DONATO LANDSCAPE

DO NOT USE DONATO LANDSCAPING!! They designed our patio which looked nice in the beginning, but then we realized their contractors cut our 220 line to our hot tub, took a big chunk out of our birch tree, they put grass seed on top of mulch where they weren't supposed to, on top of a few other issues that no one would own up to. Then they tried to blame US! They had their own electrician check it out which whom agreed with us on the issue, and told Donato that we were getting a good deal on the fix...THEN Donato said they would make it "right" by cutting me a deal on some landscaping on the side of my house. I got charged $300 for some plastic border and mulch along the side of my house! I didn't ask for much but what I received was a HUGE disappointment!! A job I could have done myself in about an hour for about $50!! What ever happened to customer service. Very disappointing!! BTW we paid them over 10k for all the work we wanted done...you would think that would have been enough for some customer service. (not to mention their workers messed up the original design which we now live with and we never bothered to ask for a fix!) Find someone else for your landscaping needs!

I was pleased with the work and they did a very good job.

***UPDATE*** When I wrote my review I forgot to add that I received a hand written Thank You note from Donato! Pretty special if you ask me. Thanks again!

SPECTACULAR!!!
This was one of the best experiences I have had with hiring anyone. Joe Donato is knowledgeable, very friendly and delivered everything he said he would. The crew he has is amazing. They were all very nice, respectful, and did a great job. We had 26 trees planted along the fence. They planted the trees, put mulch down and made the yard look like they had never been there. I will certainly phone Joe again when we are ready to do a patio. He actually did our neighbors patio and it is beautiful. I would highly recommend Donato Landscape to anyone. Thank you Joe and your crew for a great experience! Maureen

The job was quoted by Doug, who was friendly, but professional and competent, and provided suggestions that we incorporated into the work - we agreed to a price at his first business. He then kept in touch with me up 'til the work began. We were always able to reach him on the phone - we never had a phone call go un-answered.
Derek and his crew did the work, and we couldn't be more satisfied. They were on the job by 8:30 every morning, and even stayed past dinnertime one night just to get things wrapped-up. Their work could best be described as meticulous, and the work was done correctly - no shortcuts were taken. Derek asked my opinion anytime there was design question.
Several large perennials had to be temporarily moved, which they did without question, and they're all back and thriving.
The crew was totally professional - no loud music, no profanity, work breaks were of reasonable length, all litter was picked-up - not even a cigarette butt was left behind.
Doug was back on-site several times while the work was underway to check on the progress.
We'd use Donato Landscape again, or recommend them to others, without hesitation.

Everyone from the Sale's department to the Installers were very knowledgeable and courteous. We were given a date to begin and an estimate of how long the job would take. Everything was done within that timeline, including a very thorough removal of all debris and machinery.

We chose this firm because we saw the quality work they had done on our neighbors across the street. They took the time to listen to what we wanted and provided some suggestions as to how they perform the task, which were insightful. While they were about 20% higher than the group we used last year, they definitely did a much better job. Everything was done to my wife's instructions, and they did a great job of cleaning up after them-self.
We plan on using them for our fall clean up at the end of the week.
Bottom line, while they are more costly than the other firms who quoted us, they did a much better job, and everything looked great. Worth the extra cost.

Overall the experience was very good. Donato was very easy to work with and accommodating. Our sales guy Jason was very patient and came out serval times to talk about design and price before we made the decision to use Donato. Donato's bid wasn't the cheapest but they came highly recommended and I was more concerned with quality than price.
When the project began the original plan was to build the patio at ground level but to accommodate the rise between the door wall and the ground Donato decided it would be best to raise the patio. This required more material but Donato did it at no extra cost. After the first day of construction we threw another wrench in the plans and decided that we wanted the Patio to be a bit larger and shaped differently on one side. Although this added an extra day of work, Donato was again accommodating without issue. These changes added almost another $3000 to the project which I think was a little high but reasonable considering the requested changes and extended workload.
The patio came out great. Mark, who did the brick work really did a great job. The patio has a large step leading to the door wall and a curved sitting wall that required a lot of precise cutting and both came out very nice.
My only criticism is with the landscaping work and some minor issues with the clean up. The plan was to dig a new bed along the north side of the house, build that up with top soil, and the wrap landscaping around the patio adding several lilacs, knock out rose bushes, burberrys, and box woods. Donato forgot to add the top soil to the beds on the side and planted bushes in hard packed clay and covered it with mulch. They also missed moving a sprinkler head that we're still trying to get them to move. Since the patio had to be raised, the air conditioner had to be moved and raised a bit as well. They raised the air conditioner temporarily using bricks and left it that way without reenforcing the ground underneath. The only other notable issue is that due to the use of a bobcat and an unexpected extra day of work, there were several large patches of damaged grass that were left unaddressed after the clean up. Donato again was accommodating and fixed most the issues. Although I do think the landscaping work could have been better overall.
I would absolutely recommend Donato for a brick paver patio. The brick work is top notch and the backyard is looking great.

Nice neat job without destroying surrounding plants and trees.

We secured a quote and then services from Donato Landscape summer of 2012 based on a recommendation from Richter's Lawn Care. Joe Donato did the quote himself. He was professional, definitely not pushy. His attention to detail and professionalism make him very referable. After completing our front landscape, Donato came to the rescue in an emergency situation (caused by another contractor not getting it done) to get a patio done for us. We couldn't be more pleased with how Joe was able to restore our faith in contractors.

Derek who does the brick work for the company was very polite and accommodating. He gave good advise on the repair work and he completed the work within a week of the estimate. I felt the price was reasonable and the job was done well. Derek did a nice job of cleaning up after the project was completed.