They easily could have trimmed and raised a few lower limbs and accomplished what needed to be done and left looking pretty. When I confronted Pedro the owner he said "I told the guy" whatever that means! he obviously was not in control of what was being done. His next disaster was selling me on topsoil to spread on my existing grass. He assured me that it was good for the grass and would help it retain water and save on irrigation costs. What a DISASTER!!! piles of this material was dumped all over my grass, where it stayed in several piles until they attempted to spread it out. The material was not spread out evenly and the end result was burned dead areas all over my lawn. His remedy was to run my irrigation 3 times a day to move the material through the grass this has not helped at all. I questioned him about this the day he did the work and he assured me everything was fine and he would continue to check on the yard. I called him again two days after they put the material on my lawn and told him obviously something was wrong and asked him "what did he intend on doing about it?" I now need to find another contractor to correct my lawn, there is nothing I can do to correct the juniper bushes he hacked up.

I met Pedro Yanez after purchasing an Angie's List deal he offered. I had intended to have him do a small job first and then transition to the larger total reconstruction of the front of our home in Fallbrook if all went well. I was so impressed with Pedro's demeanor and character upon our first meeting that I asked him to give us an estimate for the entire job. I judged him to be an honest, straight talking man and he proved himself so. He helped us design our front entrance and made good suggestions on the re-landscaping of our front yard. We accepted his proposal and he began to work on the project the next week. Pedro is very diligent in keeping to a schedule and he always showed up when he said he would. The crews he had working at our home were great. All the workers, no matter what their job, were courteous, personable and hard working. I felt they really cared about doing a good job and the end result has proven this. The project started out with the demolition phase. This was the simplest phase but the most back breaking as well. Old concrete stairs and walkway had to be removed, old outdoor electric walkway lighting had to be removed and capped off. All the hillside vegetation was removed, existing gardens of plants were saved in a temporary location while huge Juniper shrubs were removed and hauled away. The hillside was completely stripped bare. The construction of the stairs and landings revealed how committed Pedro is to doing the job right with no questions asked. I had very specific specifications for the constriction of the stairs that I had included in the contract. Once the concrete was poured and the first few steps were finished off with pavers it became evident that the stair risers were higher than I had specified. Pedro did not hesitate to immediately resolve this issue which was no small matter. I was impressed how that Pedro readily worked thru this problem with me without making me feel that it was any kind of imposition on him, it was most important to him to have the job done right and for me to be fully satisfied with his work. Pedro worked with his landscaping supplier to coordinate the delivery and planting of the new plants. He also worked with me to dig up existing plants and re-plant them in the context of the new layout. The entire project took a little over three weeks from demo to finished product. I decided to add a small walk way using a Colorado red rock type slab motif and I picked up the slabs at a nearby stone yard, brought them on site and his crew added them to the design as they installed the new plants and irrigation system. Pedro is a man of high integrity, honest and true to his word. He was always available by phone and responded to email questions I had. Pedro respected me as a client and I, in turn, respected him as a contractor; if there were and changes or additions to the initial contract (we added the paver walkway in front of our home) we dealt with them, in detail, agreeing on the extra costs the changes incurred before continuing forward. On a final note, last week (2 weeks after completion) one of the pavers loosened up and I called Pedro to see if they would take care of this. Pedro informed me that his work carries a 2 year warranty and I should not hesitate to call him if something like this happens. He immediately made arrangements to repair this step. I was impressed that Pedro has such an extensive warranty and his attitude is is so proactive about his work.

