just thought I'd share this . .

[wormstyle]

Sorry for taking so long to reply. Haven't checked the board in a long time.

Forgive me with what Im about to say, and hate me you will, but your landscape you installed and designed shows that you are an ametuer.

Why would I hate you? You said our work shows that we are amateur, which we are. I was asking for opinions of the members here--whether they be good or bad. I believe we do exceptional work for being so new in the business but never the less we are still new to the landscape side of things.

The patio design does compliment the house style. The plantings are sparse to few....I would have recommended planting a screen of tall shrubs/ trees along the fence row to provide privacy from those houses in the background. The funkadelic solar lighting looks space aged along with the pod style patio...again, this does not compliment the architecture in the area.

I agree with you that the design doesn't blend well with the surrounding houses. But is that such a bad thing? The inside of the customers house was completly modern, funkadelic bachelor style. Black leather, stainless steel, bar etc. . . The style of the landscape compliments the owners choice of taste which is what thought was important.

The plants do look sparse because we did not use fully mature plants. I wish we would have but opted to keep the cost down in that area. The plants are spaced for mature size. Along the back fence we asked the owner if he preffered shrubs or the spruces.

As far as not matching the neighbors? Who cares. If anything I'm happy about it. When the neighbors look outside and see his backyard hopefully they feel that theirs is the one that doesn't belong and calls us to help them. We recieved many compiments from the neighbors and possible picked up another job similar. She can't afford it at the moment but has our number. And I'm confident when she decides to do it we will be the first on her list to call.

Your retaining walls look quickly built, but overall are ok.

Not really sure how you came up with this comment. I suppose in the pictures it looks a little shakey but I assure you it is not. The wall built around the tree was not in the original design. We had extra stone and offered to add that wall. So that wall is built with odds and ends stone which made it look not quite perfect but overall came out just fine.

Overall it leaves something to be desired. As long as your clients liked it your ok, but next time learn a thing or two about proper landscape design.

Client liked it. I'm happy


As far as education, I went to school for Computer Science. Obviously my degree doesn't really help landscape design but I have taken plenty of art classes and understand the elements of design. I suppose they are different in landscape?

[Grass-Fx lisa]

I don't quite like what Mr. Mawtermower said

I'm a nice person but I can't stay chut for this one.
First of all no reason to call them an ametuer, it just wasn't necessary. They do mostly lawn care as they said so for this reason I think It came out great and It's great that your giving advise but it sounded more like an insult to me. They said the customer was happy with it and that's the only thing that counts. This was a great experience for them so they will get better at it. You said you came in 2nd place well for them not being so experienced in landscape and doing such a good job, they would have gotten 1st place if they were standing next to you. I don't know you thank god, you may be a nice person but giving insults as advise is not very professional...
From Grass-FX Lisa

[MASTERMOWER]

I'm a nice person but I can't stay chut for this one.
First of all no reason to call them an ametuer, it just wasn't necessary. They do mostly lawn care as they said so for this reason I think It came out great and It's great that your giving advise but it sounded more like an insult to me. They said the customer was happy with it and that's the only thing that counts. This was a great experience for them so they will get better at it. You said you came in 2nd place well for them not being so experienced in landscape and doing such a good job, they would have gotten 1st place if they were standing next to you. I don't know you thank god, you may be a nice person but giving insults as advise is not very professional...
From Grass-FX Lisa

Obviously Grass-Fx lisa didn't read further down the thread and see the apology I posted...........

[Jim D.]

She did, and commented on it in another thread. I'd been wondering whether you'd seen it or not.

But I should say that since I made my post to you in this thread you have become one of my favorite (and most admired) posters.

I always look forward to what you have to say, and I'm frequently blown away by the depth of knowledge, polish, and business judgement you demonstrate here on a regular basis...and especially so given your relatively young age.

I hope you will continue to contribute here for a long time.

Regards,

Jim

[MASTERMOWER]

Thanks Jim, I appreciate your comments. Im used to people disliking me :p It's nice to know that at least some people like what I say.......

[Jim D.]

I would wager that most do...especially since this thread resulted in a "kinder and gentler" MASTERMOWER. And by the way, I think think that moneyman thing got blown out of proportion. But at any rate, given the quality of the information you post here, I would think most of the people here like what you have to say. (It's just that you know so damn much, some people might find it intimidating.) :p