Go Green Gardeners

Go Green Gardeners — the Best!!!
With 20,000 square feet of land, of which15,000 was under grass, front and back, we looked for a landscaper to replace the grass with drought tolerant ground cover, bushes and trees.
Anne Phillips of Go Green Gardeners was the seventh and final vendor to make a proposal, and the best. Her contract was clear, the cost was very competitive, her timing from start to finish was good, the three men (all brothers) who did the heavy work were prompt, clean, worked every day till the project was finished, and nothing was a problem to them.
Anne initially took us to a wholesale nursery where we were able to choose our plants and she would then advise us what worked or may failed in our hot S.F. valley. Anne listened to our ideas and desires.
We had a plant location sketch for our yards, but Anne was here each day and made adjustments as she went. All the plants, bushes and trees were put out in containers first, and then Anne would look at the symmetry of the lay out and move the plants/​trees so they were not obstructing each other or any yard object.
The few changes we wanted progressively, were not a problem.
The only extra change was that we decided upon 4 additional citrus trees and increasing the size of an open stone guest gathering area in the middle of a path. Price was less than I could buy those materials.
We finished in mid July 2015. Despite the SFV heat, nothing has died.
Killing the grass then design and construction, laying the irrigation pipes with emitters, covering all with weed block fabric has produced very few weeds and very healthy plants. We have just pruned back most plant.
Four months after project completion, we are very pleased with Anne Phillips and Go Green Gardeners. I will recommend them further.
Better still, we did our project under the L.A. DWP rebate program and they approved the whole finished project and made full payment. Nothing better than that for a recommendation in my eyes!

Anne came up with a perfect design for our back and front yards. Her communication and professionalism were A+. We would highly recommend her.

Go Green Gardeners did a great job designing our backyard for a DWP rebate project. It was quick and easy. They installed all new drip lines as well as many new drought tolerant plants while also being able to incorporate the plants we wanted to keep. The yard looks fantastic. I couldn’t be happier.

I had seen Anne’s work before as she had landscaped by boyfriend’s front yard. I utilized Go Green Gardeners to landscape my front and back yards since I wanted to take advantage of LADWP’s water wise program. They did an amazing job. Anne understood what I was looking to do and took what she designed on paper and brought it to life. I highly recommend Go Green Gardeners.

We had been dying to replace our grass for YEARS and when the DWP offered a rebate program to do so, we jumped on it. Someone in my family somehow found Go Green and had already used them to replace their lawn, and seeing the results, we decided to use them as well. We did both the front and back and COMPLETELY got our money’s worth. I have seen other turf companies work here on my block and they are hideous. Just those bright white tiny rocks and randomly placed bushes. We specifically wanted a sort of asian inspired front yard so they gave us a budget friendly «zen garden.» The backyard looks like you’re in some Los Padres nature trail reserve or something. The pics speak for themselves. My opinion was asked for (we had meetings to go over the plans) but I just let them do what they wanted as Anne knows what she’s doing and I do not. Ha! Allowing her to use her talents to transform the space in my yard without me getting in the way was the best decision! My yard is transformed and I LOVE being out there now. The birds and butterflies love it too!

Worst ever. even my neighbor cancelled. They don’t know how to treat their employees nor customers.

Go Green Gardeners did a great job designing our front landscape, and continues to do an amazing job with the maintenance of my entire yard.
I’m very happy.
I’ve read several of the reviews and am a little shocked to read the negative comments. These describe experiences that are/​were very different from ours.
Anne designed our front yard. She explained the process and it went great. It’s even better than I expected. It looks great, and we are still getting compliments from our neighbors.
The maintenance crew do an amazing job. Anne hires special needs adults as the crew and they are supervised by a real pro. The workers are polite and my yard has never looked better.– they have made my backyard landscaping (which Anne didn’t design) beautiful.
Throughout the design process, Anne worked very hard to make me happy. I’m very particular and probably could be described as a tough customer. She had plans, but wasn’t limited by the plans. When working on the actual plant layout, she added plants to address my concerns.
The price was very fair. Anne sent a crew member back to my home when I realized one of the 50+ plants wasn’t getting enough water– He corrected the problem.
I don’t write a lot of Unilocal reviews… but wanted to write this for Go Green Gardeners. I would highly recommend this company