First and foremost this guy, Pedro Yanez (owner), can NOT communicate. I had gotten estimates from a couple other contractors on the above job and they all came back about the same. Angie's list came along with a Big Deal that offered the amount the other contractors quoted for the same job at a discount, so I jumped on it. I set-up a consultation meeting with the guy, he surveyed the job and took measurements. I asked him if he can do it with the Angie's list deal, of course he nodded in the affirmative. I asked him if he can find the RR ties as I would just go onto Craigslist and get whatever is there. About a week later and 3 emails to him he finally said Home Depot sells RR ties. Really? I figured he would have suppliers and get the best price. Guess it wasn't worth the effort. So I ask what he thinks is the amount of material needed. He came back with about twice the amount of material I had calculated and asked him to verify. Turns out he took the wrong measurements. When I asked him about the measurements his reply was "Why don't you remeasure and let me know". Again REALLY? He should have come here to verify what I was measuring is correct. Well after going to Home Depot and determining the RR ties weren't very good and pretty expensive, I found the material from another lumberyard in Ramona that sells them cheaper and better quality (as RR ties go). Of course I didn't want the material in my driveway while waiting for Pedro to work, so I wanted to coordinate delivery of materials and start of the project. Well it was like pulling teeth to get him to commit to a start date unless the materials were on site. But finally convinced him to agree to start a day after the material was delivered. He started on a thursday, with the material delivered the day before. All seemed to be going well and falling into place. I see 5 guys show up, including Pedro. I'm thinking great this will be done in one day, after all 5 guys at 8 hours is 40 hours in the Angie's List Big Deal. Come the end of the day, I get home from work, the guys are gone, the pile of RR ties are still in my driveway and the hill is about 75% done. I talk with Pedro, firday come back maybe finish monday. Now I'm wondering if this is going to be charged so i remind him Angie's list deal. He just does the yeah yeah be there tomorrow. Come friday morning, I'm waiting and no one comes. I call Pedro, he tells me monday, so I wondered why he didn't tell me. He gave all the excuses why they weren't coming friday, but not why he didn't tell me. So I have this stack of material in my driveway doing what I tried not to do, all because this guy, Pedro, won't communicate well, but Angie's List already had the money I bought the big deal with, so I proceeded. Finally Monday is upon us and Pedro shows up promising they will finish and make everything 'nice'. I'm concerned about this new found ability to chat in the morning... of course come the end of the day the concerns were realized... he want's to talk about the extra hours. Despite me telling him I have quotes on the job and Angie's List big deal covers the same time, and the fact he did not communicate hours tallied (i don't know if they felt they can slow roll this or if he's just incompetent in estimating) but he wanted more than the original hours. Well I'm not going to fight with the guy in my front yard, I'm taking this to Angie's List and see how they make it right... a good company can be there when things go smooth, it's what they do for you when it doesn't that separates the good companies from the bad.

How'd it go? Not so good. First off I had to wait many weeks before the owner of the business, Pedro Yanez, could fit my job in to his busy schedule. The first day he and his crew show up, a lot of work was accomplished but it took another seven additional days before they returned for the second day of work.. Again, he and his crew work at a feverish pace to complete the the job but it takes a couple of hours the following day to finish up. Once again Pedro disappears for another week (always Wednesday to Wednesday for some reason) before returning with a single worker to add more plants (upon my insistence) and to begin work on the lighting system, which is where things begin to go downhill. Unfortunately Pedro is no expert in landscape lighting, as I found out. Long story made short, even though Pedro said he was skilled in low voltage lighting schemes, that wasn't the case and it's my bad for including it as part of the job. Also it didn't help the situation that Pedro's second language is English, but it was only a minor concern. Bottom line is even though the job took only 24 or so work hours to complete, it was over three weeks and that's unacceptable, The landscaping work was satisfactory but the lighting portion was a complete bust. Pedro, who is no doubt proficient in his knowledge of plants and landscaping, isn't someone who gets high marks for patience and customer service. I would give "A Passion For Gardening" no more than a grade of "C-" and that's being generous. I also encourage you to read their Angie's List Big Deal" offers very carefully before committing. I thought I was getting 40 hours of labor for $1499.00 but what I got was only 40 hours credit for one single worker only!

Thanked him for his time and continued shopping for a residential yard maintenance service.

