BERKSHIRE IRRIGATION

The owners of the company installed this irrigation system fifteen years (or so ago) and have been turning the system on in spring and off in fall since installation. I called to ask them to come out in October and shut down the system. They had a busy schedule, and said they preferred to come in the spring to start the system, repair any damage, and bring our new gardener up to speed on how to operate the system. This year, appointments were difficult to schedule with Berkshire and an appt. was postponed, despite our need to mulch over the water lines before the garden opened to the public. When the owner finally showed up today, he complained that too many irrigation and electric lines had been broken and that the electricity had been rewired.. He accused the previous gardener of screwing up the system by rewiring boxes - which seems very unlikely. However a new well was installed last fall and a line was dug across the driveway. Since we had turned off the system in the Fall ourselves, I did not know that an electrical break had occured.. Today, the owner was disgusted with the condition of the system and made sure to complain to everyone working on the grounds. He spent 2.5 hours on the premises, got approx half of the system running, saying he didn't have time to do further work and maybe, maybe, he would come back to complete the job in June. His attitude was terrible, he didn't remember where the junction boxes were and he left a broken hose to run water unchecked down the driveway. He made it clear to me that this job was a big inconvenience to him. I have never been anything but pleasant to the owners. I have agreed to Berkshire's schedule, and paid on time throughout the many years of working with them. If Berkshire had come out last fall, they would have been able to find out where the breaks and problems were. While Berkshire complained vociferously about my former gardener to my new gardener, until today, he never let me know of such or of any issues or I would have resolved them. I suspect that when I first hired Berkshire, they were happy to have the installation job, but much less happy to do annual maintenance. Berkshire has left me in the lurch with the garden being open to the public in a week's time. I will have to make other arrangements.