The Turfman

I have a newly remodeled home in Arden Park and we needed our front lawn to be completely overhauled. My husband and I had a strict budget and a specific look. Our house is adobe and I wanted to give it that Spanish style, Mediterranean look you would find living in Santa Barbara.
I interviewed 4 landscapers and there were specific things I was looking for in a landscaper 1) could they give me the look I wanted with the budget I had 2) did they listen to what my needs/​wants were and presented a proposal 3) would they be open to line item everything so that we could take out things if necessary.
Ryan — The Turfman was the only one that did all THREE. Ryan is an excellent listener and very creative. I liked that we were a team in designing the project. I am also open to ideas and gave Ryan some creative freedom which he delivered.
Ryan came out to the house and we talked about the look and goal to keep the yard’s esthetics, congruent to the structure and style of the house. He asked a ton of questions and gave suggestion on adding boulders, and mounds; giving our yard some elevation and dimension. Ryan suggested we meet at nursery and discuss plant selection. I had visited the nursery before our meeting so that I was better equipped to talk about what I liked and didn’t like. This made are discussion more effective as I wasn’t so overwhelmed at all the different types of drought tolerant plants that are available. We also met at a rock quarry to look at the sizes of boulders he was thinking about. This helped give me a better visual perspective on what the yard would look like. Both of these offsite visits were free which blew me away. He just takes customer service to the next level.
Ryan’s team are very professional, work hard and clean up before they leave the site.
I am BEYOND pleased with the results of our project. So much so, that we are going to continue our partnership and add more plants, and lighting in the spring and then start our backyard project.

When my wife and I purchased our home in Folsom, one of our top priorities was the backyard. While the house was once a showcase yard, years of neglect and foreclosure had left it in a sad state. At almost a third acre, with varying terrain, and an existing pool, we had some challenges on our vision.
Our vision was to have a yard that felt like a vacation, and priorities were drought-​tolerance, low maintenance, and we wanted to do alot of the work ourselves. We hired a well-​known local landscape design & construction company to complete the design, which we were very happy with. However, the «turn key» cost of the design was approximately $ 60,000. We knew we wanted to do a lot of the work ourselves, and «value engineered» the design to get the costs aligned with our budget. We took our drawings to several highly rated contractors for bids, and broke out the scopes of work such as concrete for separate bids.
Ryan McConnell, owner of Turfman, came to my attention from a coworker who recently completed a project with him. Our original intent was to have him bid only the irrigation and sod, however when we met with Ryan he convinced us to let him bid the entire project. Ryan promptly provided an estimate, which was broken down thoroughly so we could decide what items to add or delete to meet our budget.
Ryan bid the concrete portion of the project (approximately 1,200 sf of stamped colored concrete) which I honestly did not expect him to have competitive pricing. His quote from his subcontractor beat the other four estimates I had, and included alot of extras which others did not. In the end, I decided to have Turfman install all drainage, walls, concrete, sod, and irrigation per the drawings I had completed for nearly a third of the original budget. We held off on installing the planting (the least expensive part of the project actually) until next year due to budget concerns. Ryan has no problem breaking the project down to whatever size needed.
Ryan is the owner of the company and very responsive, patient, creative, and reliable. He does what he says he is going to do, when he says he will do it. What impressed me most is his work ethic, and his employees. All his employees are people you feel comfortable with on your property, and are respectable and clean up after themselves. it’s not uncommon to see Ryan himself on your project with a shovel and broom working alongside them.
Ryan’s company, Turfman, is not a huge company like many others in town, so you get the direct attention of the company owner. I highly recommend him, and will be working with him again in the future for additional landscape planting.