FIELD OUTDOOR SPACES INC

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I have used this service 3-4 times this season to give me advice and show me how to take care of my new landscaping, prune trees and shrubs, and they will help me do garden cleanup later this season. Very personable staff, very efficient and knowledgeable. Their advice has really helped me with my garden. I would recommend very highly!

High quality, easy to work with

My husband met Jason at The Home and Garden Show. He was
impressed with his work and how personable he was and we loved the pictures on
Field Outdoor Spaces' website.
Because we were slow to make our decision about committing
to our project it became a slow process to proceed from initial meeting to full
yard landscape plan to implementation of the first phase but it was worth it!
We so appreciated Jason’s relaxed, laid-back style in
combination with his detailed knowledge of plants and his artistic-creative
sense of how best to make our landscape plan work- coordinating all the
elements of our vision, together with his great ideas and input regarding what
made sense in terms of plant types, sizes, care needs, etc.
We also can’t say enough about every member of the crew that
was working here to install our trees,
mulch and boulders. Everyone was so pleasant, helpful and patient with
answering our questions. They worked hard and paid attention to detail. It was
really a pleasure to have them here.
We can't wait to begin the next phase in the spring!

I thought that they were excellent. They gave good feedback and they are punctual and responsible. They are also very knowledgeable about their field.

Everyone involved, both the Field crew and the subcontractors -- Harold Pietag and Sons Concrete, Kelly Green Irrigation, and Dakota Fence -- were professional, hard working, and friendly. Field did a good job of incorporating many of our preexisting perennials (and pavers) into the design along with new perennials, shrubs and small trees.
We now have a lovely new backyard to enjoy, and would definitely use Field again for future projects.

The job went extremely well. Field Outdoor Spaces arrived on the work date as arranged. They said the job would take a day and it was completed exactly as they predicted by 5pm. The sidewalk was covered to minimize dirt and wear from the machinery, and care was taken when the digging was done over the utilities area. The curious children that sat on a retaining wall to watch (there was a small audience from the nearby day care) were all well received. The FOS guys were really good with the kids. If the kids or I asked questions, we were given thorough explanations (kids can ask really good questions too). Everything went smoothly. I asked for removed plants to be set aside so I could transplant them in the backyard. No problem with that request and I was given helpful advise about transplanting and dividing them. When the guys were preparing to leave, the sidewalk and street were all cleaned up. No mess. They threw grass seed where part of the existing lawn needed it.
I received many compliments from the neighbors about my new front yard and have been very happy with it.

They are terrific company to work with, very responsive, creative, and open to working with my ideas. I am doing more work with them this spring. Top Notch!

They were very good in helping with the design. They did a good job installing the stone work. I did have to have something corrected but they were very cooperative in correcting it. They brought down the price from the initial estimate, it was too high.

Very smooth.
Plan was well executed and estimated correctly.

yout

With spring weather turning warm early, my thoughts went towards finally taking on a backyard vision I had since buying the home four years ago. This was the year, compared many company's sites and favored Field over the others. Met with Jason to discuss my ideas to try and cram in as many things as I could into a tiny backyard. Jason came back with the plans incorporating my general ideas.

Those ideas were a fire pit, patio around that, paver path from home to driveway connecting the fire pit, picket fence to keep my young daughter in the yard, a space for growing veggies, enough spaces for me to garden in, and something to deal with an inconvenient elevation change next to the driveway. Loved the plan.

The crew was dealt setbacks from some excessive rain that pushed completion a whole week, but this was utterly understandable. I changed my desires for the fence which also added some more work and cost, Field rolled with this well and kept me in the loop on how this was impacting them. Not to be unmentioned, the rain events did add to the cost per the contract, which Field split 50/50.

Ann was my contact at Field once the date for work was scheduled until the very end, she was very responsive.

I've since built the square foot garden space I wanted for vegetables, and mulched the new garden spaces and started planting new ideas.

I met with the landscaper and did a walk through (no charge) and discussed ideas and visions of what we could do to our yard. After we decided to use Field, I requested a full-yard plan ($400) to be drafted. We just got our plans and I love them! Can't wait to start implementing the design. We can't afford to do it all at once, so will be doing it in stages. They are very accommodating, and offered a lot of different ways that we could use the plans to improve our yard.

Love this company! Our yard was pretty beat up and we needed help getting it to "curb appeal" condition before putting it on the market for sale. They came out and talked with me about what I needed and then followed up promptly with their estimate. After giving them the go-ahead, they got the work done quickly. They did an excellent job!! Highly recommend.

Field's style is local/native plants which complements our goals quite well. Jason reviewed our goals and budget. He came up with a plan for our entire front yard. When that was beyond our budget he worked with us to scale it back. In the end we did the work in phases over a couple of years. They have been great about changing the plan based on our preferences. They emailed us detailed plans in pdf format including pricing for each plant and were happy to work with us to modify as necessary. There were no suprise charges. Work was timely and they cleaned up after themselves. The yard looks great.

