McMurray Nursery

Each and every time I glance out of my studio window, I am so delighted at the work completed by Paul and his crew at McMurray Nursery. I just love it! I have what most would refer to as a decent sized yard, considering it is located in a suburb of the South Hills, where most lots are small. It has a pleasant backdrop of mature-​ish trees and few nice plantings, but it felt ‘meh’ and needed help. It needed a focal point!
I was tossing around the idea of some landscaping in late summer/​fall 2012. A friend suggested McMurray Nursery and so I gave them a ring and made an appointment for a consultation. Immediately, I was impressed with Paul’s vast, almost innate, knowledge of plants, trees, soil and design. His passion for his work and all things green is obvious. He genuinely cares and is very honest about what will work (and what will not) in your yard. So, after discussing budget and a few consults, Paul suggested pulling out all of the ugly, overgrown plantings, replacing with a few new plantings and carving out a spot for a semi-circular-fire-pit-seating-area…made out of large rocks. Aw yeah!
He and his crew completed all of the work in ONE day, with the exception of planting 3 Canadian Hemlocks (planted a few days later). Obviously, heavy equipment was brought in to move the rocks into position. The equipment takes a toll on the lawn, but the crew did such an amazing job at reseeding and mulching the disrupted areas that I’m now considering an overhaul for the rest of my yard. With consistent watering (and the nursery WILL call to make sure you are watering those little seedlings) the grass grew in beautifully!
All of my friends, family and neighbors were in awe over the transformation. The fire pit not only serves as an interesting visual in the yard; but will also be the future site of many, special gatherings.

I wish I could leave a review on the actual work this landscaper performs but alas they never showed up to do the work they promised to do. I have seen some of it. If you check out the landscaping over by the Starbucks on Valley Brook & McMurray it’s a sea of little balls of plantings surrounded by mulch. I saw their guys trimming it up the other day and they butchered some and left a ton of weeds and seedlings behind. It looks awful. They trimmed the evergreens until they were brown in spots. I probably dodged a bullet.
Paul, the owner, seemed nice enough when he came to look at our yard. He said he could plant the entire back yard with some trees and shrubs, and put down a flagstone patio for around $ 5,000. He said he could come out in May or June (I am writing this at the end of July) when the labor was cheaper. This part was ridiculous but whatever, I didn’t want to call him out on it. He said he would write it up and send it to me in the next couple days.
I got the estimate and it was $ 8,000. I wasn’t really happy but it’s hard to find good contractors in this area and I liked him so I consented. He suggested that we stop by and look at his place and the plants he was considering. Miriam went and approved them and when it came time to leave he said there would be up-​charges for the plants they ended up agreeing to. She came home and I was really unhappy. It seemed to me that he was going to keep raising the cost of the job as we went along. It seemed like this job was something he was going to put off because it wasn’t the $ 50,000−100,000 job he likes to do. I wrote him that I wasn’t happy that he was trying to bump the cost of the job and that he should do the job for $ 8,000 and that was going to be it. He never wrote or called. He never had me sign any contracts. I went over to his place and asked him directly what was up and he promised he would be by next week. We ended it well but he never showed up.
I wrote him another email asking him if he was going to do the job. I wanted to know if we should move on and that it wasn’t fair for him to leave us hanging. He never wrote me back. Pick someone else!!!