My husband and I hired Kevin Ellner to begin xeroscaping our front yard, build two raised bed gardens and clear out some old river stone. He wanted paid in advance (our first mistake) but we were both leaving town for a month so we did so in the event that we wouldn't be home by the time he was finished.
First off, the stone work for the raised bed gardens was very poorly done. It was not done the way we wanted it done. He used the wrong color mortar, instead of the walls curving nicely they are sharp, angular and they look like a kindergartener did the job.
Second we wanted to xeroscape, take out the dead grass and put down crushed granite. He did manage that part but he did not put down enough weed barrier to start out. He put one layer of crushed granite and did not use a roller to compact it down. Thus after the first rain we had exposed weed barrier, weeds already cropping up and water trails. We are going to have to put down another layer of granite and figure out a way to compact it down ourselves.
Third, in the raised bed gardens we wanted plants that are drought tolerant. The plants he picked were 50/50 in quality. Some of them were in poor shape and I'll be very lucky to be able so save a few of them. Some of the others are doing well. That is the only positive thing I can say here. He managed to half-a* the plants. There was not nearly enough mulch put down and despite our instructions to use as little chemicals as possible, he found the most poisonous weed killer he could and sprayed it all over the yard.
Fourth, during this entire project, both my husband and I were in and out of town, every single time we came home we had to call Kevin and tell him that we wanted crews out there finishing up this job. There was a new guy or two guys working every time someone showed up. Some of them seemed decent, the two doing the walls were a couple of drunks. You could smell these guys from the doorway at 10am.
Fifth, he left a mess in the driveway and in the street of loose stone, crushed granite and mulch.
Finally, there was river stone that was on either side of the sidewalk that we asked him to remove. It was still there and we ended up removing that ourselves. We didn't even ask him to do anything with it, just get the stones out of the way.
So the short version is this—it cost us $2700—in advance, he used less than $300 in materials (he didn't even have to buy the stone for the raised bed gardens, we already had it) we got a half finished yard, sick plants and walls that look absolutely awful. After two months of very little contact, no contact for the past four weeks we are finishing up the project our selves.
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