The initial work on installation of the gardens went very well. Field performed the work when scheduled and completed it in a timely manner. When I had some damage to trees over the winter, I was able to work with them to get replacement trees for a reasonable cost.

They have continued to provide me with suggestions on how to maintain the garden and some recommendations for improvements.

Last spring, I was excited to find Field Outdoor Spaces for my project. Over the course of the project, it became clear that Field's communication was poor, they forgot earlier project discussions, they didn't understand their client, and they neglected details making closing the project out difficult. (See detailed examples below.)

For this project, I had a clear sense of what I wanted so I interviewed three contractors. Jason seemed to grasp my need to balance goals of 1) a space for people 2) using permaculture principles, and 3) incorporating stormwater management if possible. I was excited to sign the $500 design contract.

The design process included an assessment meeting, a design, a review meeting, and a revision. The plan was to include a detailed planting plan, a drainage plan, a space plan and an implementation bid. The planting would be developed with permaculture-expert Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers. If design went well, I'd hire Field to implement Phase I - my limited $7,000-$10,000 budget (including design and tree removal) could not it all. I shared my budget to avoid misunderstandings about my 2011 project scope.

Design began in late May. I was surprised when Field provided multiple revisions beyond the one in the contract. I liked the first plan, but had minor concerns. However, it is the contractor's job to manage time, to manage client expectations, and to lead the client through the process; it is the client's job to clearly express their expectations up front and during the process. Therefore, when they came with updates, I had no objections. At points through the process, Field provided more than I expected/wanted (for example, major design revisions when I had approved a prior plan) or less than I expected (for example, no or very delayed response to communications or no direction on next steps).

One issue during design was determining whether storm water management made sense, as the decision would be a function of earning storm water credits from the City. Through several conversations, Field struggled to provide me with inputs for the financial analysis (the cost of installation and the portion of water managed onsite.) Eventually, based on a rough cost from them and my own guess at what could be managed and what credit the city might award, as well as the design purpose of the garden, I included it. I never received calculations adequate for the application from Field and had to measure impervious surfaces on my lot on my own. The final design did not include detailed planting plans, but I liked the use of space and general plan.

The Phase I bid came in at $14,500 - and I'd already spent $1750. I responded noting that it was far beyond what I could afford (this year); Field's reply came very slowly. However, they pushed hard to get my business, offering to use the difficult site access through the alley at no cost. (I would not have expected this at no cost.) The final Phase I bid was $6,500. Strategies to get this down included me doing planting/mulching, providing plants, building my own raised beds, and building one set of stone walls. Dollar costs for this will total over $1000, plus many days of labor. Several details we'd discussed (stormwater credit calculations to submit to the city, staging) needed annotations in the contract.

After the design phase, other problems emerged as the on-site work unfolded:

Poor communication/implementation - Despite the complex staging and contract language, Jason did not follow-through and do a staging walk-through with me. The project was predicted to take three days, it took 8. It was so difficult to get final details completed, I had to refuse to pay until they were done, including negotiating that some things wouldn't be done in exchange for credit against the invoice.

Poor communication - The on-site crew was great, but they were not able to answer as-yet unanswered questions; they directed me to Jason, who did not respond. If an e-mail included three questions, he would answer one and the other two were not acknowledged. For example, when I had a list of questions around wrapping up the project, it took six explicit requests for answers before most of them were answered (some were never answered).

Poor communication - The staging required cutting through a recently established native flower garden included in Phase II. It also required driving a Ditch Witch around the house over compacted grass. Field took great care to let me know that my yard might be harmed - no problem. However, they did not communicate with me about the damage to the native garden, and while I would have been OK with some damage, it was significant and also created drainage and washout issues.

Poor follow-through - With the stormwater design, water from the house (30 feet away) was directed to the rain garden through underground pipes. However, the water from the garage (three feet away) was not. The gutter was left in place, directing water around the garage into the alley. At multiple points, I asked both the designer and the on-site crew about the plan for the gutter and was directed back to the designer. He did not respond to my inquiries. Once the crew had left, the gutter remained in place. This remained unaddressed even as I received the final invoice. Someone did eventually return and redirect it into the rain garden - but using an unsightly length of downspout pipe across the top of the soil. Not only is it ugly, it is likely to result in washed out areas in the rain garden unless I address it further.

