SECOND NATURE

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unknown

Tim is a pleasure to work with from start to finish. He was quick to respond, then came to my house to listen to what I wanted, gave me a quote on the spot, and was very competitive in his price. He scheduled the job quickly (although the snow and rain in February delayed things a bit), and followed up with me to finalize the details. He and his crew were very productive and thorough, and overall the job was great -- he left things clean, and the job was completed better than I had expected.

Tim's team was great. He was able to operate autonomously for more than five years. He took care of everything, would notify me if something didn't look right when I had my house rented. He was great to work with and while I'm glad my house sold, I would hire him again.

Installed zoysia sod in rear yard first week of September. Zoysia is not guaranteed by installers if you do not have an irrigation system, but I followed the watering instructions explicitly and the yard is not looking very good. Many spots are uneven, have thinned, or are matted. Some spots have not rooted at all.
Perhaps this is due to installing in September (some people say that's too late), and maybe things will improve and rebound in the spring, but overall it looks pretty bad right now. I did ask for soil to be brought in to re-grade for any low spots or areas that needed help. This wasn't done as I was told it wasn't needed, but now when I see areas that seem uneven, wet/matted after a rain and do not drain optimally, I feel like much more should have been done. I even had the gutters all trenched underground(prior to the sod installation) to limit water entering the rear yard to help insure a good result.

I asked repeatedly before starting if they thought my yard could support zoysia, if it was too late to install...and if we needed soil. I was reassured on each concern. The installer did warn that some of the more sun challenged area on the south edge of property might cause thinning in the sod over time on that side of the yard. But that side of the yard looks just awful...not just the edge of it ..but a wide area, and it was immediate, not over time. I feel like maybe they weren't honest enough about the likelihood of success.
Anyway, the zoysia has gone dormant now, and it is a waiting game until late spring. About half the yard looks relatively normal yellow dormant zoysia and will likely be okay ( though there are spots that have thinned out and do not look as good as I expected).. the other half looks just bleak. It's a big yard...so that half is a big area. I have my fingers crossed, but sense I am looking at a lot of costly fixes to the yard next summer. We shall see.
If all improves, I would gladly up my grades for Second Nature and just say I am just impatient, but if you saw what I see in the yard each day, you would understand. I have seen other installations from this past summer in the neighborhood that look far better at this point.
Paver landing looks great at least !

I was very pleased with the initial responsiveness to my query for doing a walk through of my property and receiving a quote for the work to be performed. I have some specific requests that the landscaper had only dealt with minimally (planting pecan trees) but he assured me he would do the research and could handle it. There were a number of months between approving the quote (early March) and the work to start (mid May), but I wanted to keep the discussion alive. I was somewhat disappointed with the lack of responsiveness to some of my emails requesting information about when the work would start (i.e. and quot;early Mayand quot; instead of a day/week), but I can understand that somewhat because of weather concerns, especially early on. Closer to the start date, though, I expected to receive an email or call saying and quot;we're coming tomorrow to spray herbicide on your lawn,and quot; but that didn't happen (although he did leave a note in my mailbox on the day he came to do the work. Same for when the sod was to be installed. he did tell me on a Friday that he would be installing the sod on Monday depending on the weather. The weather was bad on Monday, but the landscapers did arrive to remove the old lawn, and did the install on Tuesday.
They were very professional and quick with the sod install. the flowers/herb garden I had requested were another story. Again I had assumed that he would pick some plants that work with my landscape, but he was very open to suggestions on what to install. When those were provided, I expected them to selected (for the most part they were for the flowers, with a few exceptions). Same for the herb garden, he asked for what we wanted, and we provided a list, which was mostly stuck to. The pecan trees didn't turn out as expected because of the timing of his search. i know he did a lot of research the week of my install, but by then it was already too late in the season for most tree nurseries to have any plants in stock, or for sale. He did provide a suggestion of one location that might have some, which we later went to, purchased ourselves, and brought home.
We personally planted one of the trees in a rain downpour, and luckily the landscaper was in the neighborhood to put some finishing touches on my job, and to pick up the check. He was kind enough to have his team plant the second tree.
Overall a very good experience for the sod; i would go with Tim again if I needed grass replaced. For the planting beds I would either do more research and tell Tim exactly the plants and locations I wanted everything, or have a separate landscaper do that work.

