DESIGN MY YARD

She transformed our yard, it was just a yard and now its an Oasis it's beautiful.

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Shortly after my yard was finished, I left a very positive review on Angie's List for Liz Klein, the owner of Design My Yard. I now realize I made a mistake by hiring her and should have hired a different landscaper. If you're considering hiring her, I hope you read this. It's not an angry diatribe. It's a critical review, and my criticisms are ones any person would have had he hired Liz. Imagine paying roughly $8,000 to have your front yard landscaped. Imagine learning after the project was finished that your sprinkler system wasn't re-zoned for the new beds and grass, as you requested. Then imagine learning from your arborist two months after the project was finished that your new trees were planted too deep. Imagine taking off work and visiting a nursery with your landscaper to finalize your plant and tree selection and then learning after the project was finished that she lost the revised selection but nonetheless began the project.

This and more is what I've had to deal with in working with Liz Klein and Design My Yard. This wasn't my worst experience, and Liz is knowledgeable and easy to work with. She's nice too. I suppose she's worth talking to if you're considering a landscaping project. But she made huge mistakes, and this is why I can't now leave her a positive review. I've worked with my share of contractors and understand that contractors and subcontractors make mistakes. They happen, and homeowners should be prepared for them. So I wasn't expecting perfection from Liz; my expectations in fact were low given the work I've seen in Austin these days. But there are mistakes, and then here are Mistakes. Take tree depth. You're not supposed to bury the root flare of a tree; a tree buried too deep will become weak and may die. Just google "tree depth root flare" or talk to an arborist. You could say it's what you learn in Tree Planting 101. Your neighbors probably know this. Even austintexgov.com made a video, which is available on youtube, explaining this. Yet my trees were planted 3-4 inches too deep. When I emailed Liz and sent her a picture, she said the tree in the pic was too deep and her installer would make things right---which I learned meant that the trees would have to be pulled out and replanted. I told her I hoped she would be there. So on the scheduled day I leave work and meet her installer. Liz is not there, and I learn that her installer has never heard of planting trees at the root flare, even though he's been doing this for 15 years. He repeats the misconception that if the root flare was buried when the tree came from the nursery, it must be right. So here I am sending pictures of my replanted trees to my arborist on my phone trying to figure out what the right depth should be. I don't know where Liz is. She doesn't have the courtesy to say she will be there. Her installer ends up replanting 3 of my trees, and even now the depth is wrong (I'm partly to blame for this) and one is crooked.

I hired Liz because I thought she and installers knew such things. I hired her so I would not have to learn from an arborist that she planted my trees too deep and wouldn't have to leave work and supervise her worker. If a contractor's crew makes a huge mistake, you expect the contractor to discover it---that is, check her crew's work---and make it right. This didn't happen. Even if the contractor doesn't check her crew's work, you expect a contractor to properly remedy the problem when it's brought to her attention. This didn't happen either. Liz's response wasn't the worst I've seen, but it's close. She sent her installer who was responsible for planting the trees too deep in the first place and then I have to supervise his work. If I were in her shoes, I would have scheduled a day and time with me and personally inspected the trees and large shrubs (my arborist said they were also planted too deep). I would have also been there when they were replanted. This is what you do when you make a mistake and you're paid $8,000. You don't become defensive and say your new yard added value to your house. Of course it did, but that's not the point.

As for my sprinkler system, there's not much I can say here. It speaks for itself. I wanted my flower beds to be on different zones than my St. Augustine. That's the way system was originally designed, and I know the plants in my beds don't suck water like my St. Augustine does. So it makes sense to have separate zones and save water. We're in a drought after all. I also planned to set up a drip line from one of the sprinkler heads and to control the drip line in my beds from my sprinkler control panel. Well, that was out of the question after the job was finished unless I wanted to create new zones after the job was complete. So I ended up buying a timer and using my spigot. But the fact remains that I'll probably end up wasting water because of this.  

No point is belaboring this. I hope Angie's List works and people reading this don't make the mistake I did.

Start to finish, the job progressed with amazing speed and professionalism.  Liz reviewed her design concept in detail and explained her choices for plant materials.  The entire job was specified in writing and adaped well to our request to staging.  There was an impressive attention to detail throughout the project, and Liz supervises every step of the way.  We are so delighted we have decided to have Liz help us transform our front yard, too.

This month, Liz Klein completed two projects to upgrade and finish our landscape. The first project was replacing a worn privacy fence. The fencing material installed was very solid and sturdier than other materials we had seen and her price was comparable to other bids. The work was done quickly and the crew was careful with existing plantings. Liz advised us about preservative that we could apply to retain the cedar color and lengthen the life of the fence. The second project, landscaping, included creating a walk to link side and back yards and improve porch access, extending a curved bed, and replacing and upgrading plantings throughout the yard, among other tasks. She incorporated stone we had on hand, saving us money. She listened to our tastes regarding plant appearance and habits regarding care, i.e., wanting plants that survive on their own as much possible. She took us on a nursery tour to solidify plant choices. All plants she selected are interesting, low care, and coordinate wonderfully with the existing plantings, echoing them in many cases for a harmonious look throughout the yard. Throughout the project Liz could be reached by either phone or email and responded promptly to inquiries.

I followed up with Liz several times by phone and email for her bid and was told she would have it in several days. Subsequently I never heard from her again. I went with another landscaper who made some changes and I'll never know if those were good ideas or not. I was very disappointed not to recoup the $500 toward the final landscaping.

Fabulously. Liz is amazingly talented and very easy to work with!

The experience has been good so far. She did what she said she was going to do when she said that she would do it. We are communicating with her to start the work.

She was a little bit slow on the responsiveness, but that was because there were issues in her life at the time. She is very professional. She was apologetic as well. I recommend her to friends. She is very talented. She does good work. We're excited about finally being able to implement it.

After initial contact was made, through email and phone, a meeting was set up to view the site. Liz and Jane arrived on time and promptly began to assess my yards while inquiring about what my family wanted from the yards. During this process they used their experience to help hone my vision into a workable one. After the first meeting another visit was setup to further investigate my difficult situation. Jane also dropped by during this period to map out the locations of the trees and other obstacles, my presence was not required for this. After they they finished with their thorough assessment, they began to draw up the formal documents. After these were finished, they met with me again to go over the design and see if it met with my approval, which it most certainly did. With the design in hand, the project is now being broken down into pieces to price out the necessary work. I elected to take charge of most of this, but certainly Design My Yard would have proceeded down the path of soliciting formal bids if I had chosen that option. Overall, the process was exactly what I wanted it to be.

This took a while to materialize since I called Liz in early summer and it was too late for planting. In the meanwhile I had a new patio installed replacing the brick that was there and saved the bricks for later. The crew that Liz works with does an excellent job. In November they started with the installation and you can see the bricks in the picture. Liz did have to change the plan a few times to try and control cost since my yard is so large.

The experience was just wonderful from the time we contacted her. She came out and we told her what we wanted and then asked her for some ideas. She gave us some ideas that we had not thought about and my backyard just looks totally different today! It looks pretty good out there!

There are no words to describe the way she transformed our back yard space into a haven where we love to relax and spend time together; the space is comforting and one would never know that neighbors are near. She provides the best materials and plants and expert people for the stonework. 80% of the cost is due to the stone, gravel and masonry work.

There are no words to describe the way she transformed our back yard space into a haven where we love to relax and spend time together; the space is comforting and one would never know that neighbors are near. She provides the best materials and plants and expert people for the stonework. 80% of the cost is due to the stone, gravel and masonry work.