New Leaf Landscape Consulting

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As usual, New Leaf provided the agreed upon landscape services in a timely manner and at a reasonable cost. Kristin (the owner) infuses her love of all growing things into her business, so it's hard not to share her excitement in creating beautiful yards and gardens. She inspires with her vast knowledge of plant material and is always looking for, and sharing the news of, new garden varieties she finds on her trips to wholesale nurseries.
Time spent with Kristin is an educational seminar on the proper approach to landscaping. As she has pointed out to me, the trees, shrubs and flowers are the "icing on the cake" - the "cake" being proper preparation of the soil, good drainage and timely watering and fertilization. Any landscaper worth his/her salt will address these issues before even talking about plantings. I have learned the hard way (pre-New Leaf) that the most lush shrub or perennial planted into poor soil, with inadequate fertilization and water will never look as good as when you planted it, if it survives at all.
Shawn, New Leaf's Operations Manager, is in charge of seeing that the job goes smoothly and according to specifications. He will bend over backward to make sure the project is completed to our satisfaction. Shawn is a hard worker and is committed to the highest standards of landscape construction and maintenance, and he communicates with us throughout the job so we know what is going on and to resolve any unforeseen challenges.
I often receive complements on our landscaping and I give the credit to New Leaf. I would recommend them without hesitation.

See above

Good quality service, I would recommend.

Kristin has provided landscaping services to us for approximately four years.  I can't imagine going to any other company.  She took our general ideas and turned our travesties of a back yard and front yard and into beautiful outdoor areas perfect for relaxing and entertaining.  She has been there to answer our questions and provide tips, and follow-on support as needed.  She only uses sustainable methods, i.e. no harsh chemicals, etc.  She and her staff were professional, friendly and always on schedule.  I do not hesitate to recommend New Leaf Landscaping Consulting!

Our overall experience with New Leaf Landscaping and Kristin Rust has been wonderful and positive.  We have recommended the company to many neighbors and friends in our area for their commitment to their clients, knowledge, skill, and respect for the environment.

Our intitial consultation with Kristen was lively, and inspiring.  Her design and delivery of services to make it real were completely professional, timely,  and reasonably priced.  All of her staff have been pleasant to have around.  We continue to have New Leaf do spring and sometimes fall clean up and over time, our beds grown healthier as a result.

Pricing information is limiting above.  We've spent more than the amount listed above --more like $1200 for the initial bed and at least that much more for tree plantings.   We are fine with Kristen's rates and policies.

The recent spring cleanup went very well.  They weeded several beds, trimmed shrubs and mulched several planting beds.  They also hauled off the excess material and left the yard looking great.

Kristen and her associates have completed several landscaping projects for me beginning in July 2009.  I was very pleased with Kristen's natural approach as I have not used any chemicals on my lawn or plants for the past 23 years.  I had several areas that had been neglected and become a little overgrown.  Kristen and her folks did a great job separating the plants to give them some breathing room and uncovering the possibilities available from each area.  In addition to providing many high quality new plants, they were able to move several of my existing plants to fill out other areas and create continuity between the several distinct planting beds.  She also corrected a couple of longstanding drainage problems.

Kristen, Shawn and Kathleen have always been courteous, hard-working and very efficient on the projects they have performed for me.  They really seemed to have a sense for what is right and natural for my yard and made recommendations and decisions that were respectful of both my vision and what nature intended.   

I had Kristen come look at the big empty ring in our yard where our lovely giant spruce once stood. I had attempted to start a few plants in the spot but had met with little success thanks to deer and drought. We talked about creating the bed using some of the native stone left from other projects and her crew hauled in dirt and mulch, schlepped tons of rock and completed this part of the task while we were out of town one weekend. We still hadn't decided on the plants but Kristen came up with the idea of a conifer garden and sent me a couple of books and gave me addresses to check out what might be possibilities. She had also taken photos of the bed and used a computer program to generate what the bed would look like when completed. I gave her the go ahead and within the week her crew was here and I have my gorgeous garden with all shapes, sizes, and colors of conifers, with a stunning burgundy redbud for accent. They incorporated the surviving Russian sage and lavender for a most dramatic effect and I have to admit the end result was even better than the proposed plan. I recommend New Leaf without reservation and proudly share her name and good work with everyone who stops to admire her creation.

Kristin and co-workers have taken care of my landscaping needs for the past three years, to my complete satisfaction. 

The primary service provided by New Leaf during this time has been to tend a small perennial bed for me.  This has generally involved  a spring clean up with weeding, mulching, moving plants, and some new plantings when called for, along with trimming and shaping a large service berry bush and  Japanese maple.  In addition, a second visit has usually been made in fall to clean up the bed and cut back for the winter.  Kristin has provided helpful advice when requestion and has made a number of suggestions that, in my mind, have made a considerable  improvement to the overall appearance of the area.

A particular pleasure for me has been dealing with Kristin's co-workers Kathleen and Sean, who have invariably been friendly, efficient, knowledgeable, attentive to details, and hard working.  They have always been willing to take the time to discuss particular issues with me and act promptly on whatever decisions were made.

