Landscaping reviews in Austin, Texas

Our new trees look beautiful and surpassed our expectations! Thanks Nolan and the team at Top Choice for making our lawn look great.

I would not recommend this company to anyone. First of all, they are very impersonal, they do most communication via email and are very hard to get in touch with. Secondly the work they performed on my yard was poor. I had 2 big stumps to be removed, they sent their workers out here without any heavy equipment to do the job. I had asked for some wild vines to be removed at the roots, which was not done correctly. Again, a small excavator would have probably done the job. There is barely an inch of topsoil put down over top, stones remain and the seed planted looks like field grass/weeds. The used some form of straw webbed material that is now embedded in the grass, which I am pulling out now and redoing the work myself.The work was so poor that my next door neighbor opted out of having them do anything for her.

I have been a Top Choice client for over 12 years. They are dependable and thorough. Anytime something goes awry, they are responsive and super respectful. They pay attention to keeping cut grass and leaves out of the swimming pool and edge all the right places. My primary contact, John, is always responsive and follows through with anything he promises. My yard looks great all because of Top Choice!

Had my first lawn service with Top Choice and am thoroughly pleased. Team members were easy to talk to, attentive to my beloved cat memorials, and did a great job on my overgrown lawn. It looks marvelous and I will be hiring them for more services. Thank you Top Choice Lawn Care!

Liz and her team did a fantastic job designing and adding a giant bed in our backyard with native plants and flowers. Despite the 100F+ weather, the team worked diligently to complete the job in just 2 days. The stone border is impeccable. They are very professional and addressed all questions and issues promptly. Highly recommend

We engaged Top Choice for design of a landscaping project in our backyard that included laying sod, planting flowers and trees, and borders. Lisa as the design lead was knowledgeable, a pleasure to work with, and most helpful in creating options that met our requirements. Scott the irrigation expert also provided service well above and beyond the call of duty. He was timely, efficient, and knowledgeable. Finally, but not least, we were super impressed with the crew of four men who did the work in our back and front yards. They worked fast and competently, communicated well with us and Lisa (four Spanish speaker, one of whom was bilingual), and overall did an outstanding job. Based on our positive experience, we recommend all of these people without reservation!

Top Choice Lawn Care was fantastic! Nolan’s customer service was 10/10, and they left my lawn looking absolutely pristine. Highly recommend!

EDIT: on 12 March 2024 a manager from their customer service team did reach out to inquire about me canceling service and about this review. I did appreciate their interest in collecting feedback and trying to retain service (they offered me a slightly lower price at ~$50.00 instead only upon knowing I'm leaving, versus initially honoring the original estimate). They also did ask what could be done to allow me to increase their review, to which I declined changing as their quality of mow service or pricing policy didn't actually change. I did want to call out and appreciate them making an effort to collect feedback.

ORIGINAL POST:
I used to use Wellspring before they were acquired by Top Choice. Since the acquisition, Top Choice has made the service worse.

- my side lawn has been damaged by their equipment (ruts dug into my lawn)
- they consistently have uneven cuts in the lawm due to their fast mowing
- they did not honor existing quotes from Wellspring, and therefore no longer do discounts for weekly versus Bi-Weekly mowing schedules.

I currently pay $59.96 total for weekly mows, weed whacking, and edging. Yard size is roughly 3700 sq ft

I just had Top Choice Lawn Care Aerate and Topdress my lawn and they did an amazing job. I've used other companies over the years and none of them came close to the time, effort, and quality of work that these guys did.

By far the best aeration I've ever had as they covered every area and even went back over a lot of the yard twice. For the Topdressing, they used a top quality mix and applied everything by hand using far more mix than any other company I've used. They were even able to build up a low area I have had issues with and after they were done, they cleaned up the area.

I would highly recommend Top Choice Lawn Care for your Aeration and Topdressing needs. I will definitely use them again next year.

For all my mowing, irrigation, and fertilization needs, Top Choice is by far my top choice in Austin. These guys are well run and do things that right way. I wish more companies in Austin were like this one.

This review is for a 1 time mulch service installation
The initial contact at Top Choice was pleasant as well as their estimator who came out. After that the rest of the service went down hill and was dissapointing and unprofessional installation

I hired Top Choice to refresh/turn over the mulch in some beds, add new mulch in other beds beds and create tree wells around the trees in the garden beds.