I contacted Tim Streeter and Second Nature on the recommendation of a friend and I have not regreted it. Tim came out in 2011 and gave me a quote for all the stone work I wanted as well as some drains to address some erosion issues. The overall price for the whole project was reasonable for quality work. His professionalism and demeaner also put me at ease that the job would be done correctly and was not aprehensive about having his crew at the house while I was not home. If there were ever any questions or concerns Tim contacted me immediatly.
Since we were going to have to do the job in phases, Tim quoted us for each phase. The paver patio was put in first and I appreciated Tim's input as to the design which was much better than I initially was planning. This project required the break up and removal of a cement slab and a low brick boarder wall. A drain was also put in at this time as we had generally experienced so ponding in that area.
The 3 foot high retaining wall was put in the following year so we could reclaim some of our yard. Tim obtained any permiting and had the city come out and mark our yard to insure he would not be disrupting any utilities. The wall runs almost the entire width of the yard (we have almost half acre). I wanted a natural curve to the wall so the wall flowed into the landscape so the wall has different levels and it looks fantastic. I watched as it was constructed and noticed that they did put a drainage system behind the wall leading into the drain that was put in previously.
We also had a drain put in to address erosion on the side of our lot. This drain redirected the water from the top of our lot to the street and cut into the gutter and repaved. He leveled and reseeded the yard and any areas of the yard that was impacted by the construction.
After all the work was done we noticed that we had some ponding on the paver patio so we contacted Tim and he put in an additioal drain to take care of the issue.
We still have the final phase to complete, a staircase and small patio for the upper part of the yard. ]
I would highly recommend Second Nature. My questions/concerns were always addressed and our phone calls were always answered in a timely matter.

We use them every week. He and his crew do an excellent job. They are punctual and on time every week.

(Disclaimer) Price indicated in review is approximate as this was a few years ago so I can't recall the exact price, but Tim's price was very fair. I shopped around a little but the biggest decision maker was that he did about 6 other lawns on our street so that speaks for itself. Since then Second Nature continues biannually with maintenance (winterizing the system in the fall and de-winterizing in the spring). We never have to call- they just show up and take care of it. If I ever have a problem with a sprinkler head or question, Tim always comes by timely and is very helpful.
A big pet peeve of mine with lawn services is that they are unreliable- never return calls, don't show up, etc.- BUT I cannot say that about Second Nature... they are extremely reliable, helpful, and just plain nice to work with. I highly recommend them as I'm sure several people on our street and neighborhood in Cary Park.

Tim came highly recommended from several friends so i had his company second nature, quote me on a full yard renovation. After telling Tim what i was looking for he brought in an architect and plans were drafted. Moving into a new house in a new subdivision the yard was absolutely a mess and the grass (which barely survived the previous summer) was mostly mud. Tim re-contoured the entire yard to eliminate the runoff and added over 400 ft of drains. He also placed irrigation thru-out the yard with drip lines in the beds. We planted over 200 trees and shrubs (only 10 died that summer and he replaced them all with out me asking!) based on the architects drawing with his recommandations based on area of the yard and lighting.
He recommended Zoysa for the yard and that was the best decision we ever have gone with. The variety (sorry can not remember) is soft and does not spread thru the beds and looks great most of the year (winter time it is dormant). If you go to google maps you will see how green our yard is compared to the neighbors.
Tim also created 2 retaining walls to help define the yard and gives the front of the house bushes the ability to be seen from the road. I wanted to have color most of the year and tim did that great with flowers and shrubs to bloom all year round.
Tim has maintained the yard since he completed the work and it is the envy of the neighborhood and everything is looking great. I recommend Tim and his work to anyone and everyone that asks!!!
First class service and his crew is great at mowing and weeding and keeping the yard looking great.

Tim did a great job at a reasonable price extending our irrigation to the front and side yards....he fixed a sprinkler head that I broke at no cost and even trained us on how to winterize it. Very pleased overall.

I hired Tim Streeter (owner of Second Nature) to correct some drainage issues, which consisted of adding a small berm, drains and underground piping. Immediately after the next rain, it was evident his work did not correct my drainage issues, as I was still experiencing flooding. Tim sent his crew out to throw some landscape cloth over the berm and relocate another drain which was removed from another location in my yard. This helped somewhat, but did not cure the problem. After contacting Tim again, I was told that I had to give the new soil berm a chance to and quot;firm upand quot; and this would correct the problem. Ample time has passed for the soil to firm, and I still have drainage issues which were never corrected in the first place.

To compound the problems with Tim, he also took it upon himself to winterize my irrigation system without asking me. Then sent me a bill for $65.00. To make matters worse, he removed my $200, one year old backflow valve and took it with him. (my guess it is so that I would be forced to have him start up the system, at an additional cost). When prompted to return it, after almost 6 months , he returned an old rusted, leaky one in its place. Which was clearly not mine.

Now he has refused to return my original backflow valve, and will not come out to fix the drainage issues which he was paid to correct.

Owner Tim, came and gave an estimate that was reasonably priced for the work to be done and had a crew of 3-4 guys who came and did the irrigation installation in 3 days. They used Hunter products and they did a good, clean trenching job. Happy with the results. Seems like a nice guy and I would definitely hire again for other work when I have the money.

Great. They were on time, on budget, and great to deal with. Several of my neighbors also used them and were happy.

We had confidence in his abilities after interviewing him. His approach and layout was well planned and reasonable. His price was reasonable. After the installation the system has worked well for the past year. Any problems that we have had, he has been very responsive.