PROFESSIONAL LAWN CARE

Installation of new ground cover, grass and general clean up went well. Crew was fast and skilled. Problems began after they had been maintaining the landscape for several months. The maintenance crew was much less skilled than the installation crew. They began leaving clippings in the shrubs that would turn brown in a week or so. They would edge back several inches from the side walk into the grass and leave wide swaths of dirt space between the sidewalk and the grass. The one along the front walk is 3 inches wide. Hundreds of small oaks have sprouted in the front beds and in the crushed granite side path. This is a yearly problem but a much less expensive previous maintenance crew had no problem keeping up with it. Worst of all, they sculpted my established shrubs into lollypop and light bulb shapes with a hedge trimmer when more target pruning would have been called for. Last week, they left a garbage bag sized pile of clippings under the butchered shrubs. They took hedge clippers to broadleaf shrubs and shredded the surface foliage so that now the texture and color are stringy and brown. They shredded the tips of all the new growth on a patch of iron plants, and snapped some of the new stalks off by walking on them. Iron plant gets one leaf a year so it will take 12 months to recover. I'm not sure if it was carelessness or ignorance, but for 165 dollars a month, I'd expect more expertise and care. The biggest problem though arose when I contacted Bo White to discuss the issues. After taking a week to return my call (only after 3 unreturned calls to his office), he came by when I wasn't there despite my request twice that he come by when I could walk the yard with him. He was defensive and denied there was any problem at all despite the condition of my shrubs which will take 6-12 months to regrow and piles of clipping under the shrubs. Its hard to believe that someone who does landscaping for a living would not be appalled or embarrassed by the condition in which his crew left my shrubs. His unwillingness to either train his crew appropriately or to take responsibility for their work makes for REALLY bad service. I won't be using Professional Lawn Care anymore.