Wow, what a horror story. But I wouldn't say a word. People never want to hear unsolicited advice, no matter how wise. They will find out the hard way but probably never know what went wrong. Do tell them if they ask your advice. So sad to see this kind of thing.

So sad to see this kind of thing

I totally agree can you imagine how frustrating this must me for the reputable landscaping companies.

Now THAT'S a new one in my experience, and I thought I'd seen them all -
we have thousands of McMansion horror stories here in NJ. . .

This may be a dumb question, but just WHAT does this hideous berm
contribute? In your shot from the road, you can clearly see in the downstairs
windows, so it can't be "privacy". . .and my ten-year old Leland cypress is
already the size of four of theirs, plus it would be halfway into the road !
I'm actually surprised the town allowed a planting like that so close to the
road.

I think you're being kind by dubbing this 'Recession' landscaping. Ignorant and irresponsible are titles that come to mind. It's hard to believe a true plantsman would have allowed his company to do this. I'm old enough to believe that educating most of one's customers in most businesses is not only necessary, it is a moral and ethical expectation that sadly, has nearly died in this country. Tradespeople who are willing to do this kind of work seemingly have a short-term goal of 5p.m. and a long-term goal of making it to Friday. Licensing and schooling make a difference. Sure wouldn't want the plumber to be this irresponsible. Well, at least the boat can't escape. And no, I would not have said anything to the neighbor at that time because the deed is history. If they are interested in plants in the future, they are lucky to have a gardener/teacher neighbor from whom they can learn. This is more living proof of America's willingness to accept poor or mediocre performance and call it acceptable or worse, excellence.

This may be a dumb question, but just WHAT does this hideous berm contribute?

I can only imagine that the homeowners defined instant/immediate screening as their number one priority and this is the best an inexperienced "landscaping contractor" could come up with.
I am still struggling with the issue of saying something to the homeowner who may still at the end of winter be able to salvage and replant what looks like 15-20 Leyland Cypress and likely as many Rose of Sharon. That is quite a bit of plant material that will likely be lost or removed in time.

I'm old enough to believe that educating most of one's customers in most businesses is not only necessary, it is a moral and ethical expectation that sadly, has nearly died in this country.

I agree one hundred percent it would have been much more difficult to tell these homeowners that they would need to be patient that under the best circumstances it would take at least three years for any young screening to settle in and begin to offer benefits of privacy.

Is that road a busy road? Probably that berm reduces some of the traffic noise coming from the road. I've seen soil berms constructed along very busy routes, and thought it was a pretty good idea for muffling sound. But often they are built into an already sloping grade. That berm looks like a big lump on an otherwise flat topography. Reminds me of the big mounds they construct with some septic systems, where drainage is poor. They look terrible on a flat lot. And that berm is going to look like crap when it becomes a weedy mess that is very difficult to mow or trim.

A stone wall is a beautiful (albeit expensive) solution to the privacy/sound problem. The people building a stone wall on top of a sand berm should have just skipped the berm. Totally agree that those Leyland Cypresses are sited poorly. Not to mention the poor oak(s) will probably die from root suffocation, sandwiched between the road pavement and the big lump of sand. Is there any plant that would successfully grow on a big lump of sand anyway (besides beach vegetation)?

I don't know if I'd say anything - maybe if you get more friendly with these neighbors. My weird next-door neighbor does ridiculous things to his lot and trees. I don't usually say anything, but did mention once to his wife that he might consider putting the pruning saw away.

terrene,
No the road is a quiet residential road but I am assuming the home owner was looking for instant screening for small money and this is what they got when they chose lowest price over experience. The sad thing is even if they suddenly became aware of the disaster they purchased I don�t think there is any legal recourse.

Since this thread started, I've sort of been questioning the assumption that this is/was/will be about money. Here, the standard cheapie quick screening is 5 ft white pines, planted fairly close together. It works, and it's got to be cheaper than buying Lelands AND rose of sharons AND an enormous pile of sand.

My first thought was the same as terrines - this is about noise control, which an evergreen screen isn't going to do much about. If that isn't the issue, then maybe they just like mounds. The only way I see this as a price issue is if the 'real' landscapers totally ignored the budget requirements, and went overboard in the other direction.

I doubt that the berm was put in for aesthetic reasons. People use berms as a barrier to either sight, noise or water. As far as sight and noise, it's a lot cheaper to put up a berm than a fence. Maybe the people couldn't afford a fence and did the only thing that they could afford to do. It appears from the picture that the berm was put in to screen out the view, noise or bad drainage and the Leyland Cypress were put in to hide the berm. I wouldn't be so quick to write off the Rose of Sharon shrubs. They are tough as nails and can survive a significant amount of sand. I'm sure they will throw down some serious roots to find what they need. It should be easy for them to do that in sand.

I don't quite understand the point of this thread. What does it matter to anyone here what this homeowner and his family do. Maybe they like to go out into their yard naked and do some sort of tribal raindance and they wanted some privacy. It's nobody's business what they do on their own property.

Actually, I think it is the town's business what they've done -- at least it would be in our town, which would not permit planting that close to the street because they don't want to be called to task (or sued) when one of their snowplows takes out a plant or in this case, a whole row of them. I can't even put a stone wall 2.5-3 feet from the street because it's in the town easement and they don't want to be responsible for having to repair it if their plows damage it -- either directly or as a result of pushing massive piles of snow and sand onto it. So I'm surprised they got away with that planting in the first place.

But I also think this thread has value as a cautionary tale for anyone out there who might have a landscaper approach with a similar "solution" particularly if such things are all the going rage ... forewarned is forearmed and it's one of the things I love about this forum.

CTlady, good point, I am surprised that the town would allow the construction of this berm so close to the road. Not only is it likely that it's within the town easement, but it's also possible that the berm will interfere with the line-of-sight for a neighboring driveway or other motorists.

This thread reminds me that I received a letter from the town years ago ordering me to remove some "boulders" that were in the town easement. They weren't boulders at all, they were large rocks put there by the previous owner, the largest being 1 foot diameter, lined up a few feet back from the road. What prompted this dumb letter? One of my neighbors down the street had planted some little dwarf spruces in the grass strip between the sidewalk and road and some other neighbor complained. (Apparently my neighborhood is full of whiney complainers.)

Now, the front of my lot has a 16-foot town easement - because of the possibility that the town would continue the sidewalk to the end of the street - which they did last year! As many people on this forum know, I had to remove lots of perennials and grasses growing where the sidewalk is now. I purposely hadn't planted any woody plants within the easement.

I'm kinda with tree oracle - why is it necessary for the OP to comment that he doesn't like his neighbors landscaping? Personally I'd be happy that the berm is blocking the view of that hideous boat sitting in the yard.

I live in the "W" burbs, and it seems like every other house has a 6' high berm like that, though we usually put an 8' stockage fence on top of it. Then plant arbor vitaes on both sides of the berm. And we are talking neighborhoods of $1mil+ homes. We're actually considering doing the same thing on our South property line - since we don't like our neighbors dogs.