Pedro was professional and friendly via e-mail (I let him know e-mail was my preferred method of communication and unlike many other vendors, he actually listened). I ended up using a different gardener but only because they came out sooner to do an estimate (even though Pedro's estimate would have been a day after we received the other estimate). It was just a matter of timing and if it doesn't work out with this other gardener, I'd reach out to Pedro in a heartbeat.

used large crew and completed job in short time. very knowlegable , neat and clean. very happy with work

I had ideas that I had wanted, but needed direction. He seemed irritated that I did not have concrete ideas and basically said it was a waste of time for him to come down from Escondido and a waste of my money if I didn't know what I wanted. He didn't really offer any ideas and we did have a communication problem that I don't think would be conducive to further working together.

It went very well! Pedro really knows his plants. He not only does the work but he provides information as to what he is doing and why. My miniature orange tree is doing wonderfully now!!! I will be calling him again - and more frequently!

Everything went very well. Pedro selected beautiful plants. He removed all of our old overgrown plants and planted gorgeous colorful flowering plants and installed new drip irrigation. Our neighbors are giving us compliments already!

My backyard was in desperate need of landscaping and clean up. Pedro and his crew did an excellent job installing pavers, new irrigation/timer and beautiful plants. These guys are hard working and take pride in what they do. Pedro is very knowledgeable about plants and did his best to pick just the right ones for my yard. He transformed my once drab yard into something beautiful. He went above and beyond to make sure everything was just right. It is clear he has a passion for gardening. I would not hesitate to hire him again.

Ugly end product and Pedro takes no responsibility for what he does. There is a clear English barrier and I wish I would have taken the previous reviews more seriously on just how difficult it is to communicate with him.

The project went very well. We went them to the nursery to select plants. Everythign turned out beautifully.

This is the second time I've hired A Passion for Gardening and, like the first time, I was very pleased with the work that Pedro and his guys did for me. We live on a near quarter acre lot and the yard had become considerably overgrown. (Like 10 months overgrown, to be precise. So very overgrown.) Pedro responded very promptly. I emailed him through Angie's List on 8/7, he responded by 8/8 and met me for the quote on 8/9 and completed the service over the course of two days 8/12 and 8/13. He came out, looked at my yard and then gave me a very competitive quote. We have some guests coming in town, so it was important that the work get done quickly and I appreciate that he fit me into his schedule. I am very happy with the work he did. It was quick, professional and thorough. I have read some of the reviews here about A Passion for Gardening and about Pedro and, to be quite frank, I am a little surprised at some of the negative comments. I do realize that sometimes misunderstandings arise, but my experience with this company and Pedro has been very positive. I think it has to be emphasized that Pedro is a very soft spoken guy, and with English being his second language, at times it can be hard to hear him. That being said, in both my experiences with him, he has struck me as very conscientious about the work that is being done and he gives you options to consider not just for what he is doing now, but how the yard will grow in the future. I would definitely hire him again and I am going to have him take care of my yard on a monthly basis.

Pedro came to the house twice for consultation. He was always on time and spent quite a bit of that time educating me on the needs of the existing mature plants, as well as discussing best options for new plants I was considering (replacement plantings/ground cover where a lawn had been) He was very flexible in working around my schedule for consultations as well as actual work days. When they came for work days, they were also on time, efficient, and worked diligently to plug up old sprinkler system, install new, check for correct function and amount of water. I loved that Pedro offered to fix my raised bed planter (not part of the original conversation) but he saw that the boards were not lined up and screwed together, so he dug out the dirt and he made it secure, tight, and perfect! That was awesome as it is a job I could not have done myself!!! And he just saw it needed it and made it happen. He also gave me a great lesson on how to use the auto timer. (better than reading the manual!) I would hire him again as he really does have a passion for his work, the plants and their nutrient needs, and is VERY professional!

Dont want to go into details.