My Secret Garden Landscaping - Gardener - West Dundee, Illinois - 1 Review - 1,260 Photos Facebook

Joni, of My Secret Garden, transformed my backyard from an uninspiring, depressing mess to a place of beauty and joy. Among other things, she created an incredible pollinator garden around my deck that buzzes with the activity of hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees. I just love to sit and watch the hummingbirds visit my garden all day long, spring through fall. Joni is a delight and a pleasure to work with. She listened to my wants and needs, then made wonderful suggestions. I deeply value her organic, environmentally friendly approach. Joni quickly got the job done at a reasonable price.

In early Oct, we reached out to Joni to inquire about using her services for a landscaping project. On the day of her visit, we paid her the design/proposal fee as agreed upon. After receiving the proposal from Joni, we communicated that we decided to award the project to her. On her 2nd visit, Joni decided to increase her initial quote saying she underestimated the amount of mulch required. Despite this, we decided to anyways go ahead with Joni. Joni wanted a 50% deposit to be paid upfront by either check or bank transfer. Trusting her, we sent her the deposit on the same day using a bank transfer. A couple of days before the scheduled start date for the project, Joni suddenly sent us a message saying she would be dropping off some materials at our property sooner than planned. We agreed to this in good faith, with the assumption that Joni intended to carry out the project as committed. During this time, my wife happened to notice that the trees that Joni dropped off on our driveway did not conform to the specs in the proposal. When she inquired with Joni, not only did Joni refuse to acknowledge this but also chose to rudely berate my wife for questioning her. A few mins later, Joni called and demanded to speak with me. Rather than admit that she made a mistake with the plants, Joni went on an offensive complaining that she was unhappy about being questioned. I attempted explaining to her that it was a natural inquiry given that the plants clearly did not conform and that it was her own quote that we were comparing it against. I also added that we were nevertheless OK with it. Joni suddenly became even more hostile &awent on a tirade telling me about her personal issues. I politely told Joni that I was not keen on discussing her personal issues. All of a sudden, Joni demanded to know if we wished to abandon the project and told us that other customers that she worked with withheld her payment due to unsatisfactory outcomes and without any basis accused us of trying to do the same. I told her that we had no intention of canceling the project, reminded her that we had kept all our payment commitments to her, and requested her to start the project as scheduled. A few hours later Joni suddenly came and took away some of the materials she left on our property claiming she needed them for another project she had apparently forgotten about. Even at this point, we failed to suspect her actual intentions that followed this. About an hour later, Joni sent us a viciously worded email informing us that she had decided to not carry out our project. The reason she gave? - that I was not wearing my mask that evening. Sadly, a blatant lie. In the same email, she went on to make several other untruthful insinuations against me and my family. As disappointed as we were with Joni hurtful language and her decision, we replied to Joni politely requesting her to make arrangements then to return our deposit since she had decided to not carry out the project for us. To this, Joni responded stating that she had no intention of returning the deposit and that we should consider the deposit as payment to her for some of the materials she chose to purchase and abandon on our property! We responded to remind her that the deposit was paid for an installed landscape project and that we had no interest in simply buying the materials she chose to purchase in advance and abandon on our property. And Jon response? Several more vicious messages, with the final one stating I am not giving you back a penny...now leave me alone... I will not be responding to your messages anymore. You got just what you deserve. We plan to initiate legal action against Joni unless she makes an effort to resolve this situation by reaching out and presenting to us a reasonable and acceptable proposal within the week.

Joni is amazing! She is like a walking encyclopedia on gardening! She just knows it and our backyard is so beautiful as a result of her knowledge, skills, and talents! Joni has a hard-working crew and all are perfectionists! We love our backyard transformation!

I thought Jodi was fabulous. She asked me what I had in mind for the job,as ked me my favorite colors and proceeded to start designing. Right there she already had ideas. The job is done. It’s beautiful. They were on time on price and cleaned up afterwards. Very professional

Joni and her crew did a fantastic job on my back yard. I can’t wait for everything to be in bloom. She did a great job in recommending the plants and shrubs. We look forward to spending time outside this summer. When I have another project planned I will certainly contact her.

Joni is a very knowledgeable and resourceful person. Her experience is invaluable with regards to exploring the wants and needs of her clients and making it happen! The work was accomplished in a timely and neat manner as promised. The stock that she chose was healthy and vibrant. The final results was nothing less than lovely ! I highly recommend her for any project large or small.

Job well done!! Everything looks great!!

Joni listened to our concerns and was extremely flexible. She went over and beyond what we expected. we will definitely use her again.

The price was very reasonable, Joni and her crew did a beautiful Job,and ,and I was very pleased. I would recommend her to anyone

Joni was very flexible in the process and provided some additional work while keeping to the exact budget figure. She was very nice.

Beautiful landscaping. The design has color and interest year round. I am very proud of my yard now. Thank you My Secret Garden!!!

Fantastic. Very professional. Was on time and on schedule and very responsive to our needs and suggestions. Gave us suggestions and information. Cleaned everything up and did a beautiful job.

I enjoyed planning my new landscape with Joni. They were right on time and very professional and cleaned up after them selves .

Joni has a lot of knowledge and taste in designing a beautiful flower garden. Our courtyard looks great

Out experience with Joni and Armando was a pleasant surprise! They have the hardest working crew I have ever seen! They did a major project, did it right, and added on touches and work to make it look great! I would recommend them to anyone for their landscaping and gardening needs!

The work was outstanding! But I thought the pricing was a little high. I will be using Joni for future work.

Everyone was great to work with and my yard looks awesome!

Joni is very knowledgeable and easy to work with. I love my new garden! Thank you Joni!

Joni was wonderful to work with. She was very collaborative and really enjoyed our input, which my husband and I really appreciated. This is a person who truly loves what she does...and it shows! Our new backyard is beyond beautiful and she and her amazing, professional crew were wonderful to work with. We will most definitely be using her creative services again in the future. Thank you Joni, Armando and crew.

Honest and great to work with. I hope to utilize her services this spring to implement her plan.

Great company!

Quickly put together many ideas for me to chose from. Re-purposed my established plants to other areas of my yard and provided a lovely Garden for me to enjoy all 4 Seasons! The actual work was schedule quickly and done fast, clean and efficient. Within hours I had a beautiful space created.

Was able to provide estimste on consult appt and was able to start the following week

Loved the 'green' aspect of Joni's vision for my troublesome yard -- even before I hired them she was giving great advice! Will definitely have them back to do more beautiful transformations.