Midwest Grounds Landscape Solutions

I thought it would go very well based on the interactions I had with Bobby Furhman when he provided the quote, answered our questions, met us to pick out pavers for the patio, and picking out landscaping boulders. He seemed very knowledgeable and professional. Overall I'm not completely unhappy with the end result but it was a frustrating process to get there. I felt like if I was not checking in on the work frequently, things got missed or done incorrectly. Patio - They put in a 830 sq ft patio with a 30" fire pit and 24 ft long sitting wall. It turned out looking just like I had hoped. I would probably recommend this company for laying a patio out. However, I expressed concern that the water pooled on a large portion of the patio - he assured me that once the grass grew in the yard, the runoff wouldn't be as bad and the patio would not flood... unfortunately, this did not happen and we're still working through ideas (other than redoing the patio) to try to deal with the runoff issue. Another, complaint on the patio is that he highly encouraged us not to use polymorphic sand between the pavers and I wish we would have right off the bat - we just had to pressure wash the old sand out and have new polymorphic sand put in after 1.5 years of use because of the weeds coming up between the pavers. My other complaint is that when they initially laid out the sand and gravel for the patio, it was significantly undersized (like 15 ft. wide vs. 25).... apparently they didn't bring a long enough tape measure and couldn't add. But once we pointed out the fact, they quickly fixed it. Excavating - We had them dig into a hill to level out a bigger area in our back yard and then also put a privacy mound at the back of our property. They had to deal with a mountain worth of large rocks that they removed from the yard and a lot of clay. Aside from the water pooling on the patio, which is in part due to the excavating as well, they did a decent job here. For the landscaping beds - I was not pleased. They charged $7773 for this portion of the work. We had them put in quite a large area of beds... we needed 15 yards of mulch to cover them. In his quote, he stated "This bid includes the importation of 60 tons (40 Yards) of topsoil and the adding of organic material, peat moss, horse manure, oak leaf mold, and mushroom compost as needed to prepare planting areas." I had him put in 13 trees and 12 bushes throughout the beds, but I planned to put in perennial flowers and some smaller bushes myself... I was very specific that I planned to put in flowers myself after he had prepared the beds and needed the mostly clay soil improved before I did. What they actually planned to do was to apply weed killer to the grass where i wanted the beds and then cover it with mulch to shape the beds out. Thank heaven I was home and I saw them starting to put mulch down just over top of the grass or I might have paid them and not known any better until I went to plant flowers later. They claimed this was "industry standard bed prep" that they had priced (I've since asked other landscapers what they would do for "bed prep" and no one has ever said apply weed-killer and then cover the grass with mulch). They acted like I was being unreasonable and they were doing me a huge favor when I insisted that they till the soil up and then they applied a literal dusting of some sort of organic material. In addition, they asked me where I wanted the trees, we had a map drawn out, I also worked from home to be available for questions and we walked to specific areas in the yard and laid out where I wanted things. And then I went inside for a conference call and when I looked out the window, they were planting the wrong things in the wrong places. I also didn't like the how unhealthy 2 of the trees they put in looked but they just told me that I had a year warranty and that they couldn't get others. 2 years later, the 2 trees still look very sorry, but they didn't die in the 1 year warranty period so it's no sink off their backs. I would not recommend this company for putting in landscaping. Overall, the project took much longer than initially we had expected (about 3 weeks longer). This was largely due to us getting a ton of rain during the period which slowed the work or made them unable to work. However, it was also due in to the workers seeming not to know what to do if Bobby wasn't around. They were efficient at laying the patio and worked **** ** that but for much of the excavating and landscaping, they spent a lot of time looking puzzled and playing on their phones unless Bobby was there - they often got almost as much accomplished in the hour or so he was on site as they had the rest of the day while he wasn't. When the rain finally stopped, I felt that they were cutting corners because they were behind schedule.

Horrible dishonest company!  They dumped a very large pile of debris into our neighbors' yards after it was clearly explained where the property lines were.  They then refused to fix it unless we payed another $500.  We had to pay another company to fix the problem.  Then Midwest made an illegal charge on our credit card which they still had on file.  Do NOT use this company, unless you want a big headache and scam artists

I would not recommend Midwest Grounds. My experience with them was extremely frustrating. I am listing my home for sale and needed to clean up the landscaping around the property-weed, mulch and trim the existing plants. When I called Midwest Grounds initially, my ONLY requirement was that they finish the work by a specific date- when my house was being listed. I was very clear that if they couldn't commit to the time frame I would have to go with another provider. I had numerous assurances, verbally and in writing, that the work would be finished by this date. You can see where this is going. They finished the front yard, said they would be back tomorrow (Saturday) to finish the rest. My house was listed Sunday and they didn't come until Monday.
When they didn't come back Saturday, I left frantic messages- their reply was that when they said they would be back the next day they "forgot what day it was" and that they didn't normally work Saturday without permission. Given how clear I had been about deadlines, I would have thought that they could have permission to finish off the job-it only took an hour.
Of course instead of an apology I just received the remainder of the bill from Terry, the manager of the division. Terry claims he didn't know they weren't going to finish the job and that they never said they needed special permission to work on Saturday. Clearly there are communication difficulties. They were also very unresponsive once the first installment had been paid and they had a contract.
As for the work itself, it was mostly ok.....I do have some dead grass strips, unevenly trimmed bushes and some nice lilies which they killed, but the worst of it is the hassle it caused me in listing my house.
There are definitely some good and reliable landscaping companies out there. Unfortunately Midwest Grounds is NOT one of them.

I told them I was on vacation a certain week and would like it done then but just not on that Thur because I had plans. They showed up Thur morning! I was told they would only do it that day so I had no choice but to leave them there alone to do it. When I got home thay were gone. I was immediately upset when I saw they brought all plumbing out of center decorative stone wall. It was huge and they had the pipes connected/supported by a rotten 2x4 stuck in the ground. I called to complain and Doug came out the next day and explained how the system worked and said there was no way to change the appearance (he was very polite and only doing what his boss Bryan told him). Since I felt Bryan the boss had no interest in even talking to me, I canceled my payment. He then called me, yelled at me, and demanded payment. I stood my ground so he came out and re-worked some of the plumbing so it wasn't quite so large and removed the rotten wood support. I still think it is a complete eyesore! Bryan was unprofessional, not polite, and almost throwing a temper tantrum. He also said he was now charging me extra (I did NOT pay the extra but did pay the original amount.
10/2011-  I turned off the shut off valve to the irrigation system in prep to have it winterized and the entire plumbing connection blew apart flooding my basement. I have a different company repairing the work now and will then winterize it.
I would never recommend Midwest Grounds to anyone!!!