Landscaping reviews in Madison, Alabama

I called about having a bedding area and concrete walk in my back yard. The manager said that they had a way of doing these projects, which didn't include my talking to the project manager until they had a signed contract for the deal. He didn't see why I would want to talk to the guy who would be heading up the project onsite. I explained to him about my many experiences with moving companies who send out a sales person to seal a contract and then, they send out a crew of movers that usually either didn't speak the language or were former 'tough guys' who were between prisons and working for the moving company. I wanted to speak to the man who would be at the site and doing the directing of work, to see if I could work with him or not. The response was he didn't see why that was important and, anyway, that's not how they do business. I said good bye. A sales person can charm people into signing a contract and then they are stuck with whatever comes out to do the job. NOT SMART.

11/19/19 Addendum. Responde to owner of Southern Scape, LLC. You have the privilege of running your company without attending to the requests of your customers with your tenured pHD's, master concrete supervisors or whatever title that you want. BUT, you have no business telling a disgruntled prospective customer how to RESPOND to your somewhat fascist approach. You are, I propose, saying that you know better what the customer gets than what the customer wants!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ABSURD. i WOULDN'T HAVE GIVEN ONE STAR OTHER THAN IT WAS REQUIRED TO GET THE REVIEW ONLINE. sad. This is called "out of touch with customers' desires"
12/6/2019 LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING ONE STAR REVIEWS FOR PERTINENT EVIDENCE OF THE "SOUTHERN SCAPES" ATTITUDES TOWARD CUSTOMERS. AFTER 75 YEARS OF DEALING WITH VENDORS, I CAN GUARANTEE THAT THIS IS THE NORM RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION.

Very professional, courteous and they take pride in their work.

Starting with Sales representative Terrell was very helpful. His design was very creative and we are very pleased. The Project team were excellent.

They did the worst job imaginable, were never prompt; didn't come out when they said they would; didn't call back when they said they would; did a 15 minute or less job on my yard; had to come back several times to kill the weeds because they didn't do it right; seeded WAY to late, so it didn't come in well at all. They didn't even bother checking if the grass grew in a couple weeks after seeding. I had to call them to make sure they were even doing their job or that they were coming out. I could never get a hold of the guy that did the landscaping, so I had to call the sales guy just to figure out why the work wasn't being done when they said they were coming out. They also were supposed to grade the yard properly so the water would drain away from the house, but there are still pools of water in the backyard.

Rated it to get the warning out as quickly as possible, but Detailed Review Coming Soon.

Terrell Suggs, Sloan and his crew did a fantastic job. Our project turned out beautifully and I love my BIG ROCK!!!! :)

Our backyard was a blank canvas. Southern Scape gave us the upgrade we didn't know we needed! It is so beautiful now, we want to spend all of our time outside just looking at it. Micah made the perfect design for our space. You will not be disappointed with your choice.

Terrell was easy to work with. I had hired a different company a few years ago and regretted it. This is the second company I’ve had to working on my landscaping and am pleased. Would definitely recommend them.

Michael Cooper and his crew are very nice people. He sees the need and designs what is best for the landscape. We have used them several times at both of our properties. Thank you Southern Scape.

I used Southern Scape in June of last year to do some upgrades to my yard (tree removal, mulch replacing, plant new trees/bushes, lay grass and concrete extension). besides the tree removal, everything else was poorly done. The concrete started cracking about a week after they put it down, not to mention the cement splatter on my walls and windows, the workers sat on my brand new outdoor furniture nd left dirt on them, so I had to replace the pillows (they deducted $75 from my bill for that). I also had to get them to come out several times to try and clean up the cement splatter, it still isn't completely gone but they said "that's the best they can do without destroying the brick" I initially wasn't paying until the job was done to my satisfaction, once I responded to the email about my past-due invoice I got a response from Jennifer stating " we can't hold up payment for a few stains" I got tired of going back and forth with different people coming out to tell me what they did was all they could do so I finally paid. One of the trees they planted is dead, they barely put any mulch in my beds, I was told they don't really remove the old mulch. It was a TOTAL waste of $6,000. I'm currently paying someone else to redo everything they did.

