Natural Landscapes Inc.

Doug is a true professional and a landscape artist. His design was creative, elegant and unique. He incorporated a rock river flowing through massive Canmore boulders which cover the large front yard. A beautiful variety of perennial shrubs, grasses, flowers, trees and ground cover add a soft richness. It has been one year since completion. The project was completed on time and on budget. The plants have all become well established and are a true joy to be among. Very happy with the project. Doug is a pleasure to work
with.

We had emailed Doug to just get a landscape design layout. When Doug came out he had suggested a few ideas and asked if I would require any assistance to complete any of the landscape details. We decided to use Natural Landscapes to do all the rock work on our side slope of our house. I was absolutely amazed on the work that was completed. Thank you Doug and your guys for doing a fabulous job. I would highly recommend this company to anyone.

Doug is creative and offers amazing suggestions based on your needs and tastes. He delivers a great product within your budget and completes your project in a timely fashion. I would recommend Doug to anyone who wants a beautiful and functional home exterior.

Doug and his team from Natural Landscapes transformed our dustbowl backyard into an oasis we will enjoy for years to come. The big rock boulders, dry river bed and patio paving look amazing. Doug has a great vision and his team delivered high quality work . We appreciated their expertise, hard work ethic and ability to meet our budget!

We contacted Natural Landscapes in April, 2015 after a recommendation from our concrete contractor. Doug came out to meet us, view our lot and to discuss our needs/wants. He returned a few days later with a beautiful design that both met our needs and also looked after the steep grade change from back yard to front yard on our corner lot.

The work was scheduled to commence in mid June and be completed in August. Doug's crew showed up a week early and everything was finished by the first week in July.

The scope of work included installing a cedar fence with gates, large boulders for retention (and aesthetics), refreshing an old retaining wall, installing paving stone borders, planting numerous trees and bedding plants, planting sod and installing an irrigation system. Doug has a terrific eye for landscaping design and he incorporated some amazing elements in our yard including dry river beds, a raised garden and utilizing a 60 year old rock retaining wall. The trees and plants once mature are going to be beautiful.

As mentioned before the work was completed ahead of schedule. The quality of the work is excellent. The pricing reflected the large scope of work and was reasonable. Doug's crew arrived early every day and worked hard. And any concerns during the project were immediately addressed by Doug.

Overall we are thrilled with the yard that Doug and his crew created for us. We would highly recommend Natural Landscapes to anyone looking for a landscaping designer/contractor.

We signed our contract with Natural Landscapes in July of 2014. We really liked the drawings proposed for our front and back yards, they looked like a park, full of flowers and trees. Very beautiful.

The work was completed in October of 2014. The perennials and trees were dormant by the time they were planted. The work seemed to progress slowly as the crew was divided between other projects.

Our main concerns with this companies work are: the paving stone patio was initially installed too low causing water to pool on it. It had to be re-installed this spring, no polymeric sand was used, just regular sand. Staff are not given proper instruction/direction on where to put plants. They do not know the plant's requirements - sun vs. shade or seem to care? Staff do not have copies of yard drawings to consult, so plants get put in where ever? Some trees were not tamped in or backfilled around. While the company did return several times this spring,not once were we contacted to say they were coming. All of these concerns are mainly lack of communication/clear direction within the company.

But our biggest concern is that multitudes of perennials included in our drawings, and paid for in full - were not planted! Remember things were dormant when they were planted in our yards. Doug proudly assured us everything was there, and more...

In the end we are very disappointed with Natural Landscapes. Their work is shoddy and uncaring, staff indifferent for the most part. There were a few that cared. The drawings that we loved so much were not consulted for the most part with regard to plants.

Doug is not interested in finishing this landscaping job in a professional manner in accordance to the drawings. No change orders were issued, he could have mentioned the plants weren't available, could he come back in the spring and finish?. In the end he mis-informed us about the plantings and ripped us off for several thousand dollars in plants.

We paid in full for a beautiful and professionally landscaped yard front and back. Buyer beware! We do not recommend this company.

