Garden of Weedin’

We live on close to ½ an acre with most of the property in perennials and annuals. For years we kept up with the weeding and maintenance ourselves but now, as we are both over 70, it has become more than we can handle. We contacted Nancy at Garden of Weedin’ and have been delighted for over 6 months with the work that she and her crew have done. They come when scheduled, work both quickly and meticulously. They always ask about our priorities for the weekly work but often we just suggest that they do what they believe is best since their judgement and expertise have given us complete confidence in them. Of course their concern for organics is inspirational. We are thoroughly pleased and plan to continue hiring them for years to come.

We hired Garden of Weedin to clear our property of weeds and rocks. During a walk though of the property, the owner, Nancy Morrison, gave us a bid of $ 1,500 for the project and said that it would be completed in one day with her crew. When the owner arrived to do the work, she was alone for about an hour before her «crew» of one employee joined in. The work that was done (less than 20% of what was promised) was not done as agreed.
Rather than removing the rocks and hard soil in our parking strip, they took out only the weeds and then covered the area with awful-​looking wood debris. We had specifically told her not to put anything down on the parking strip. The debris (which she first called «wood chips» then much later «arbor chips») was not contained so kept falling into the street, on to the sidewalk and our neighbors’ parking strip. We spent many hours sweeping it back onto our property. Adding insult to injury, they covered our water meter access. Had we not removed the debris, this oversight on their part would have resulted in the City of Seattle charging us for having an obstructed meter. Thanks to a knowledgable friend, we dodged that one!
The other weeding that was completed (the very little they got to) was not done well. It was shoddy at best by anyone’s standards. There were still quite a few weeds in those areas and most of our friends thought that we had not had any work done (except the unsightly parking strip). In the areas that we asked to have something non toxic put down (she recommended vinegar) to reduce regrowth of weeds over time, they simply weeded — of course the weeds grew back immediately.
The following day we informed the owner that we were unhappy and requested that she remove the unwanted materials. She refused and explained to us that she had «dismissed» what we asked her to do because she «thought we were kidding». We explained to her that we were not kidding and she still refused to remedy the situation. Her attitude toward us was unbelievable — we have never been so condescended to by a contractor. Though she had agreed to the project, she just kept saying, «that’s not what we do». We had no way of knowing what her company does because when she bid the project she consistently agreed to what we were asking her to do. It was not until after the fact that she indicated she couldn’t do what we asked — as if it were our fault for asking such a thing.
While we do not, under any circumstances, recommend hiring this company, if you do decide to go this route, GET IT IN WRITING!!! I cannot emphasize this enough! In court (yes, she took us to small claims court) we ended up having to pay for the unapproved materials she dumped on our property because we had no written contract and because the materials were left on our property. (the total amount we had to pay is just over ¹⁄₃ of the amount she sued us for) Get everything in writing first, and make sure you are on site during the project. If they don’t do the work you asked for, make them fix it then and there — don’t wait overnight due to your bewilderedness that it has gone so wrong!

Everything was great! We had a horribly messy yard in need of a fall clean-​up and Nancy really took care of us and worked out creative solutions to keep the costs lower. Don’t hesitate. We will use them again!

I hate to say anything untoward about a small business woman with a directive toward saving the planet– ecologically at least. The owner is also charming on the phone but my experience with this company really put me in a difficult situation and I would like to spare others.

Not one to complain usually, but when I talked to someone at work recently and discovered we had had the same bad experience with this company, felt I had to get a warning out there. Did not get the work done as expected and very disappointed. Sorry.