The 7 Step Process

1. Contact Form

   After reviewing different sections of the website, get in contact with a Consultant by filling out our Contact Form. Just click on “Request Assessment” at the top right of any page, or you can click on the above photo. After your form is submitted, your Consultant will get in touch shortly to ask some basic questions, and they can sometimes even provide a ballpark cost on the spot.

2. Assessment with Consultant

   We can generally schedule our on-site assessments within a week or so. At the assessment, your Consultant will ask what your needs and wants pertaining to your project are and will help you with layout ideas and material options. They’ll then make notes and take precise measurements and photos of each project area.

3. Quote

   After completion of the assessment, your Consultant will send you an Email (usually on the same day) with demolition/installation notes, square/linear footage measurements, and their recommendations for materials, plants, etc. It’ll also come with a total approximate cost to see if you’d like to upgrade or reduce the scope at that time. Once any and all material and cost adjustments are made and a final cost is agreed upon, your Consultant will send you a finalized contract and deposit form to fill out electronically.

4. Payment

   Our usual payment structure is as follows: A 10% deposit up to $1,000 to book your project, then 50% of the remainder is due the day we break ground, then it’s a 25% progress payment (which takes place at an agreed upon time between both parties), and the final 25% is paid upon project completion. We take most forms of payment: Checks, cash, credit cards, etc.

5. Walk-Through with Production

   Once your signed contract and deposit are in, your Consultant will coordinate with our Production Team to set you up with a walk-through date. This can also usually be scheduled quickly, within a few/several days. At the walk-through, you’ll meet with your Consultant, our Chief of Production and a Foreman who will be in charge of your job specifically. The purpose of the walk-through is to smoothly turn your project over to Production and start planning the order of operations. Your Consultant will still be involved with your project as needed, but it’s mostly in Production’s hands from this point on, especially in regards to scheduling the work, running the crew, and confirming precise, finalized layouts with you.

6. Getting Scheduled

   The start date of your project can take a bit longer to book than the prior steps. It’ll likely take anywhere from 2-6 weeks after your walk-through to start your project, depending on how our other projects are rolling along. Sometimes, if your project is rather small, we might be able to squeeze it in between some larger ones. Our Production Team works diligently to get projects started as quickly as possible, and they’ll let you know how the schedule’s looking along the way. Once we officially break ground on site, the Chief of Production will give you a schedule for up to 6 days a week and a rough timeline for your project. Every demolition and installation item is to be thoroughly pre-approved by you on site before each action is taken via conversation, samples, string lines, spray paint, flags, photos, etc. Most projects will take anywhere from 1-10 weeks to perform, depending on size.

7. Wrapping Up

   Upon completion of your project, your Consultant will do a final check-in to ensure that every item involved in your project was installed exactly as intended, and to take photos and videos of everything. You’ll probably be asked to leave us a Yelp review, and maybe even to fill out a questionnaire or do a video interview if you’re into that. We’ll NEVER leave your project until you’re 150% completely satisfied with our work, regardless of almost anything. We pride ourselves on creating masterpieces that blow people away, and we don’t stop work at any home until that’s accomplished.

   Save Water, Droughtscape

Design

We take a different approach to design than most companies. In general, we don’t actually submit drawn or computerized designs to clients. This might seem odd, but our Consultants and Production Team are so knowledgeable, that simply discussing and measuring the layout with them usually suffices beyond any piece of paper. We also lay out flags, lines, spray paint and materials on site as needed for final approvals. This has proven to be the most effective way to approach design for us. We help you visualize everything with in depth conversation to figure out spacing, samples for colors and sizing, and physical, observable layouts before anything is agreed upon or installed at all. Drawn or computerized designs can create revision after revision with the most intricate and arbitrary details sometimes; we usually just like to bypass this process altogether. Even if we did move forward with a design, there are ALWAYS at least minor adjustments when we do the actual physical layout work. This is because we want it to be functional, aesthetic, and exactly how you like it in real time. We sometimes come across clients who hire a landscape architect or designer to provide them with a design before they hire someone to perform the work. That’s totally fine, but just know that there will likely be changes to these designs that you’ll agree with us about (and sometimes a dramatic amount of them) regarding layout, functionality, alternative materials/plants, etc. It’s a sad truth that a lot of design-only companies/contractors generally don’t have the practical experience to provide truly intelligent and functional designs. We don’t want any part of your project to be a long and grueling headache, where it feels difficult to keep moving forward productively. We want to take your vision, help tweak it to the best possible approach, and get you rolling with no stops along the way!