We contracted Anne and Go Green based on the excellent work and referral from our neighbors down the street. Our experience was overall a very positive one. They removed 2000 SF of turf, replaced it with various drought tolerant plants and a drip system, and created a truly unique and varied landscape. The pricing was fair, and she worked with our schedule to get things done as quickly as possible given our conflicts and travel times.
Anne made great use of existing materials in our yard, specifically some broken up concrete that was turned in to a walk way and sitting area, and the plants we already had in the yard. She also put us in touch with another client of hers who was giving away a beautiful childrens play structure, which was a really thoughtful and unexpectedly pro-​active gesture that added a lot of value to our yard.
Only complaint is with our DG pathways. Our design uses DG paths and sitting areas extensively. The DG has not set well, and when it rains there are areas that turn in to very deep mud, making it completely impassable. in fairness to Anne, she recommended we use a stabilizer before installing, but we opted against it in the interest of saving money. it might have made a significant difference, but we won’t know without tearing out the existing material. On one hand I wish I had gone ahead and paid extra up front, but on the other hand I also feel I’m hiring a designer/​contractor to know about these things and insist when their client (me) is not making good decisions.
We have not contracted with them for ongoing care, but we have hired them a couple times on an as needed basis for weed control when we didn’t want to do it ourselves. The people who are complaining about weeds sound like they don’t really understand how much work it takes to keep on top of a yard thats been transformed, especially for the first year. If you agitate the ground, even down to 8″, you are bringing a TON of stuff to the surface. You have to control it at the outset, and make it through a hot season before its all going to go away. Combine that with the record setting rain, and yards all over SoCal were looking like green zones for a while there. it doesn’t seem fair to me that so many people have given Go Green 1 star based on that. Scheduling or design problems, if you have them, I can understand. but not the weeds — that’s not Go Green’s (or any other contractors) fault.

I am posting this review because my mother’s review is being held in limbo since she is not an avid Unilocaler. Everything in this review is true and factual and I’ve added my own two cents at the end.
My mom said, «Anne transformed my aging and tired front yard into a lovely and unique garden of California friendly plants. I liked the fact that it was a collaborative effort. I’m the first on my street to go this route and everyone loves what she accomplished. This was a new venture for me and I had many questions, which were always answered promptly. As far as I’m concerned I have the best front yard in my area, and all done on a very limited budget.»
Anne went so far as to take my mom to a nursery to help pick out plants. When some plants didn’t make it after the installation (it was a brutally hot summer last year), she replaced those plants with no hassle. My mom has also had issues with weeds but anyone with a drought-​tolerant garden knows that weeds are also drought-​tolerant and almost impossible to make disappear completely.
Most importantly, the yard looks fantastic and my mom is very happy with it.

Anne and her crew do not have the experience in clearing out lawns or the design knowledge to adequately replace a lawn with a drought tolerant landscape, and their maintenance crew is costly and inefficient.
First the lawn. Anne’s crew scrapes the surface of the yard with hoes and takes out the surface grass. They did not go down 6 – 8 inches like they had claimed they would. As a result weeds started to come up and the lawn started to grow back immediately, even before they had finished working on the property.
Now, Anne (as an excuse) keeps referring to a disclaimer on her contract which warns about weeds. She also verbally told me that nut grass is invasive (but at the time she said she didn’t think I had any in my lawn). Well I did, and scraping the surface without digging causes nut grass to spread like crazy.
Everyone else I’ve talked to who have had their lawn replaced with drought tolerant options have said their crew first sprayed to kill the lawn and then dug up the lawn. (Wish I knew that back before I started this whole train wreck).
Long weed story short, despite extra charges for weed blocker, multiple subsequent sprayings with roundup and Ortho nutsedge killer (twice a week myself), and 6 months of maintenance, our lawn is overrun with weeds, our DG path looks like garbage, and many of the plants Anne put in have died.
Second, the design. While Anne has a nice aesthetic for plants and paths, she does not place the plants in sensible places based on how the plants grow, or how tolerant they are to conditions. Within a week of planting Irish moss, all of it died because it could not stand up to the direct sunlight where it was placed. In Anne’s defense she replaced it with Blue Fescue with out charging us… 5 months later… first it was too hot, then it was too wet, then too cold… ugh.
Other plants were placed right next to each other, with no consideration how they would grow. I had to move several Blue Fescue, and succulents because they were placed right under lavender bushes that quickly started smothering them. Same with Blue Fescue and Dymondia. She also planted in planters Creeping Thyme on top of beach strawberry, on top of succulents… had to move all of the thyme in the planters as it was growing over everything. (May have to move the beach strawberry as well).
Additionally, she told us that the groundcover she put in would «fill in» but she clearly did not place enough as its been 6 months and the only groundcover that’s filling in is weeds. (Ironically, with the exception of the dymondia, which she didn’t want to plant because she thought it doesn’t do well in Valley heat… wish I had insisted on more.)
Finally, the maintenance crew. At first I thought it was great that Anne worked with special needs adults, since my wife is a special needs teacher and I myself have worked in the field in the past. However, Anne does not supervise the maintenance crews, and the supervisor she employed did not give them directions. Despite the large fees and that we even paid more so they would come more often, they barely dented the weeds. Also it was my impression that they would hand-​weed, but all they did was spray, which I could have done myself.
After we complained, Anne admitted she was having problems with that crew and refunded one month and then did additional weed-​clearing free of charge. Bear in mind this is after 6 months of maintenance with little improvement. When we politely told Anne that there were still weeds in areas despite the free «clearing» Anne politely fired us by saying something along the lines of «they weren’t the right maintenance crew for [our] needs.» I wish she had told us that 6 months sooner. Less than 10 days later our property was already over-​run.
Now I’m stuck spraying, planting more groundcover myself, and adding additional drip lines, because what she placed leaves many areas bone-​dry.
Save yourself money, time, and the headache and go somewhere else.

