Rutgers Landscape & Nursery

They had a landscaping architect that came out and he worked with me as far as price, such as what would run me less if I did it this way, and they did a really great job.  They gave me like a 4-year warranty on the patio itself, from sinking.  They're very professional and so they did an extremely good job.  They're really good.  They're very clean, and not a problem at all.  Everything was good.

After writing a poor review last year about the service I had gotten (see past review),  Rutgers Landscape and Nursery came out to the house to personally listen to my complaints and took responsibility for the poor service.  They offered me a credit in services that totaled the amount of money I had lost.  I appreciated that effort.  Since then, they have come out to do a "Fall Cleanup" and a "Spring Cleanup" as well as making a new plant bed. This is essentially pulling up lots of weeds,  adding top soil, mulching, etc.
The yard does look lovely.  Byron and his crew took their time and did a really nice job.  Byron kept checking with me to be sure they were meeting my expectations.  
The only thing I can say about the whole process is that it takes a long time to get a quote and to nail down a date for the work.  Dave, the landscape architect, is so nice and accommodating, however, the details of invoicing for the service were not completely what we talked about. It was a bit reminiscent of the previous issues so I right away called Dave to make sure that there was going to be sufficient planting materials, etc. for what we had discussed but was not reflected in the invoice.  He made the adjustment right away.  The other issue I had was how long it took to get a Spring Cleanup date.  They knew I was having it done as they came out in the fall and we talked about it.  However, when Springtime was approaching, I was not on the books and had to call several times to find out when they were coming.  The date set was Memorial Day weekend, kind of the last day of Spring....so...again, I let Dave know that I was not happy with that situation and he was able to change the date to May 8th.  
I do think that they try to get it right and I really do appreciate their efforts, but the squeaky wheel theory is advised. 

The landscape architect did not communicate with the installers on what was happening.  This meant that they did not have enough planting material to plant the 7 six-foot tall leylunds in clay conditions.  I purchased the trees from a reputable nursery and was told that Rutgers Landscape would plant them but would not guarantee them.  I trusted that they would plant them correctly in the heavy clay soil that they were aware that we have.  Unfortunately they did not prepare the beds at all and basically just dug holes in the clay and plopped the trees in.  I know this is what happened because when the trees started to fail, rather quickly, I called Sav-A-Tree and their specialist came out and tested the trees for disease and looked and how they were planted.  The trees were disease free and it was determined that they were incorrectly planted.   Rutgers issued me a refund for the planting cost (@$39. for each of the four trees I lost), but I lost a lot of money since the trees cost me $150.each.   My opinion is that they had absolutely no reason to care about the trees that were not purchased through them, but I was trying to save money and their mark up for the same trees was so much higher.  I am concerned about the other three that are left and struggling.  
The hardscaping was reasonably priced and looks nice.  I would recommend only for hardscaping, NEVER FOR LANDSCAPING.

Worked with Rob, very nice and professional person.  Work was done on time, but the crew that was there did not have anyone that could speak English.  That made it hard to ask questions, so I had to reach out to Rob.

Very good to work with.