The communication was efficient and I received a text that the job was completed and they collected payment. Though when I got home to inspect the work I found not a single tree well was made, instead they piled mulch high up against every tree, suffocating tree roots and increases risk of pests hurting the trees. They also sliced the drip line and just left it there without saying anything. (Of course drip line can get cut during mulch installation but as you can see in the picture, they knew they cut it and said nothing, hoping I somehow wouldn't notice...?)

I called and they sent someone out to remedy the mistakes. The one area of drip line was repaired but the mulch guys came out and just piled more mulch up against the trees as can be seen int he attached photos. At this point I informed the manager that I was disappointed they could not get the job right even the 2nd time around and I ended up creating all the tree wells myself. They gave me a discount for the labor for creating the tree wells and apologized.

I have been traveling a lot lately and finally went out and inspected the drip line and sprinklers before winter and now found puncture holes in the drip line, likely from the mulch installation.

In summary: I would not consider this company to be the "Top Choice" for yard services. I was trying them out to consider for weekly lawn maintenance, I'm glad a did this test run with a 1 time service before signing on with them for reoccurring service, I would not trust them to take care of my yard.

I completely understand mistakes happen and things get missed. But in this case, their installers knowingly cut drip line and just left it and said nothing to anyone until I noticed a week later. Then they tried twice to create tree wells but did the opposite, just piling mulch up against the trees.

Now I just need to make a trip to home depot to buy some drip line tubing and connectors to repair the other areas of drip line punctured.

Had to cancel Top Choice Lawn Care bi-weekly mowing and maintenance service because of poor outcomes.
* Would show up between 7:30 and 8:00 AM
* Mowed our lawn in the rain, leaving ruts, mud everywhere
* Ruined the entire front lawn (only 10 square feet of grass) because they insisted on mowing this incredibly small part of the lawn with a tractor mower. Had to be replaced with Xeriscape.
* Had to ask to please blow leaves around the house perimeter after this was skipped several weeks in a row
* Average time spent on our tiny lawn and house perimeter: 4 minutes. They basically would drive a huge tractor mower around a tiny lawn, briefly walk the perimeter with a weed wacker, Blow leaves near the front and back door, and leave. This all happened in 3-4 minutes.
I see my neighbors' lawn services that do a much better job and we'll be switching to one of them.

I want to express my Gratitude and Appreciation to the Top Choice Lawn Care Team.

3 facts about Top Choice:

- Price: Unbeatable, I reviewed a LOT of other options, and could not find a better deal.
- Customer Service: Super Sharp Customer Service Skills. Outstanding, Professional, it is simply Amazing.
- Result: Incredible, the job was done, in a perfect manner.

I want to share a Huge Shoutout to Vanessa, John, and Myra.
Thank you for your Warm, Friendly, and Professional Service.

It is a dream come true to be working with Top Choice.

Best,
Jesus Trevino

The picture I added has nothing to do with my review. Landscaping, under Lisa McDonald and crew was fabulous. Plants are still starters! Long post detailing my unhappy time with the rest of Top Choice. Potential customers, take it as it is. You might experience the same thing as I did March/April 2025.

It’s the rest of my experience with Top Choice that causes a negative review. I don’t do that unless warranted. This one is.

—Communication is very poor. Conflicting information, phone people who didn’t recognize me as a client etc. Frustrating and time wasting.

—Vanessa, Customer Service Manager emphasizes company over customers. Not service. Everything from generating emails confirming request (that Top Choice asked me for) to digging in her heels when those approved requests weren’t honored. I’ve saved enails/texts that document it all. Very frustrating to work with. This will be clarified later down.

—Scott, irrigation manager. He started out 5 stars. Confirmed that my existing irrigation systems were in perfect working order. Came out after plant installation to fix one tiny tubing issue and set my system. That’s where it went downhill.

Without telling me that Austin had just entered Stage 3 drought restrictions, he set system to run 5 days a week, using >50,000 gallons a week. Easily documented through AustinWater.org monitoring. On a 6900 square ft lot mostly consumed by a house, concrete driveway and rock beds.

