Human Nature Landscape Design & Consulting

We have had Joel design and complete a number of jobs for us (retaining wall, fencing, masonry planter).  In each and every instance he has done the work to our complete satisfaction.  He shows up on time, works diligently, consults with us as needed, and completes the work at the price quoted.  We have recommended him to others and the feedback we received has always been glowing praise.  We would not hesitate to hire him again.
Aug 30th, 2020

We hired Joel, Human Nature to place a retaining wall and a fence between our house and our neighbors. The retaining wall came out fine. But the fence was a complete disaster. During our initial talks Joel spoke as if he had built many fences and building our fence would be no problem. When the day came to start the fence Joel told me he had to call his old boss to find out what brackets to use and how to build the fence. What??? Long story short, he built the fence two feet over the cities required limit of six feet. The fence was completely unstable. It wobbled like crazy! Our neighbor called the city inspector and the fence had to be torn down. We used to be friends with our neighbor and are now enemies because of Joel and his fence. My husband and I are out $3,300.00 with nothing to show for it. The retaining wall belongs to our neighbor. We got totally burned !!!
Mar 4th, 2015

During his work on installing a new paving stone patio, Joel Anderson, owner of the business "Human Nature Landscape Design and Consulting", exhibited poor communications skills and a negative attitude. He did much complaining, made numerous mistakes, and performed some sloppy work. At the start of the project, Joel was unable to correctly compute & purchase required materials, resulting in shortages of some materials, excess of others and return fees for the overage of materials. He had difficulty following a given paving stone pattern, which required our attention to review his work and provide feedback for corrections. Work had to be torn out to correct his mistakes.New paving stone surfaces not were not sloped correctly for drainage away from the house into the yard, as he stated they would be. Rather, rain water pooled in numerous areas the middle of the patio, including next to the house foundation. He was unable to correct the sloping issues.Joel didn't protect the areas adjacent to his working space, nor clean up well after himself. Some examples: a brand new cedar fence was splattered and stained from stone cutting; he left rusting tools on the new patio, resulting in rust stains on the paving stones; existing plantings were damaged.He would become upset when his mistakes were pointed out and tended to blame us, the customer, for his errors.Joel's original signed quote stated that the price would not be increased without written permission for additional work. Yet, he charged nearly double his original quote without our written permission, including for time attempting to correct his mistakes. In addition, we had to hire another laborer at our own expense to assist Joel with laying the paving stones since his inability to reach the end of the job on his own became apparent. Joel left the job with tasks yet remaining to be completed, such as stair tread pavers unattached and unstable (a safety hazard), and never returned. Hiring another contractor was required to complete his unfinished tasks and to fix the patio slope so that water runs off the perimeter edges rather than pooling on the patio.Overall, using Joel for the job was a highly unpleasant and unsatisfactory experience.
Feb 18th, 2015