I have received a quotation for the work whenever anything out of the ordinary has been requested.  Quotations have been delivered in a timely manner and have accurately reflected the billing.  Work has been carried out  promptly when requested.  As stated above, I have been very satisfied with work performed by New Leaf, and I shall continue to call on Kristin for my future landscaping needs.
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Our experiences over the last 2+ years have been positive.  She provides written estimates and once you accept the work she is timely with the work.  As she has to deal with mother nature, who sometimes does not cooperate, Kristin will notify you why she has to delay the work, e.g., ground is too saturated or rain delay. If the work takes more time than expected, she tells us when she will return or when one of her employees will return (usually the next day, weather permitting).  The plants and trees she has purchased for us are of good quality and she provides care instructions.  We have yet to lose an item she has planted.  To conclude, we feel that New Leaf is a reasonable priced, quality company and plan  on  using it as long as we own our home.

It went smoothly and quickly from start to finish.

NOTE: I filed the report below in July 2011, and was immediately contacted by Kristin, who wanted to do anything she could to remedy the situation. She was genuinely concerned about our lack of satisfaction, and persistent in her efforts to come take another look and fix any problems. For various reasons, we agreed to wait until the fall to have her come back, but she has been diligent about following up and has guaranteed that she will do everything necessary to make things right. I have left most of the original report below, but will continue to update this as the situation improves. The overall grade will probably improve as well once the work has been fixed.

Here's the original report:

We called Kristen in May 2010 because we wanted some landscape work done in our backyard, and we wanted the small plot in front of our house to be cleaned up and landscaped. She was friendly and professional in our initial consultation, and basically agreed to do what we wanted in the front. In the backyard, however, she said that there was no point in doing any landscaping until we installed a swale. According to Kristen, the slope of our backyard led to a roughly 10' x 10'  area of standing water that would make hanging out in the back unbearable, as it would be a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

At any rate, Kristen explained that she knew someone named Ancel who could install the swale and who did excellent work. We hesitated a bit because we didn't know what a swale was or what it entailed, and this was when we learned how difficult it could be to get a straight answer out of Kristen. She couldn't show us pictures of what she was talking about; she just kept repeating that we'd still be able to mow it and that it would clear up our standing water problem. After a couple weeks' prodding, she did finally arrange to have us meet one of her former clients who had had a swale installed, and it looked reasonable enough. Kristen also joked several times about the fact that she'd rather get the money herself, but would have to farm this out to Ancel, the subcontractor.

Ancel came by the house twice while we were at work, gave Kristen a quote, and we reluctantly agreed to have the swale work done during an eleven-day period in June when we would be away on vacation--with the confident assurance from Kristen that we would have grass in the yard in time for a fourth of July party. She also repeated, like a mantra, that she "guaranteed her work." We returned from vacation to find things about as we expected--there was a huge semicircular depression in the back yard covered with straw. A week later--same thing. Another week later--same thing. Fourth of July party came and went, and all our friends' kids got to play in the straw-covered moat that still had no grass growing in it. Frustrated, we called Kristen, who reminded us that she "guaranteed her work," and said that she would have Ancel come take a look at it. To his credit, Ancel was quite professional, and said that he'd be happy to come back and re-seed the swale.

He did re-seed, and a few weeks later, we had about 10% grass in the swale, with the rest still being straw. By now it was mid-August and the amount of time we had to use our yard was dwindling anyway, so we didn't even bother calling Kristen. Finally, in March 2011, ten months after our original contact with Kristen, we removed all the straw, exposed the muddy swale underneath, and put down some Scott's Patch Master, which has now covered the  swale with fairly nice grass for about $120 (as opposed to the $2000 that New Leaf charged us for the whole project).

Meanwhile, New Leaf did come and clean up the area in front of the house. They did an okay job at this, although they did prune our lilac bush, which was actually the only thing we said to leave alone. When they were finished, we found a beautiful red gerbera daisy in one of our pots on the front stoop, which we thought was a nice touch. Kristen's team said it was something they had laying around in the truck, so they thought they'd give it to us. We later found a $9 charge for it on the bill. To be fair, Kristen took off the charge after we complained, but if we hadn't mentioned anything we would have paid for a daisy we didn't ask for and which we understood to have been a throw-in.

Here's the critical thing: Kristen never once, the whole summer, contacted us to see how the work had progressed. Once she had the check--which of course we had to make out to her despite her having told us that Ancel was the only one getting paid--we never heard from her again except when we called her first. It's fine for her to say that she guarantees her work, but we'd really rather it just be done well the first time, especially when we only use the backyard a few months out of the year. The swale looked horrible for most of the year, and much time and effort was required to rake up all the straw and re-seed the area, despite the fact that it had been done twice by Kristen's subcontractor.