I called Top Choice to get him out quickly to adjust settings. The woman who answered said she’d let Vanessa know and advised me to turn off all my water. Spoken like someone who hadn’t just spent > $6,500 on plants and labor. Who apparently didn’t know that clients get an email after planting reminding us that plants aren’t guaranteed, extra water is needed. Who obviously didn’t care that she was advising me to turn off all irrigation when temps wee at mid 90, climbing quickly to 100.

Vanessa called, told me Scott couldn’t come out for 2 weeks, and advised me to shut off irrigation. I asked her to check back with Scott, see if he could swing by for a 5 minute job to adjust settings. Got a text from her stating that Scott said since he set the system to my specs, he considered the matter closed.

Caused me to go back to my previous company who came out the next day to satisfy a customer who was left with unprofessional advice and poor follow through. Provided. me with a PDF of my settings as they were and now sit currently.Advised me to work with AustinWater.org. I did, and got a partial rebate for the bills incurred during my with Top Choice.

— Top Choice sent me an email after estimates were approved, asking if I had any special requests. I asked for a piece of plywood for wheelbarrows and lawn mowing services. I wanted to avoid further damage to my 5 concrete stairs down to my backyard. Damage done by ABC. I also asked that crews close my gate using the correct hole. Got a quick email back, confirming all three requests and that they’d be honored. They were not.

Back to Vanessa. I asked if the lawn mowing crew would please carry their standard mower down the stairs like the crew they were replacing did. Told her I had pictures of the previous damage. Didn’t accuse Too Choice of doing it, unjust that I’d noted it as previous damage.

Didn’t hear back for a day or two. Called my previous mowers, hired them back since they do actually carry lawn mower down and up and have real edging tools that can follow my existing metal edging. Before I cancelled Top Choice, Vanessa texted me that they had made the “difficult decision to cancel my lawn services since their crews couldn’t do what I needed. A mutual decision!

The Top Choice crew did outstanding work — from start to finish, weeding, mowing, blowing ….I couldn’t ask for a better job! And the communication from the owners has been exemplary.

Top Choice Lawn Care has installed our Christmas lights and wreath for the past three years and they are prompt, hardworking, and courteous. I highly recommend them!

Update: Not sure who I spoke to, but I wasn’t informed about the refund or the next week free. After describing why I was cancelling I was just told OK. Then the call ended.

Original: Cancelled after 3 weeks. Yesterday's mowing was horrible. Bald spots, long grass spots. Either poor equipment or employees that don't recognize or don't care about a bad job. I'm not hanging around to find out for $78 a week for an average yard. I require much better quality results. Yellow areas in picture are from the lawn being scalped. Dark green areas are long grass. Just not right!!!

We love our Christmas lights from Top Choice! Lights look great framing our house. The team puts them up, takes them down, and packages them for you to keep until the next year. The easiest part of the holiday season! And bring a lot of joy :)

Their team always does an excellent job mowing our lawn. We've been happy customers for a while. Great service!

Tuesday July 14th 2025 I received a call from I believe Mike asking if I was happy with my lawn service and if there was any additional work I would like done to the house. I was interested in having my mulch bed refreshened and trees trimmed, however this is our rental property so I am not out there all the time. I told him I would drive out this week to take a look and if he could please send me a quote for the extra work. Friday I drove out to the property to take a look, and the yard was awful. Only one side of the house was mowed, the other side was super over grown. I was extremely disappointed. I called right away and I forgot the name of who I spoke with, (Maybe Adam or John) as I explained the reason for my call, he starts that if I wanted a quote for the extra work it would cost me $3000 for someone to give me an estimate because they do not service my area. I said "what do you mean I have been getting lawn service with you now for a year." He stated that "oh yeah that's right but we are dropping that area because we don't have guys to go that far." I said my lawn looks awful, and stated how one side of lawn was not cut all. I received no apology of any kind. So, I instantly canceled my lawn service, and I would have to say he was pretty relieved as if I was bothering him. The last time my yard should have been mowed was July 4th weekend, I was charged on July 7th. However, it rained all weekend and knowing what I know now, I am wondering did they even go out there. I do not recommend them if you are a property owner, their workers are not to be trusted.

We love TopChoice and have been using them for everything under the sun for years! Landscaping, maintenance, holiday lights, etc. They always do a great job and are wonderful to work with! Thanks to the TopChoice team for making our yard look great and our lives easier!!