We built a new dream home on our acreage. A year later we decided to have it professionally landscaped. We had very rough canvass for the landscaping. There was next to no soil on the land and most of the ground was pit run and gravel. We also built across gravel road with a large elevation change . In short, a lot of work had to be done. Lastly the house was a walkout with a wrap around deck. The results were magnificent. The rockwork and fountain that dealt with the old road was so expertly placed around the deck that everyone who has seen it figures the deck was built after the rock work was in place. Now, here is the kicker. This was done almost 9 years ago and as i sat on my deck two nights ago and reflected on all the work that was done, we are happier now than we were when it was first done and we were plenty excited back then.

I found Natural Landscapes on Homestars and am very pleased to write a review of my experience with this company. I contacted them a year ago to discuss plans to completely renovate my front and back yards.

The previous homeowners were avid gardeners and spent hours on the various gardens they designed. I am not a gardener and felt badly that I could not maintain the gardens. I knew there had to be a way to make my yard a beautiful space that I look at with love and appreciation, rather than dread. After my mom died in June 2014, I contacted Doug and told him I wanted a space to honour my parents, neither of whom inherited their parents' gardening genes.

I met with Doug and explained my lack of skill and interest in gardening. He created a beautiful design that would achieve peace and serenity for me. Doug also was honest in letting me know there would be some work required as there is no such thing as a maintenance free yard :)

The project started this May and I was impressed by the hard work of the team. Every day I came home to new and exciting changes. The team was respectful and accommodating to my requests. It took a few weeks to get everything planted, and that was fine as I knew the company had several big projects they were working on. I had also told them that I was in no hurry.

I now have a beautiful space that is soul enriching and peaceful. The pond and granite water fountains are a highlight and help to cut down the traffic noise from nearby 22x. I have had wonderful comments from my neighbours and have also met many people because they stop to tell me how lovely the yard is.

As the weeks pass by, I am aware of the changing colours that present themselves due to Doug's choice of plants and trees. My yard is a living canvas and I am thrilled to experience the delight of the extraordinary beauty that evolves as the season changes.

Doug is an exceptional artist when it comes to landscape design. I have even found that I don't mind the watering and minor weeding when I know I am taking care of such a beautiful space!

Once the work on our front yard was completed we enjoyed having people passing by coming to our door to give us positive comments on the work and to inquire about who did it. We appreciated Doug's suggestion that he draw a plan of the proposed work so we would know exactly what to expect. What was produced did match the plan, but we really didn't visualize it until it was done. However, we are very happy with the result and are confident that it will be wonderful when the plants have matured. The workers were diligent, courteous and cleaned up properly. Work was also completed in a timely way.

I hate to say that I cannot recommend this company and that any upfront promises may not be fulfilled.

I originally chose Doug due to the content of his website and the quick response to my initial query made through his site. The up front process went quickly and I was impressed at the time as Doug seemed dedicated to me to ensure I had a project I could be very happy with. Doug even suggested a seemingly easy solution to my concern I could not use his original design due to my dogs being able jump over the chain link fence on the back walkway (still not in place and my dogs cannot use the yard to this day).

Everything seemed to change as soon as I agree to the project. On day one, Doug sent and inexperienced crew and did not show up himself which resulted in his crew starting to build the retaining wall onto my neighbors property. Luckily this was caught but even after a phone conversation with Doug I had to deal with it myself rather than him showing up.

This started the project off on the wrong foot which continued due to the inexperience of the crew that was sent and the fact that guidance was typically only provided to the crew over the phone by Doug. I actually had to provide printed instructions to the crew that I obtained over the internet to try and make sure that things were done properly.

I think that Corbin (the crew leader) really tried hard but was set up for failure by the lack of supervision. I have tries over the last year and a bit to fix all the issues but there always seems to be a reason it doesn't happen. To this day, I have a:
- pond that is not usable,
- a cracked driveway due to their equipment,
- a leaning retaining wall that backs directly onto the town walking path that concerns even my neighbors,
- have a sinking patio that was pulled up at least three times during installation due to errors
- unfinished plantings and fill and numerous other small issues.

I am in the process of creating a website that will document the entire installation process of my landscaping project including:
- pictures of installation
- videos of crew behavior and installation
- communications with the company owner (email and verbal).

I want to ensure that people realize that this review is accurate even though it doesn't describe Doug fixing a non-descript yard so I will publish copies of official pictures and communications. As soon as the site is published I will update this review with the link. Until that time, please beware that the up-front promises received by Doug my not be fulfilled...