Kemora Landscapes

We recently completed landscaping in both our front and back yards. The job was tricky in that we had tuck-​pointing and a new fence being installed all at the same time. Kemora was very flexible in accommodating our needs, which included some changes in scope. In addition, Marisa encouraged us to select plants/​trees, rather than just go with her design and provided consultation on why a plant/​tree may or may not work for what we wanted (more unusual plants and low maintenance). In addition, the contractor Kemora uses for hard scaping and concrete was extraordinary in quality and we hired him for several side jobs.
All in, I think the experience was good and plan to use them again shortly. I agree with another review in that communication could be strengthened over all between their own employees and of course with the customers, especially since in my experience this resulted in discrepancies on the invoicing (in my favor) which I pointed out and was corrected.

This firm has addressed the complaint and completed the work as of 6−19−15.
Below is the original review.
This would be ZERO stars if allowed:
April 10, 2015 the Landscape designer from Kemora came out to provide an estimate to mulch, aerate and seed the condo building.
Estimate was provide for $ 1,004.44. One page estimate. Turn around was timely. So far so good
The board had to source 2 other bids per our guidelines and selected Kemora on April 30, 2015
Boards property manager calls to schedule per the Landscape designers suggestion as they are «booking up» May 1, 2015
Work date set up week of May 19, 2015, cancelled and rescheduled to May 27, 2015 and then they only laid mulch and did not aerate or seed.
Inquired why after this much time lapsed why work was not done? Now a Office Manager is interacting and making excuses like «It was a sub-​contractor» when no sub-​contractors were noted to be used on the estimate.
I would think as a small business owner with a chance to get on a property manager vendor list with 400+ properties in the area that could have been a great opportunity but after this experience they should be black listed so no other association has to deal with this firm.
On top of all this the mulch this firm used must have been sourced out of a municipal yard as everywhere it was laid is growing small weeds. This never occurred for the past 8 years that residents laid mulch sourced from Home Depot. According to Office Manager it was our fault and responsibility.
Now fast forward to June 16, 2015 the work is not completed and Office Manager is still blaming a sub-​contractor that we were never informed was to be used. Maybe they will show up for there scheduled appointment

Great company. Marisa did a design for blue stone in my backyard and her guys installed it about 3 years ago. It’s holding up great and honestly is one of the best purchases I have made with a good company. Kemora Landscapes also does my spring clean up early May (ish). They are very timely with scheduling and planning with smaller and larger projects the same.

They are amazing. Marisa came up with a great design and followed through with the installation. I am so pleased with her and the crew. They did an amazing job or installing the trees, plants and shrubs, laying down the mulch and cleaning up! Strongly recommend.

I’m not sure why there are such negative reviews. We recently (by recent, I’m talking last week) used Kemora Landscaping for our back yard and it was a wonderful experience from initial contact to the completion of the project. I worked with Krista and she was professional, timely, and knowledgeable. She took the vision I had of our exterior space and made it a reality. I’m a designer by trade, and an artist by passion, so she had her work cut out for her in the «impress me» department. After seeing the design, I knew we had made the right choice. My partner and I decided that having the entire yard done at once was not at all in our budget, so we asked Kemora if it could be done three separate phases over a three year period. We were extremely pleased to know they had no problem with the phasing aspect of our plan.
Krista showed up each day during the 3 day process. Informed us of what was taking place and what to expect each day, checking on the crew’s work and working out the logistics (placement of hardscape and design decisions) with them. The crew, doing the labor, were friendly, very hard working, and also very informative; communicating with us about what was happening and what to expect the next day.
We cannot wait for next year to roll around so we can began phase 2. Our back yard wooded oasis is coming together and we couldn’t be happier.

Really shocked at the negative reviews. I’ve been using Kemora for years and have always found them responsive, respectful, and creative. Marissa has created an incredible landscape in our over sized yard. They do our annuals every summer on our back deck and it’s stunning. They also do our snow shoveling in the winter and show up very early in the morning, multiple times if necessary, and sometimes in the middle of the night. I highly recommend kemora landscapes.

I am so surprised by the negative ratings for Kemora! We had them do landscaping and a brick paver patio in our last home (in 2009) and they have been working with us again in our current home last year (2013) and this year on regrading our lawn, re-​sodding it and re-​landscaping it. They’ve been nothing but professional and I’ve always had my phone calls and e-​mails immediately returned by Marisa and people on her staff.
The work they’ve done is beautiful and their quotes have been reasonable. We’ve requested changes along the way and they’ve always accommodated them. The current project was something we wanted to break into two phases and they had no problem doing that for us. Additionally, we asked Marisa her opinion on moving our fence line to encompass more lawn space for our backyard and she agreed it would make sense and look better with the way the house is laid out, even though it meant $ 1200 less in landscaping work for her.
I would not hesitate to use them again in the future (in fact, we just signed a contract for new work next month) and would recommend them without reservation.

I hate to join in the parade but I feel the same as the previous two reviewers. My brother & sister-​in-​law had Kemora do their backyard landscaping in 2012. It looked quite lovely so I thought I would use them as well. I liked the idea of supporting a woman owned business. Just to let folks know, my sister-​in-​law did not work with Marisa and did not seem to have the same communication problems I have had. This all started in 2012, my yard looked like a jungle, weeds & weed trees everywhere. I needed help desperately.
Marisa came out, seemed charming, had some useful ideas. I asked for a detailed breakdown on costs & fees so I could budget the work and possibly do some in 2012, finish in 2013. That is when Marisa went MIA. I ended up having to hire someone else for the cleanup. When she finally got back to me, I said though I had hired someone for the cleanup I still wanted her to do the landscaping design.
Big mistake. I had also purchased one of the discount pre-​paid coupons (I think it was Living Social) but due to lack of timely communication when they finally did do the landscaping in my front yard the coupon had run out. Though I did get the amount I paid credited towards my bill, I did not get any kind of discount for their having my cash for over 6 months. If they had not already had my money I probably would have gone with another firm. They finally did the front work at the end of August 2013. I requested that they plant bulbs I had purchased but was told to wait until October. I was never called back to schedule the October planting. I questioned the depth of the mulch and was told that 2 inches was what they did, this on a front lawn that previously was grass, dandelions & violets. Well, 5 weeks later I had a lovely crop of new weeds My son, his friend, my husband & myself raked up the Kemora mulch, hoed up the weeds, planted 300 bulbs and added 6 more bags of mulch to the previous amount. I finally received a detailed listing for the back yard landscaping on October 25^th. I had told Marisa I wanted to make some changes to the original design but she never came back to discuss it or sent me new drawings.
Oh, yeah, all of the actual workers were men and Marisa never came to the job site after our meeting. None of the guys who worked on my property spoke English as a first language. Their foreman was the person I had to communicate with and when he was gone to pick up the mulch no one could talk with me. It was not a pleasant experience.

Marisa has a great personality and is the kind of person you immediately want to hire. Dont. Unfortunately, she is along the lines of Jekyll & Hyde. Once your project starts, she is MIA. Overall, she did a good job, but it was a painful experience. If you enjoy being blown off, not having your emails and phone calls returned, being nickel and dimed for unused material, and having your project drag out for an unnecessarily long time because the owner is socially inept and doesn’t want to deal with you… then these folks are for you.