I have used Go Green Gardeners services during the summer and have a great landscape in the front of the house and a side garden. I love how creative they were and fast.
I get several compliments!
Thelma

Anne and her crew did a wonderful job transforming a dust bowl into a inviting and water-​wise place to enjoy. We had a pretty small budget as far as landscaping goes but they were able to get it all done for us.
Understand that she works with a small crew. They problem solve as they go so if you are looking for a one week turn around you might need to look elsewhere. It takes a little longer but gives you more time to think about the design and potentially make changes mid-​project.
If you are on a tight budget and not in a rush to get things done then this is the company for you.

I was very excited to use Anne and her company to redo some of my townhouse’s outdoor space as well as perform regular maintenance. I was disappointed from the first visit from her crew: they were late, did not bring the proper materials, overly trimmed my ivy (killing parts of it) and they generally just didn’t look like they knew what they were doing. A few days later, a second crew came to install sod. For a job that should have taken no more than two hours, it took them four — as they as took a lunch break with only 30 minutes remaining to finish the job. Also, they didn’t follow Anne’s instructions and removed some stepping stones. While I was fine with this, it meant they ran out of sod. This let to a tense conversation with Anne about finishing the job up that day (I had a party at my home the following day). She said over and over again she couldn’t finish the job and blamed me for the miscalculations. Eventually, she got the additional sod and had the job done (then WHY the horrible conversation saying otherwise?).
Her team was scheduled to come back for the regular maintenance. Unfortunately, just a few days before they were set to begin, she told me she no longer had a crew in my area and would not be able to finish the job.
Now I have new sod that needs some TLC and I have to scramble to find new gardeners.
Save yourself the trouble and just start elsewhere.

I am very pleased with our front yard. We had a modest budget which we could supplement a bit in addition to our ‘cash for grass’ rebate. I hired Anne to draw the plans only, thinking my gardener could do the install if we had a vision — but at the end of the day, I realized these types of gardens & irrigation are quite specialized, plus her bid was competitive to my gardener for what I was confidant would be better work. She also worked with me to adjust the plan to my taste and helped us fine-​tune the install so we could come in on budget.
The plan was draw on time, and the install happened exactly when she said it would. She picked the freshest healthiest nursery plants and emailed me photos if we tweaked from the plans. I was out of town for work during the install, so my husband didn’t exactly pull the weeds or hand-​water during August, so when I got back from work there was some work to be done and some plants that had died BUT Anne was on top of it already! She drove by to check on everything, and once I got the garden back into shape she even sent out her crews today ‘on the house’ to replace some dead dying plants and some mulch that had been covered by dead weeds. Overall, I found Go Green to be responsive, communicative, creative, helpful and to stand by their install.