Timelines of California-friendly plants filling in:

Days after planting (left) and 9 months after planting (right)

An aesthetic xeriscape isn’t no-maintenance, but it doesn’t require too much to keep it looking great!

Breathtaking shots a photographer client of ours captured in their new xeriscape garden!

We don’t take on certain types of projects or maintenance work

You don’t bring a jackhammer to pound in some nails… In the same way, you don’t bring 45 years of experience to a small cleanup job. Each situation is really case-by-case, but unfortunately, a minuscule project just can’t sustain an ever-growing company. Still, we do take on a very wide range of project sizes, which can run anywhere from $10k-$250k+. Some other more specific things we don’t do too often in our field are: extra-large/metal pergolas/gazebos, shade sails, front yard grass, overly steep hillsides, pools (not really our field) and some other custom items in specific circumstances. Sometimes, an area has eroded so much that it’s no longer a hillside, it’s a cliff. There’s only so much you can do with overly difficult terrain, and sometimes we’d rather just not do anything. There are certain scenarios, items and materials we aren’t too fond of working with, and there are certain installations with a high chance of being a liability for you and/or us. We just don’t take things on that we feel aren’t going to be reliable and long-lasting solutions for your property. Sometimes, investing a lot more and going the “structural” route might be worth it, or even doing nothing at all. We don’t take on projects where we have to go through city offices to acquire permits and deal with all the time and headache involved with that. Luckily, most of the work in our industry doesn’t require that.

We also don’t do any ongoing maintenance work. We don’t have any in-house maintenance crews, and we likely won’t for some time. It’s always in the back of our minds, as we know how many people are desperate for it; but it’s just not a priority for us, as we’re far more interested and specialized in taking on good-sized, aesthetic, functional and sustainable projects for the betterment of Los Angeles. We likely won’t have other maintenance crew recommendations for you either, sadly, as so many of them tend to be unreliable. Hopefully, we can tackle this area some time soon and help out the ridiculous number of people in Los Angeles who need a real solution for it.

Covid did NOT affect our ability to deliver an excellent product

Covid-19 has been, and is still being, used and abused as a cloud-cover to excuse poor customer relations, bad workmanship, and financial irregularities in many industries. This can be irritating, it’s unethical, and it’s… frankly… pathetic. With all the people who have suffered, whether economically or otherwise, using Covid as an excuse for poor performance is a mockery of a bad situation. There is NO excuse for bad communication or product quality. Our personal promise to you is that we never have and never will use Covid or any other disastrous situation as an excuse for poor performance, and that we WILL deliver a stellar product in all cases.

We’re Licensed and Insured

Our original license number was #474139 with Mike Baron (original owner), who acquired that license in the ‘70s. New license numbers are now over a million, so our low number was often shocking to clients and contractors. We finally updated our license and got a new number to keep up with the times, which is #1088490 under Tracy Baron. We’re taking on projects all over LA and changing the environment for the better, and Mike is still on call if we ever need him.

Available Financing/Payment Options

We take most forms of payment, but if you need to finance your project, feel free to look into Lightstream Funding: (lightstream.com/landscape-financing) or Credit Union West: (cuwest.org/borrowing/home-improvement-loans/landscape-financing). We also have a list of 0% interest credit cards we can provide for you to browse (some of which have up to 21 months with no interest).