Symbiotic Landscape, LLC.

I had a good experience with Christi in 2023 when she partnered with the contractor who replaced my retaining wall. She left some of those plantings to complete until 2024, when I hired her again to remove my front yard grass and replace it with drought-tolerant plantings. For the 2024 front yard project, she suggested a water feature in lieu of the dry creek bed I was hoping for - I agreed, as long as it fit the budget. Unfortunately, the water feature spiraled the design and budget. She bought a large, heavy rock that wasn’t pre-drilled for a fountain. And, it was too heavy for her to move and place herself, so she had to hire a contractor to install it which was an unbudgeted expense. When the extra invoice came to an additional ~$1,700, she offered to pay $500 – which I found out later was the contractor’s late charge. So above my budget, I paid the install charge and she promised additional hours to make up for that. Those never materialized. After the fountain was installed, she said it was too hot to do the rest of the plantings (she had planted about 13 plants in the front yard by then), so she kept saying she was coming and then putting me off for three months. When I finally pinned her down, she told me that she had no money to buy plants, that the contractor had charged her ~$1,800 to place pavers and they never did. I have been working with that contractor and he denied it. By that time, I had bought more plants and was trying to make the best of things, so I told her to come plant what she had and some of the plants I had purchased without her and we would call the project done. She was at my site for about 90 minutes and then was gone - not the hours she promised above her scope. She had not done things that she had previously told me that she had done, such as removing the roots from a hedge removal, and removing the plastic landscape edging. She said it was too difficult, but I was able to get all of it done in about 90 minutes working alone. She also planted my parking strips, but she didn’t really properly prepare the soil, and so in addition to her plantings, all of the grass and weeds are coming back. My takeaway from this experience is she is good at inception but horrible at budgeting and execution. She also was okay talking trash about the contractor who has helped her out of a bad situation. I will never use her again, and now I have to hire someone to fix everything she did – even the fountain, because the motor she installed that should be good for 5 years is dying.

Christiane is very forthcoming and makes it easy to understand what I wanted and how she was going to help me get my goals of my new backyard!! You could feel and hear the passion in her approach and demeanor when it comes to taking a site and making it more in tune with the natural earth. The project was completed in a timely manner, and I'm very pleased with how everything turned out!!!

We highly recommend Symbiotic Landscape! Christiane listened to our ideas and was engaged with us about what we were seeking in the landscape design for our property. We were impressed with her education and vast knowledge about native plants, and understanding of what will grow in the Pacific Northwest climate, and in particular the different grades, drainage and sun exposure on our property. Christiane expertly managed our project from beginning to end.

She was very easy to work with and did a great and thorough job and even followed up with recommendations on how she can help us improve our landscaping. Highly recommend!