Lawns R Us

All my hopes of getting the front flowerbeds re-done before Easter have flown out the window. We'll be lucky to get this done before Memorial Day, and a better bet would be the 4th of July.

The first landscaper got here yesterday, earlier than the appointment time, and he even called me to ask if he could come here sooner than planned (which gave him extra points in my book). Nice guy, very organized, and he came here with books filled with photographs of landscaping and flowerbeds. All very beautiful, from simple low-maintenance yards to over-the-top English gardens.

I showed him our boring front flowerbeds, then showed him the over-crowded backyard flowerbeds, and I suggested he take some of the larger plants out of the back and put them in the front, and add whatever else the front needed to make it look more dramatic. He took one look at the huge Live Oak tree in the corner of our backyard and said "Wow....That tree is a gift." (More extra points.)

Before leaving, he gave me a questionnaire to fill out, so he'd know better how to design the front flowerbeds for us. Once we fill that out, he will take pictures of our front and back yards, then get the designs drawn up. Very professional, and very expensive, I'm sure. But I've learned that you get what you pay for with landscaping. We learned that last year when I let our lawn guys replant the front flowerbeds for us. The beds are adequate, but they look too commercial, rather than residential.

All the other landscapers that I called two weeks ago never called back, so I tossed their names and numbers away. If they can't even return a first phone call, then I don't want to be doing business with them. My friend A gave me the number of a man who has done a lot of yards in Pearland where she lives. I called him yesterday afternoon and he took my name, address and phone number and told me that he would call me back later on that night. He said he was finishing up a job when I called him, and he was on his cell phone-- he couldn't call me back from his cell phone because he couldn't dial a zero from that phone. (What?!?) He said he'd call me last night from his home phone. I'm still waiting for that call. I had high hopes for this guy because my friend A only recommends great workers. This landscaper is currently working on a bunch of new townhouse properties by Reliant Center... it may just be that he's got too much work in the downtown area now to be bothered with the smaller communities.

I called one more landscaper today, recommended to us by the lady who gave us the name of the air-conditioning company who replaced the duct-work in the attic a few weeks ago. He sounded very professional over the phone, but he can't even get here for an estimate until the third week of April. I took the appointment with him, and told him if that didn't work out for us, I would call him back and cancel.

Of course, my gut is telling me to just go with the guy who came here with all the pictures and design layouts. His questionnaire is amazing.... he thought of everything, such as asking if we're allergic to certain plants, and if we have cats in the yard (so he will eliminate plants that could be toxic to them). He's a cat-lover, on top of being super-organized. ---And he asked me that question before he even walked into the house and saw that I did indeed have cats. (More extra points.)

But my husband will want to see other estimates. That's going to take time. Between just waiting for call-backs, then waiting for estimates, then waiting for the work to be done. Did I say this would get done before the 4th of July? Let's make that Labor Day... this way I won't be disappointed with the delay.

Give me a blessed break.