When I first contacted Cornwall
Garden Services back in early 2004 I asked if someone would call to quote
for making a lawn on a day other than Saturday. “No Problem”
said the nice lady…"we will call back with a date and time”
But none came and after a while I phoned again....and again. This was to be the way it would continue. Promises made..but never kept. Perhaps I should have realised then how things would be! The opportunity for a Spring lawn was missed so I changed the request to a late summer job and phoned several more times. Eventually Neil McFaden called and followed this up with a quotation. I wrote back promptly to accept and reiterated in that letter that I required a smooth flat lawn, free of surface stones.
Cornwall
garden Services had months of notice for the September job but as August
approached it proved difficult to get a date for the work. I was told
CGS was very busy and was told that my job had not been "penciled
in". Finally, after many more phone calls, a date was agreed and
on 25th August a team of three men arrived.
August 2004. Rotavating in progress
By this time I had already hired in a digger to level the site and had carefully raked approximately 50% of the area myself to a good finish. However the agreement was that the whole area would be rotavated, leveled and seeded.
This was done and in one day and all looked ok as far as I could see. I paid the bill immediately the invoice was received. Perhaps my biggest mistake!
The first blades of grass soon appeared and but the coverage looked patchy and I had now seen that there was a dip in the surface around the base of the tree. Also the surface was rough and uneven. Some stones had been raked up but it was not a thorough job. What stones had been raked up were dumped on my bonfire pile and of course I had to remove them when I discovered them. So, after just a few days I made the first phone call asking for someone to come back and look at the job.. .
Here the process of speaking to the nice lady and receiving assurances that it “would be put on Neil’s desk” started over again. After many calls, one of the workmen called saying he was “just passing” and “was just looking on his own initiative as he takes an interest in his jobs”. I showed him the patchy lawn, the start of the weeds and the dip. He said he would report back to Neil.
Nothing happened... So more telephone calls – about weekly. More promises from the nice lady but still nothing... Weeks go by..more calls….Eventually Neil does call. He is full of apologies and agrees to come back and treat the weeds and fill the dip with loam “within the next few days”
Nothing happens…. and after two weeks I begin phoning again. In fact now my partner sometimes calls in case she has more luck. More phone calls, more promises and more no responses. This continues un till early December when at last again Neil calls again. So nice to deal with, so friendly and so apologetic. Neil promises “absolutely” that this time he will get the remedial work done “within ten days” “Our problem has been our very success this year" he explained and even said he would price the back garden lawn at a reduced price by way of compensation for the trouble I was having!
But no one did come and in the first week of 2005 I rang again saying this was the last time I would ring politely asking for the work to be done. I also said that this time I would begin to think of legal action to recover the cost of getting another landscaper to finish the job properly. That tack didn't work either but the nice lady on the phone was so sympathetic that I continued to wait...and wait. She did say that the bare patches might "grow sideways" and cure themselves! More phone calls..more promises..no one came. Then a breakthrough. Another phone produced the promise that "Nobby" will come and spray the weeds which were now doing well in the spring sunshine. This would be followed up by rolling to improve the very lumpy feel to the lawn and and those dips would be sorted.
Feb. 2005 MANY BARE PATCHES AND WEEDS EVERYWHERE
Nobby did come!! and sprayed the weeds which did die over the next two weeks...Unfortunately no follow up visits..no rolling...no sorting out the dips...And now I have given up and will sort it myself.
Conclusion. Cornwall Garden Services did a poor job in the beginning and did not carry out what I now believe is good practice when preparing a seeded lawn..
ie not enough raking, stone removal and surface smoothing. (Smoothing was done by one man dragging a baulk of timber around while the other two watched!)
And they didn't use a roller - they didn't even bring one. I now believe that it is essential to roll the prepared ground before and after seeding. .
The cover is patchy because the seed was sown by striding around, throwing the seed about willy nilly. There are spreading gadgets that will do this job properly. The patchy cover must have allowed the weeds to thrive. So that's why my lawn has ended up the way it is. By July, after much scratching and re seeding it's looking a bit better but the lumpiness makes it unpleasant to walk on and you won't believe how the lawnmower shakes as it travels over it.
Neil Mcfaden has visited on two occasions and agreed that remedial work was required. It would have been so easy back in September 2004 to have quickly returned and sorted it before the grass established. I expected a good lawn by the Spring 2005 but will never get it unless I do it myself. I have lost count of the number of promises and assurances received over about eight months that were not honoured. I would never recommend this firm to anyone....if you use them, you know what to expect.
September 2005 update...One year on. The grass at the top is mine, sown just two months ago. The grass below is the Cornwall Garden Services "lawn" after one year. Need I say more.
During the summer, another landscaper looked at the grass with a view to bringing it up to scatch. His view was that the only thing to do with it was to rotavate and start again. The price quoted was more that I paid last year. It seems if you want a job done properly you have to do it yourself. Now you can see my own tips for preparing your own lawn - Look here.
Written June 2005