One week project turned into 5 months. Southern Scape demoed existing patio, poured a new patio, built new patio stairs, buried downspouts/installed pop up spouts, designed and landscaped flower bed.

Poor value for the high price, poor project management, low quality work, too many miscommunications, nice employees.

Unfortunately we ran into issues in every step of the process.

1) During the design phase, we noticed that there were costs that didn't make sense. They tried to convince us items were thousands of $ more expensive than they really are. Finally, we were told there was an error in the quote that caused the high price. "the number got transposed by our estimator" is what we were finally told.

2) We signed the contract and paid a deposit 4 weeks before the work started. They did not check to see if materials were available during this time. We were notified the week of the project that they were unable to get the materials for our stairs. We were told the material was delayed 8 weeks. The project manager intended to leave us without stairs until the materials came in. It almost seemed I was inconveniencing him when I told him to get somebody out to build temporary stairs so we could access our back yard. We were without any stairs for nearly 2 weeks. We did not get our actual stairs until 5 months after the project started. At one point along the way, we agreed to a new color (that was available immediately) to try to move the project along. The project manager then forgot to order the materials. He went silent on us and disappeared for nearly a month before calling to say he thought he could now get the original color again. But we'd now have to wait on his stair guy. This sort of thing continued on for months.

3) We were never provided sq. ft. totals for our new patio. Only the drawings that were not to scale. Day of the patio pour, I noticed the framing did not coincide with the drawings. When I went out to see what was going on, I was told the patio was framed for the sq. footage we agreed to. We never agreed to a sq. footage, only the not to scale drawings. Thankfully, the concrete guy agreed to extend a bit more than was originally framed.

4) A tree and a hydrangea were planted incorrectly and not in accordance to the drawings. Plants were not spaced appropriately so once they started to bloom in the spring, they are on top of each other.

5) Our sprinkler controller wiring runs up through the patio. It was previously shielded in conduit. They removed the conduit and wrapped it up in a ball of electrical tape. It looks terrible and is an eye sore every time we step on the patio.

6) Our patio has a paver edge. They attempted to lay the pavers on a day with a big rain shower. They finished about 5 minutes prior to the rain, and it washed the polymeric sand out of the low spot of the patio. This resulted in 7-8 pavers that never set. They remained loose for months while we waited for somebody to come back out. Finally the project manager came out to fix and used polymeric sand that did not match the original sand. The new sand was black and the original was a light gray. This sand was apparently no good and the sand still did not set. The pavers came loose again. Finally the project manager came back out and spent the appropriate amount of time to resolve with the correct color sand.

We were given a discount on our final payment when the stairs were installed 5 months later, which was nice but we went with Southern Scape to begin with because we wanted high quality work and good project management for a lot of moving parts and pieces to the project. Because of a plethora of issues along the way, we settled for less than 100%.

Great teamwork! We started with the designer, Micah, who captured my outdoor kitchen vision and made it even better. Next, she introduced me to our project manager, Cooper, who answered his phone anytime I called or texted. The communication made all the difference. There were some delays, but they can't control the weather or concrete shortages! I would also like to give a shout out to Javier, their mason. He is a perfectionist! That means everything is level and beautiful.
A little advice when you are installing an outdoor kitchen. Study your manuals before the mason begins and request the manuals be a part of their project meetings. We chose a griddle that was somewhat complicated. Incorporating the manuals ahead of time would have been helpful.
Overall, great job, and I have copied their business cards and gladly handed them out to curious neighbors, who are eager to book them for their own projects.
Thank you!
Olivia