I used Go Green Gardeners for a landscaping project where I removed some lawn and put in drought tolerant plants. Anne seems to be very aware of the rebates available from the DWP which was great! I was very happy with the design process — no she did not tape record me (not sure why someone would say that)! We went to a nursery in Northridge to look at plants before the installation. One of things I really liked was that Anne had no problem making changes along the way. It was hard for me to know what the plants would look like once installed, but there wasn’t a problem switching some of them out for others. Anne put in a berm which made the area more interesting than just a flat landscape. Her workers are really nice and are hard workers andI got several emails along the way so I knew what was going on and had no problem knowing when payments were due. Being environmentally conscious and using developmentally disabled adults is also a real plus for me. My project was on the small side and I only used them once so that is why I gave only four stars — if I use them again and have the same great experience I will give five.

Anne just finished a landscaping project for us in Sherman Oaks. The result: our unsightly hillside was transformed, with a combination of drought-​tolerant plants and succulents, and a picturesque flagstone walkway. We’ve now hired her company to do weekly maintenance. Good friends of ours recommended her to us after I admired the landscaping work she did at their home. I’d happily recommend her to other friends.
My experience is opposite that of the nay-​sayers below. We lost some new plants in the heat of the summer, and Anne replaced them, no questions asked. A crêpe myrtle tree that was planted didn’t do well, again because of the excessive heat, and she replaced it. Her workers came back again and again, to tweak the irrigation system, weed some persistent grass that kept popping up, check on the young plants and trees, etc., until everything was healthy and working as it should.
Bottom line: every time I’ve had a concern or question, Anne has responded immediately and satisfactorily.
As far as our business dealings, all went smoothly as well. Anne provided an initial proposal based on input from me; once we agreed on a plan and budget, I signed off on it. As a result, there were no misunderstandings.

STAY AWAY!!! We had the absolute worst experience with Anne Phillips and Go Green Gardeners. As with Tracy, the work was not completed by the date promised (not even close) and she refused to stand behind her work. Not only did several plants die, to which her response was «Oh well», but she did plant what she promised to plant and then refused to replace them. We specifically requested dwarf fruit trees, as we were planting them in pots, but instead, Anne planted full size trees. After checking with a couple of nurseries and learning that full sized citrus trees planted in pots will not be happy within a couple of years and despite her promise to plant dwarf trees, Anne refused to replace them.
Overall, Anne was very «slippery» to deal with, not doing what she promised, and not at all trusting. She even went so far as recording our conversations on her phone. Who does that???

I found out about Go Green Gardeners by taking one of their gardening classes. I soon realized that I really didn’t have the time to do the landscaping projects that I wanted to do myself, so I hired them to do a few projects for me. I have used them several times over the years and have always been happy with their attention to detail and follow up. They are very environmentally concerned which I like and try to save water wherever possible. There prices are also very competitive. I have recommended them to several of my friends and they have been completely satisfied as well.

Our neighbors keep stopping us to complement us on our front yard, and we’re happy to tell them that the work was done by Anne Phillips and her crew at Go Green Gardeners. Anne knows how to pull an environmentally-​friendly design together, and she’s very collaborative. She incorporated our ideas as well as bringing her own. In fact, we enjoyed working with her so much that we expanded the project quite a bit from the original version, and had her work on our back yard, as well. She kept in close communication with us throughout, quickly responding to emails. Her fees are extremely reasonable – our whole front lawn was done for only slightly more than a neighbor paid another designer just to do her parkway. I just wish we had a bigger lot so that we could keep working with her!

We hired Anne Phillips to be our contractor to install an irrigation system, prepare the soil, and install sod in our back yard. Per our contract, the work was to be completed June 1, 2012. However, the work was never completed; nor was there any communication in the delay of the project. At various points in the project, my fiancé and I reached out to Anne personally to find out the status of the project, our messages were rarely returned and if they were, it was done through email. Additionally, the payment schedule was never formally communicated, and next payments were announced with only one day’s notice. If payment was not received in one day, she dinged us for late payment. She said the delay in schedule was attributed to lack of payment without proper communication.
As a result of this poor project planning, Anne breached the contract and terminated it due to lack of payment. The irrigation system was not properly tested and as a result, we’ve had to hire a new contractor to fix and finish the work that Anne’s company did not complete. I would NEVER hire them again.