Allen Landscape Center

Overall, I would give them a C and I'll tell you the reason for that.  When I talked to the person there, I asked him if he was a landscape architect.  I'm not sure that he was.  I'm not sure that he was honest with me.  He drew up a plan which seemed simple, but in living with the plan that he drew up and the plants that they put in, some of them were not appropriate.  My house faces west and the front of the house has a lot of shade.  And also, some of the sod that they put in, they put it around the side, which was like on the north side, which gets no sun.  There are grasses for shade, but in the deep shade section close to the house, the grass died completely in spite of everything that I did for it.  So there was a carelessness.  I'm almost 80 years old and I've done my own yard work for years, and I would not have put anything but a deep shade seed down there or sod.  I don't know if it comes in sod.  They made it look pretty to start with, but they put in two evergreens that both died.  Both started showing signs of dying within a year and one died completely.  I left the other one.  I just wanted to see what it would do.  I pulled the first one out and I forget the brand name of it.  But they had not broken up the root ball and it was just a coincidence that I read that particular evergreen absolutely needed to have that done.  Professionals should know that.  I'll just say that in my lifetime I've planted several trees and shrubs, and I never lost one.  This one, it died.  I was gonna take it back to them, and then a guy that was doing some work in the house for me thought I wanted it in the disposal and he threw it out.  I was so busy with my friend's death and taking care of her and her business that I just never got around to following through, so I can't say that they didn't make it right, because I didn't approach them.  I just have been very disappointed with the difficulties that their work has caused me.  And the things they put in that looked pretty, as they're maturing they're really not so pretty.  They're not appropriate for where they are and for the things that they put around them.  They put in a ground cover that when I asked about this ground cover at a couple of nurseries, they don't even sell it any more.  It was inappropriately used where they put it at my house.  I can't say that they would not respond to these things, but I can say that there were errors in what they did and they're errors that I, just as a person who plants things, would not have made.  Like with those shrubs and the evergreens.  Those are big mistakes when you're paying that kind of money.  If you don't put a plant in the ground the right way, the plant's not gonna survive.  You always break up root systems in the sense of loosening the dirt around them.  I read an article within a year or two of this happening that talked about this specific plant, saying that that plant really needed to have those roots loosened up, and when I took that one out of the ground, it totally had been stuffed in the ground the same way it came out of the pot.  So it disappointed me.  And another thing that I wondered about those was when you plant something like that, you put water in the ground as you're planting it.  For one thing, you push a hose in the ground to settle the dirt so there's no air around it and put more dirt on that so that it's really soaked around that. I had to water sod and everything; kept everything alive except those two shrubs. My assumption was probably wrong but you would expect professionals to do it the correct way, because if they'd done it the correct way and the way that I was watering would have been sufficient for it if it had been well soaked to begin with.  So I'm disappointed with them and would encourage anybody to exercise caution and make sure and monitor what they do as they're putting plants in.  I am tired of being jerked over by professionals, and I don't know if it's because I'm old or because I'm a woman, but for most of my  life I've done work for myself.   I'd love to be able to hire somebody, but there's just too many different areas where I just get jerked over. Most of the work I'm getting done now is by a handyman.  I don't know if I'm gonna get to it this Summer, but they left this other evergreen in the yard which is really pathetic now and my thought is to take it over there and show it to them and tell them what happened.  The crew was a hard working crew, but the design and the management part of it I would give a C for quality.  They should be aware of what they're putting in and what the needs are. 

Excellent work !!!!  Dealt with Tim Doffin, and he was remarkable. Price was middle of the road, but I don't mind  paying a little extra for great service. He didn't disappoint. Professional, prompt, and courteous. Was happy to work with me when I slightly changed plans mid stream  Even added a couple extra touches which weren't in the original plans, but really accentuated the overall project. They really tore up my side yard with the bobcat going back and forth probably 50 times, but when the work was done, they fixed what they tore up, and 2 weeks later you couldn't notice a difference. Now my wife has more idea's for the back yard, and I will definitely call Tim, and Allen Landscape for the next project. Very highly recommend them.