After seeing TV commercials and the trucks in the neighborhood I decided to call Southern Scapes to quote for large job…landscaping, drainage, irrigation system overhaul, full re-turf, pathway install etc. Justin showed up outside of the scheduled time, luckily I was home. I provided a list with pictures and description of the work needed. He seemed polite and told me another project person would need to come and look at the job cost ?? I thought that’s why he came to quote?? This was in August. I spoke to him two months later and he said that I no longer needed the extra project manager to look at the job cost but that he would oversee and provide the quote….more excuses and confusion. I was warned about the delays with project start date but he assured me he would send the quote. I’ve called three times to get the actual quote. The customer service girl got more short tempered each time. It is now Dec and still no quote. They started a job on the neighbors yard across the road and multiple times the workers just used a blower to clean up their waste and dust straight down the storm drain, onto neighboring properties and all over parked vehicles nearby. WOW.
They advertise their business services in our subdivision magazine but they can’t even get a simple quote to a potential customer with a large job.
So glad I didn’t waste a dime on a penny service.

8 years ago, Drew did the landscape design for our house. We love his design. It has wonderful colorful successive blooms.

Terrell was an awesome Sales Representative to communicate with and set our vision into motion. He then turned us to Sloan the Project Manager that executed the job successfully. Would definitely do future work with them.

Terrell Suggs, Sloan and Cooper along with the instillation team at Southern Scape did an awesome job. Terrell came up with a solution for our rocky weed covered hillside and checked up on the progress throughout the installation. Sloan, Cooper and the team cleared the unwanted weeds and installed the plants, making sure that we were happy with the placement. I recommend Southern Scape for your outdoor projects.

I used SS for a large patio project. They sent improperly trained workers and I felt like a project manager. After it was 75% complete it had to be completely deconstructed and started over. It was finally completed after several weeks of delays. Within a few weeks the polymeric sand began to fail. It’s now been two years of waiting for them to honor their commitment to fix it. Others in my neighborhood have experienced similar issues.

We reached out to this company for a new patio and stairs. Initially they were responsive and came out to meet with me and see what we had in mind. They sent a rough estimate and we decided to move forward with paying the $350 design fee (although we sent them the exact design already done) and they told me it would be 2 weeks until we saw the design and moved to the next step. We were very patient but it took them 6 weeks. When they came to discuss the design, they had not listened to anything we said at the initial meeting and quoted for different materials than we asked for and the quote was OVER 3 TIMES THE AMOUNT THEY ESTIMATED. We expected the quote to be somewhat more than the estimate but 3x is so much more than is acceptable especially for what we didn't want. Do not use this company. They either don't have the experience to give accurate estimates or low ball to get your initial fee.

We selected Southern Scape to develop an outdoor sensory area for our students. We found them to be super easy to work with, very accommodating, and mindful of our needs and wants. Not only were we impressed by the quality of their work, but also by their level of professionalism, how quickly and efficiently they completed the project, and their level of communication. It was very helpful that they worked within our budget. I would highly recommend their services.

TODD KENT | The Riley Center

Southern Scape did an amazing job installing our pool and making our backyard an oasis for our family. Working with Micah to design our pool and landscaping was seamless and she worked hard to ensure the design matched the current aesthetic. I can’t say enough good things about Gerard and his crew throughout the process, he communicated on a daily basis with what we should expect and what work was being done each day. From start to finish the project was completed in 8 weeks, which was way ahead of schedule.

Great experience working with Ms Jennifer and Southern Scape this summer in a total landscaping job including design, removal of existing plants, bed prep and conditioning, planting, installation of new beds, and mulching. Team was prompt and through all the way thru the job. Communication was excellent and cleanup through.
Great looking job. We are glad to have had them help us renew the look of our home.

We hired Southern Scape LLC to design and build a stone paved patio with a fire pit, seating wall and a water feature in our back yard. Also they built stone paved walkways connecting this to our house, and re-did the planting beds and edging in that area. They also re-routed and re-worked our irrigation system and did some planting. All the work they did was top notch, and we are delighted with the results. The project took a bit longer than planned, but it was not an issue for us and they communicated clearly and were very easy to work with throughout the process. We highly recommend them, especially our project manager Sloan.