Natural Landscapes Inc.

We engaged Natural Landscapes to help us re-landscape our front and back yards after we renovated our house. Doug presented us with a plan drawn by Laura and we were blown away by the design which included a dry river bed with rundle boulders and a paver sidewalk in the front. The back yard design has a beautiful patio, a built-in bench, built-in planters and mature evergreen trees. Doug and Laura designed the plan to offer privacy between us and our neighbours and to have colour from the shrubs in every season. The crew accomplished our transformation in a much shorter period of time than we anticipated. All of the people who worked on the project worked hard and left the job site clean and tidy. Doug and his family and crew were wonderful to work with and we would highly recommend them.

More than 10 years ago Doug put in our flower beds and a dry river bed for drainage purposes. The dry river bed worked great and looked great. We still get compliments. In 2020 we decided to convert our vegetable garden to a flower garden and to add some more interest to our backyard since our children were now teenagers. We let Doug's creative mind go to work and he came up with a wonderful plan incorporating rocks (20 tons!), shrubs, perennials and a pergola. Both he and his crew were able to install and complete everything in a week last September. This Spring we eagerly awaited the snow to melt and the sun to shine on our new backyard. The plants and shrubs survived the winter and are flourishing. What didn't make it were replaced by Doug. With the various heights due to the rock and dry river bed he put in them, it is beautiful to enjoy while we're outside or from the warmth of our living room in inclement weather. We are extremely happy with Doug's work.

Natural Landscapes completed a couple of projects for us this year (2019). The first one was a large scale, backyard rebuilding, that took place in the spring. We had previously done some extensive excavating for a home renovation project, and as a result, the backyard was completely destroyed. Doug and his team were tasked with site re-grading, building new cedar planter boxes, a retaining wall around the patio area, supply and installation of patio stones and steps connecting the upper portion of the yard to the patio, supply and installation of adequate drainage system, as well as sod and planting a variety of plants, bushes and a small tree. The second project consisted in refinishing two concrete posts that were cracked and re-building the stairs on the front of the house in order to bring them up to code. Both projects were completed efficiently, within budget and on schedule. Doug and his team are very dedicated, hardworking, professional and take pride in the final product. In addition, we had to rely on Doug’s expertise a few times to come up with some creative and cost-effective solutions and we were not disappointed. We highly recommend Natural Landscapes for any landscaping needs.

Between the end of June and August I hired Natural Landscapes to repair some extreme damage that was done to the rental property I was managing. This included new retaining wall, fencing, interlocking brick sidewalk and driveway. The owner and myself are extremely pleased with the work that Doug and his crew accomplished.

Doug completed a job for us that was very difficult. Our yard had a steep slope and was full of roots from old poplar trees. They came in and raised and leveled our yard, added trees plants and replaced the lawn.

Save yourself a lot of trouble and look elsewhere for your landscaping needs. My neighbor and myself hired Doug to design and complete our landscaping work in 2014. We are still trying to get Doug to fix the defective work he did. Read on for the full Saga. We gave Doug our landscaping budget, and paid him to do a complete design for our landscape. Doug came back with a design priced at 3 times our original budget (in case you think our original budget was unfeasible for the size of our lot, our neighbors budget was triple our original budget, and his design for theirs also came in 3 times their budget). After paying for design work completely out of line with our budget, Doug convinced us he could still work within our budget. He wouldn't be able to do the design he first presented, and wouldn't provide a new design, we would just have to trust him that he knew what he was doing (Doug would frequently respond with "trust me" when we would ask questions about the work, I've since learned that "trust me" means "I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just going to wing it and hope it works"). For some reason we still hired Doug for the work. After waiting months past when he had initially committed to start the work, he finally showed up with his crew, too late in the year to complete the work, so our schedule ended up drawing out an additional year. The work itself was shoddy. The cedar fence he installed blew over in the wind multiple times, the steps he installed were uneven, and one was even broken, the slopes he retained had large gaps where soil continues to spill out and looks ready to collapse at any time, and areas of sod are still missing. We have learned to live with most of these defects, as the alternative of further dealings with Doug would be even more unpleasant. For some of the more major issues we have requested remediation, for the last year he has promised he will come by "next week" to take a look, but continues to make excuses for not showing up. When questioned about his promise to stand behind his work, he claims he does stand behind it, but apparently only as far as the 1 year warranty extends, and once he has put it off past that deadline, he's free and clear.

Doug and his team at Natural Landscapes installed a pond water feature including a creek in our small backyard in 2009. Doug listened to what we had wanted and provided expert advice upon all the design elements. Doug is professional and very personable and was able to understand our vision and bring it to life. When the team arrived they were also very professional and hard working individuals. More importantly they arrived on time, on schedule, and on budget. Our garden was featured in the Calgary Open Gardens 2016 and we received so many wonderful comments. The backyard is so peaceful and 'natural' and serves as such a wonderful escape.

Doug and his crew from Natural Landscapes are a joy to work with. Doug is a good listener and a creative visionary. Together we planned our landscape project and it has been satisfying to see it's completion. The landscape beds add to the beauty of our property. This is our second large landscape project with Doug and his team. We are delighted to offer our highest recommendation to Natural Landscapes.