In short, after about $2500, we got an enormous semicircular straw highway cutting through our backyard, and zero follow-up from Kristen. She was also reluctant to take responsibility for the work, "guarantee" notwithstanding. When we complained that the grass wouldn't grow, it was because there was a drought, or (ironically) because there had been too much rain. We felt that once she had been paid, she washed her hands of the whole project unless we badgered her about it, and even then it often took her a week or more to respond to a straightforward email.

And here's the punch line...

We STILL have standing water when it rains! Yes, the original problem that Kristen insisted on fixing before she would even consider landscaping for us is still with us, $2500 and one lousy swale later.

Our family is committed to supporting local businesses whenever possible, but by contrast, during the same time we had a big-box store install a fence for us and it was done quickly and professionally, and our one complaint was addressed immediately. We emphatically do NOT recommend New Leaf for anything.

I engaged Kristen in the 2009 to do a landscape design, install raised garden beds and a quote for installing the design she created. Our first engagement with her was to work up a landscaping design. That portion of our experience was very good. Kristen?s design work was very nice and my wife and I were excited about having Kristen put in the design she created. Unfortunately that was not to be. When we first received Kristen?s quote we were a bit surprised at how expensive everything was (as in multiply the plant prices at May?s Greenhouse by 3, which didn?t include installation). When I told her this she explained that is what the going rate is for quality plants the she gets from Brehob Nursery in Indy. She encouraged me to have a few other local landscapers give a competitive quote so I would be more comfortable with her pricing. I went ahead and did that. This is where things when from a good working relationship to something a bit crazy. I received 3 other vendor bids (I required Brehob as the source) and all 3 came back saying that 4 of the plants specified in Kristen?s design could not be ordered anywhere locally or from Brehob. When I told Kristen about this she insisted that she only puts plants in her designs that she can get from Brehob. Since she was telling me one thing and 3 other landscapers were telling me something else, I thought I?d contact Brehob directly to find out if they had these plants or not. I told them who I was, who my designer was and why I was calling (they don?t normally talk to consumers because they are a wholesaler). After they understood I was not calling about prices but inventory, they confirmed that they DID NOT CARRY THE PLANTS. I was going to call Kristen after work and discuss the issue, but instead I received an extremely angry phone call from her! Apparently, when she called Brehob about another project they mentioned that I spoke to them. She was furious! She accused me of calling to find out their prices (not true) and that she will just drop off the unfinished raised bed kits and bill me for her wasted time. After explaining to her (at length) how I was just trying to get clarity on the discrepancy between her and the other vendors on her design AND told her that the other vendors were correct, she cooled off. She then later emailed me saying that it wasn?t her fault but that Brehob?s website was out of date. (Which I later found out was not true). Against my better judgment (my wife was convinced that she'd do a great job), I went ahead and had her start with the first phase of the project which was to put in some raised vegetable garden beds. In the contract, it specified that she?d put chicken wire in the bottom (to protect against moles), but after it was installed I found that she installed nylon bird netting (which I later discovered did not protect against moles). She also said that the organic soil blend that was put in there did not need to be supplemented in any way the first season and would grow vegetables very well. After it was installed, I was a little suspicious of the soil since it contained a lot of clay, rocks and tree/shrub roots, but I believed in Kristen?s organic gardening know-how. I received an invoice by email immediately after they installed the garden boxes. Everything on the invoice looked as we agreed upon except for one line item that was described as ?Consulting Time?. This very much looked like what she said that she was going to punitively charge me because of my ?breaking her trust with Brehob?. When I asked her about this she said that she put a lot of time into writing up the landscaping quote. She never said that there would be a charge for the landscaping estimate (which is how it works with all the landscapers I received quotes from). In response to this, Kristen then said she had to go above and beyond the normal work to put this quote together for me and that?s why she is charging me for that time. Since she couldn?t give me a straight or reasonable answer I decided it was time to sever our relationship. I refused to pay for that 3 hour ?consulting time? line item and immediately paid 100% for everything else. Done. A few weeks after putting in our garden, all of our plant starts were turning yellow and not growing. A neighbor, who has been a long time gardener, took one look at the soil and said, ?It looks like they just put fill dirt in there.? When I called Kristen about it, she very rudely said, ?Since you are comfortable calling my vendors directly, you can call my soil vendor yourself.? So I did. They told me that they don?t put any nitrogen component in that mix, they just add sand and do not recommend it for vegetable gardens. Awesome! I spent $750 on raised vegetable garden beds that didn?t grow anything but mole hills. Nice work New Leaf! Pros: Good collaborative design process Kristen puts down a good design on paper. When things are running smooth, she?s nice to work with. Cons: She doesn?t know her suppliers? products Self-professed organic landscaper who can?t tell the quality of installed soil Cuts corners on installations Expensive, her quote was by far the most expensive of the 4 estimates. Kristen is very difficult to deal with if there are any problems. She?s not a one-stop-shop, several other sub-contractors have to get involved to do the basics (removal, hardscaping, irrigation?). Conclusion: Let her do your design and then part ways

Have been working with Kristin for more than two years