D & R LANDSCAPE OUTDOOR CONSTRUCTION

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The Estimate:
This is a gung-ho crew, and I've never seen people work so hard.
The owner came over to give me an estimate, and he was so excited to tell me what needed to be done that he failed to ask me what I wanted to be done. The truth is, I couldn't get a word in edgewise. He assured me that he knew how to properly prune trees and shrubs, pointed out how overgrown my various trees and shrubs were, offered to haul away a great deal of fallen branches, brush, give everything a good raking, etc. and declared that he would give me a very, very good deal.
I'm a passionate gardener, I care deeply about my plants, and I have above average knowledge of horticulture. Sadly, I haven't been able to keep up with the garden, because of a lengthy illness. I had become distressed about the condition of our property, so when this guy came in and told me they could clean everything up, I felt a huge rush of relief. A good "clean out" was exactly what we needed.
The work:
He did give me a great deal and cleaned up a lot of debris. He and his crew raked, cut down 3 dead, (small, under-story) trees, trimmed overgrown shrubs, removed at least 20 cubic yards of debris, brought in a chipper for a fairly big pile of dead branches. pruned high branches out of full-grown trees, which opened up the canopy in a nice way.
I have a couple of issues with the owner and the work itself:
- First, I was never able to talk to him about the work. I tried to communicate, but he would consistently interrupt, tell me what was needed or not needed (in his opinion), would actually disagree with my requests, tell me not to worry about it, and walk away. I was literally stunned. I knew I needed to have the work done and couldn't get up the energy to fire him, so I just went inside and hid under the covers.
- Second, neither he nor his crew understood how things should be pruned. It's strange, because when he came for the estimate, he actually did tell me that he knew about cutting at the node on shrubs, clean cuts, etc., but for some reason almost everything they worked on was cut very badly. (Ragged edges where high branches appeared to be ripped off rather than cut, for instance.) They made a mess of several things - they cut off the central leader of a young tree (now it will branch strangely), they butchered a crape myrtle, and sprayed weed killer on at least a dozen young hellebores. That's just a few issues, I won't bore you with any others. In the end, I was glad to have all the debris and overgrown shrubs and trees cleared out, but I will have an arborist come out this winter to check the damage and maybe repair some of the cuts on the big old trees to make sure they remain healthy. The rest of the hacked up trees and shrubs will probably recover just fine after a season or two.
In their defense:
The crew does seem to understand how to prune rhododendrons, yews, hollies and forsythia, so that was fine, but I wouldn't recommend letting them near any of your trees or more unusual shrubs. If you have property with no gardens and those common shrubs I just named, then these are the guys for you. They work hard, and the work crew is super nice. If you have nothing but lawn, foundation shrubs and no need to communicate any needs, then you will probably be happy with this company; Finally I want to emphasize that, even though I personally would not hire this company again, I will  admit they are the hardest working guys I've ever seen.

They did all of our landscaping four years ago when we built. They listen to what you want, and they work with you.

I asked D&R to quote two jobs: one for spring cleanup and mulch, the other to mow my yard. After several no-shows, Jeff Dietz, the owner, finally showed up and provided a high quote for the cleanup and mulch. He did this without taking any measurements to accurately assess the amount of material needed. Needless to say, I went with someone else. I made the mistake of giving him the job of mowing my yard. He reneged on our verbal agreement and never showed.