I initially hired Schilling Horticulture Group to remove two Mimosa trees that had become infested with borers. Norm Schilling is a certified arborist and he provided very cogent advice about what to do.
As a result, we have hired them to do an overhaul of our front landscaping. They completed it in roughly two weeks and the results have been spectacular. They are not cheap; if you are looking to add a few trees, flowers and shrubs to your yard at a low price, this is not the company for you.
When we told Mr. Schilling that we were interested in re-doing our front yard, he set up an appointment with Laura, their designer. Laura is a fountain of information about plant life and how it will work in the desert. She came to our home initially and spoke to my wife and I about what we wanted. The talk was in great detail and by this conversation, she got a feel for what we were looking for. We replaced what had been a semi-desert landscape with a full desert landscape. We removed all grass that was there and all non-desert plants and shrubs.
Laura laid out a design that was brilliantly conceived. On the plan, she included a color-coded guide to all the plant material that detailed what went where. She also provided us a binder filled with information on every thing she planted.
This cost $1,500, which was applied to the cost of the project if we accepted but was non-refundable if we did not. So you really have to be serious to take that step, but it was well worth it.
We did and the team came out and was extremely professional. They brought their own Porta Potty, which stayed on site the entire time, so they weren't disturbing us looking to use the bathroom. They also had a dumpster on site the entire time and changed it as it filled.
The foreman, Carlos, was very communicative with me and easy to work with. We made a few, very slight changes, to the design. In one, we had a California Pepper tree that was scheduled to be removed. Our previous landscaper basically ruined it by topping it (Never top your trees, I have learned!) and it was supposed to be replaced by a Red Push Pistache. But as we were into the job, my wife didn't want to kill the tree, so we left it and put the Pistache in another spot on the landscape. The team was professional at doing their best to make the California Pepper presentable. They fixed what they could that the other landscaper had messed up, and we'll see what happens with it as we move forward. It is, though, 100 percent better.
We made a few other changes -- we had a couple of baskets of flowers we'd bought at Home Depot a few months ago, and wanted those added into the design. They not only did it without complaint and very professionally, but they ran irrigation into the pot so we no longer have to hand water them.
The work took two weeks, about eight working days overall, and it came out incredible. On the final walk through, Laura and Carlos went over in great detail what had been planted, what I needed to do to maintain it and handed me a multi-page typed document with information and instructions.
There is no question that they are a premium priced company; we have subsequently hired them to do weekly maintenance, and that cost is almost four times what our prior landscaper charged. But they do far more work, and they've so far done it extraordinarily well.
Hiring Schilling is like buying a Mercedes or a BMW instead of a Chevy or a Ford, but in my opinion, their knowledge, quality work and attention to detail make it well worth it.