Barnard Landscaping Inc

Very poorly. He started out strong 3 years ago, and has completely petered out. We pay a fortune. He went up on his seasonal contract price by 50% this year, and his service has plummeted. Our complex looks like crap. We are beyond disappointed. With no lawn to mow with the current drought, you'd think he'd at least make an effort to pick up grounds' debris? Uses a blower for ten minutes a week and leaves. Had to chase him for months to do the contracted spring cleaning. Ran out of mulch and left a portion of the grounds not mulched. Promised flowers right after Memorial Day. Three weeks later, with no response and no flowers, we gave up and hired a separate gardener to plant flowers. Had to chase after him to trim the shrubs, which were a month overdue for pruning. Then, he shows up on a Saturday morning at 7 a.m. to do this, and wakes up the whole neighborhood. We have some small trees that are dead, and some small trees that need trimming. Nothing. A few weeks ago, we had to rent a lawn mower to mow a portion of our new grass ourselves, which he said didn't need mowing. It was up to our shin bones. Right now, we're doing all the grounds maintenance, and he's getting all the money. Seriously, he sucks.

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Bob Barnard is a nice guy but I am no longer using his company for a couple of reasons. If I asked for anything out of the norm (=lawn cutting, leaf blowing), I was put off for weeks. I have a perennial garden which requires mulching in spring and fall, and this has never varied. He was highly inconsistent in providing this service, often resulting in frequent calls and reminders to him that this needed to be done. Frankly, these services WERE NOT OUT OF THE NORM FOR ME because they were something I scheduled every year. In theory, a yearly contract should be customized for the individual, and mine was. Still, they could not deliver on this aspect of care without chronic calls and reminders, and I fatigued of having to do this. Really, it shouldn't be necessary at all.
Takeaway: if all you need is routine yard work, then you are probably ok with his service. But if your yard requires ANYTHING beyond that, I would seek out another provider who might better deliver on services required.
Another issue I had with him and this is a biggie. I have two dogs and a pet door so that my dogs can access the yard. I cannot remember the number of calls and emails I had with Bob about his staff leaving my backyard gate open after they had cut my grass. This occurred numerous times (I live a half block from Mass Ave., which everyone knows to be an extremely busy street, both day and night). After terminating service with Bob, his staff showed up. They probably were not aware that I was no longer a client which is why they stopped. But they must have been reminded of this fairly quickly because they left, but not without leaving my backyard gate open...YET AGAIN.
Fortunately, I am at home a lot so I could catch the gate-left-open problems. But for any other pet owner who isn't at home, this could be a cause for SERIOUS CONCERN.

They always do a good job. I don't have to call them up; they automatically come and feed the lawn and take care of everything.

I have had him for 3 years. I am very satisfied. He is accessible, flexible, and responds to any concerns.

In terms of the service that we hired them for, they have been very good. They have kept up well with the lawn. They just came out to trim most of the bushes and did a good job on that. I have had some issues in contacting them and not having them get back to me.

Bob made time to meet with us during his (and our) busy Memorial Day weekend. We agreed on an approach and plan of action to clean up the larger, oddly-shaped lot our recently purchased cottage sits on. Given its physical location (2 street corners), it had not only collected the trash of its previous owner, but litter from passers-by. The sparse lawn was overgrown; hidden rocks, tools and cinder blocks presented walking and mowing hazards; poison ivy abounds...but Bob's crew appeared and carefully raked, whacked and mowed their way through it all and left us with a respectable yard. On top of that, Bob appeared the next morning (today) to personally assess the job. He pointed out areas that he will have someone come back and address where the grass had flattened during mowing and now was standing up again; he also pointed out all the poison ivy and will be back to spray it then send workers to clear the dead vines away. Note that the price paid was the first month's payment on a 7 month payment plan to also include mowing, grooming and pruning from now until fall, and a fall clean-up. Everyone was friendly, professional and thorough. We are very pleased!

Bob Barnard provided us with an a la carte service designed to meet our particular needs. His workmen were skilled, polite and reliable. They arrived on time each day they were scheduled to work. We look forward to their service next season and would recommend them to anyone.

I have used their service for about three years now.

They were very good. I would hire them again in the future.

It went very well. Bob was very knowledgeable about landscaping and very honest about what was necessary and what was just nice. His crew was very responsive and listened and followed our specific instructions. They did a professional job and made my property look extremely well. They were very neat and left everything looking great when they left. Even though their contract was for full service, they allowed me to pick and choose only the services I felt I needed.

They are on time, are consistent and they do a good job. Their prices are reasonable and we would recommend them.

Mr. Barnard came over and explained in detail what needed to be done and it was done. I had used a cheaper lawn service before which did come regularly but things had gradually deteriorated under their care. Besides that I didn't like the owner of that business because he was arrogant. Then I tried another one which hardly ever came, but they also never sent me a bill. I guess they were used to doing bigger jobs because I saw their trucks everywhere. At any rate I had to call repeatedly to ask them to send a bill. So even though Mr. Barnard is more expensive, the job is getting done very well and I have no trouble contacting him.

Bob Barnard came over promptly for the estimate. He was really helpful in designing the project. Price was fair and they started work remarkably fast (about 2 weeks after we accepted the estimate.) His masonry foreman, a swell guy named Dan, explained the plan and worked 5 days straight to completion. Dan worked with one helper, made some very helpful suggestions, took deserved pride in his work, kept the disruption to a minimum, cleaned up each day, and did a terrific job.

I have been very happy with Barnard Landscaping Inc. Robert Barnard is a regular and dependable man. I pay him on an annual basis which includes the mowing, trimming shrubs, removing dead trees and spraying for bugs. They tend the yard for the whole year and do whatever is necessary. This company provided the lowest estimate that I got.