Attachment A: Customer Testimonials
Customer Testimonials: the following testimonials are from the evaluation survey offered to residents to provide feedback on ideas to improve the Climate Victory Gardens Pilot program for future participants:
4/24/2021 “Provide sample images of plants in design plan for better visualization. Many of the plants that were suggested were not available so it would have been easier to have a list of availability. I spent countless hours looking up some plants only to be notified that they were not available. Choice of varied materials like gravel or stones to provide texture in design. Provide a list of mulch suppliers. Follow-up visit two to three months later to check on landscape.” 4/24/2021 “It's not clear if we had any effect on neighbors, but all have noticed. It's also hard to note the savings in water until we do more analysis, but we certainly are not wasting water that runs into the concrete areas attempting to water the lawn.” 7/5/2021 “Increase public awareness about this great program.” 9/1/2021 “My wife and I asked Paradise Garden & Landscape to also increase scope of our Front Yard Project beyond lawn conversion portion. These additions went really well. We also added new irrigation controllers with a weather forecast feature to shut off watering on rainy days. The under-surface drip irrigation really lowered our water usage when we compared annual water usage.” 9/27/2021 “We loved working with our designer Sherry Bryan from Ecology Action - she was knowledgeable, professional and fun. Sherry delivered a design that fit our needs and had some fun/interest in it. She communicated well and kept us updated on timelines. We had an issue with our initial landscape installation contractor who came out and viewed our property but did not respond in a timely manner with the quote and ultimately did not have bandwidth for our project. Our designer worked hard to find Paradise Garden and Landscape and get a timeline that fit with our requirements. Paradise was great to work with as well and the project looked great when it was finished.
There are a couple of improvements that could be made. First, the timeline from our initial application to final completion was very long. My estimation is that from initial application submission to receiving the rebate check took about one year. We thought about withdrawing from the program as it took much longer than we anticipated and would have taken us to do. However, we really wanted to change over to a more sustainable landscape solution and valued access to a knowledgeable landscape designer. Second, the 90-day timing between approval of the plans by the water district and required time to completion is too short given the demand for landscape contractors. While they will extend the timeline, it creates undo stress on homeowners especially when there is a short list of installers who fit the requirements of the program.”