Unprofessional behavior - As part of the cost-saving efforts, I organized a volunteer crew of friends to do plantings for a Saturday or Sunday. Wanting to respect Field's work schedules and availability, I confirmed the timing was OK with Field prior to planning, as Field wanted to place the plants (to be taken from established plants elsewhere on my lot). Field arrived about an hour later than planned and didn't check in how much of the plants from the established gardens could be harvested. I was horrified after the plants had been placed to see that nearly all the plants from the recently established native garden (Phase II) had been removed, and many of those remaining were dug up and lying uprooted on the ground. This garden will need to be largely replanted and reestablished.

Unprofessional behavior - The planting plan was never provided for final approval, and the recommendations on draft plans did not make sense based on my own experience with the named plants. After repeated inquiries, I Field told me they were NOT working with Harvest Moon Backyard Farmers as had been implied. I felt the only way I could be comfortable with the planting plan was to hire them independently to consult on the planting plan. They confirmed that some of the recommended plants were inappropriate.

Missing details - they installed an underground pipe to provide close-by watering access. I prefer easy maintenance and durability, and was concerned about how to clear the pipe of water in the winter. They did not tell me the set-up was an experiment, never before tried. They put it in before answering my question about winter - and then told me I needed an air compressor to empty it of water every fall. Finally, after it was installed and activated as intended, I discovered that the elbows in the pipes had leaks, so using it resulted in constantly wasted water.

Missing details - Field removed landscaping pavers elsewhere in the yard in order to get equipment in and out, and never replaced them.

Missing details - the new stormwater system required alternative downspout extensions, which were installed but not attached to the end of the vertical downspout sections.

Unprofessional behavior: I noted that I had some concerns about how the project was going, and would be happy to discuss them in order to resolve them. That offer/request was igno

We don't remember how much we spent on their services. They were prompt and thorough. If they had any issues that came up, they let us know right away. They stayed within budget and they were very professional. They checked with us afterwards and made sure things were good. They were just very easy to work with. We will definitely use their services again in the future and we have recommended them to other people.

Jason and Shannon work well as a team. Their combined knowledge of native plantings is wonderful. The staff was always professional, courteous, and got the job done on time.

I found Field on Angie's list. I had a few different companies come out to give me bids. I was very impressed with Jason Rathe and his "can do" attitude. Plus he is a very nice guy and fun to work with. I had been planning this project for a couple of years and knew pretty well what I wanted. After a couple of in-person visits, phone conversations, Jason sending me to look at a few properties, and me sending him to check out a couple of places, it was clear Jason understood what I wanted. I really appreciated his patience and willingness to adjust his design for me. He was great at coming up with suggestions that complimented my ideas. He was also very professional in letting me know if my ideas would not work, and why. I have a friend with tons of wonderful and unique hosta plants he was willing to give me. Jason actually went over and dug them up and planted them for me. My friend is a little fussy about his yard. But Jason left it looking untouched. He transplanted several things in my yard too. His knowledge of plants and his creative eye were very impressive. He always responded to my phone calls in a timely fashion. I was very impressed with all the employees who came to work. All were friendly, very hard working and very respectful of my property. Every night when they finished they swept the steps and left everything very neat. Jason checked in regularly overseeing and helping. His partner Shannon O'Halloran was also here a lot of the time. She was great. I am absolutely thrilled with the finished product. Jason saw my vision and surprised me with some great enhancements. With all the changes I kept throwing at Jason I didn't make clear that I wanted spring bulbs put in. I missed that they weren't on the design plan. So he is going to let me know what that will cost and we will be doing that this fall. I look forward to having Field people in my yard again.This is a very good company and it is obvious that they all like their jobs and each other.

The job went really well. Jason was quick to return phone calls and make appointments to speak with me. He started on time and was very helpful in letting us pick out our own boulders. When we had a problem with the placement of some of the trees, he was very agreeable and re-planted them in the locations we had agreed upon. The workers were very pleasant and easy to have around.

Again, weed removal isn't their core business. But I was very impressed with the care that was taken in the application of potentially dangerous chemicals. Each time an application was made, a confirmation note was left and I knew exactly what had been done. I really appreciated the care and pride taken in a job that was very important to me. More importantly, I was impressed with the environmentally sensitive and sensible approach that Shannon took to my landscaping redesign. When I am resettled back in the Twin Cities, I will definitely revisit the plan and implement some version of it. I have recommended them to several people in the neighborhood already.

Shannon, Jason and their crew are great to work with. Shannon did a plan for us last year, incorporating our ideas into a plan that made our backyard into an extension of our home, rather than just an outdoor space. We waited about nine months to implement the plan, and when it came time to make it happen, the crew was amazing. They worked hard, left not a trace behind (even my neighbor whose driveway they had to use was complimentary!), and implemented a spectacular design. We love our new outdoor living area. It's inviting and beautifully done. We have used Field before and will continue to recommend them to friends and neighbors. Thanks, Field!

As above, great experience, they started when they said they would and finished in a week. Recommend calling instead of emailing.