KEN MATTHEWS LANDSCAPE & NURSERY

There is a lot I could say here, but the bottom line is that this has been a difficult process extending many months and involving quite a few emails from us about one issue or another.  While we are pleased with some of the services, others have been disappointing.  
The biggest problem was poor communication; there were instances of  miscommunication and lots of all-verbal exchanges which our memory of what was said at first was different from what was said later.  This is normally not a problem for me since I usually do everything in writing to protect all parties; however, Mr. Matthews does not use email and all written inquiries and communication must be relayed through his secretary, which takes time and necessitates brief responses.
The Japanese hollies we asked him to prune were hard-pruned to a shockingly small size.  When I expressed dismay about this to one of the workers who were there when I saw them for the first time, he said "Mr. Matthews pruned those himself and he knows what he is doing."  We were not surprised that the largest of these large shrubs did not survive the drastic pruning; nor did Mr. Matthews offer to replace it when it became obvious it was dead.  The two that have survived will take a long time to get back to even half the size they were before.
We understood that the mailbox flower bed (a fairly large area) was to have drip irrigation installed, but only one drip was installed, near the rosebush, and many of the plants installed have now died when they should be flowering and doing well.  We asked whether there should be more irrigation spouts attached since we understood there would be, but were told that the smaller plants did not need them as they might rot if they got too wet.  See attached photos for how they look on May 28, 2015.
I am not mentioning every issue here, just a few.  As mentioned, this has been a long and difficult process, and the hard winter did nothing to help these plants, which were planted much later in the year than we had expected them to be.
Mr. Matthews gave us no written guarantees for any of his work, though he did correct some of the problems we mentioned to him.  Nor were any written instructions provided with the drip irrigation system, and very few verbal instructions, and those only with our very specific, repeated questions.  He seemed more interested in having us hire him to care for the plants, than ensuring we would be able to take care of them adequately for ourselves.  We might have considered doing this had things gone better, but as it was, we have resolved that we will have to replace the dead plants and shrub ourselves, and mark it up as a lesson learned.  Overall we feel things look better than they did before, but not yet where we had hoped they would be, and with considerably more effort on our part than we expected.

They are fairly priced.  The people there are very helpful, and their service is excellent!

These guys were very honest. They told us in the beginning that if any of the plants died, they would replace them for free. Sure enough, two plants did die and they came right out and replaced them. The price seemed a little high to most, but it was very good considering the expansive plants that we got.

This man was a jack of all trades and very talented. He didn t leave any mess for me to pick up. We haven't had any problems with any of his work, because he always used good quality materials. He was a very polite man and I trusted him in my home. He also installed windows and a roof for me in the past. He only charged me $600 for extending my porch.