Realm

I’ve been a happy customer of Realm’s for 4 years. Jason, the owner is the most knowledgable person I’ve ever run across when it comes to plants. His recommendations are well thought out based on my specific space and budget, and I’ve always received very thorough proposals that detail every aspect of the job.
This team gives more personal attention and courtesy than you would ever expect from a landscaping company. Their professionalism is unsurpassed in Tucson. I highly recommend them for custom design, (I love my metalwork) and regular maintenance. Not the typical messy, «hacked-​off» branches you see with most companies. These guys are trained, they know what they’re doing, and they care, most importantly. My home has never looked better!

I’d had a blank backyard for about 6 years until I couldn’t take the dust anymore. Knowing that I’d make a mess of it by heading to Home Depot and local nurseries, I decided to look to the pros.
There are a bunch of them out there but I chose Realm based on their time in the game (15+ years), their awards, their focus on being green and the fact that they’re locally owned and operated.
They also do just about everything themselves, instead of subcontracting each little thing, so I liked that, too.
First they did the design for my yard which was way cooler than I ever thought possible (I thought it’d be just some rocks and plants — but it turned into a stylish hideaway). Jason, the owner, kept talking about mixing function and good design together. The Realm design team provided a super detailed plan that we then had priced out.
When the numbers came in a little more than we wanted to spend, the Realm designer helped us keep to the design plan but lower the price to fit our budget.
The construction project started about two weeks later and went pretty well (I’ve never done a landscape project but, compared to a kitchen remodel, this project was easy). Realm doesn’t let workers use radios or smoke on the property and they cleaned up after themselves every day. The really cool thing was that even though they goofed one small part of the project (which I guess is the reality of construction) they stood behind their work and fixed the issue without charging me extra! They didn’t leave me with an issue I’d have to deal with and they didn’t make excuses. In the end, the landscape looks great and has just about doubled my living space.
They even provide organic maintenance. I haven’t signed up for that yet (I’m trying to take care of this yard myself) but I’m thinking that having them take care of it is the way to go.
I haven’t used other landscapers in town (other than some guys that rove around my neighborhood in a pickup truck), but I’d definitely work with Realm again!

I would not recommend this company. We first contracted with them @ 3 years ago. I liked the owner designer and they had the advantage of a built in landscaping service. Initially we were very pleased with the design. However, the pricing system was impossible to understand and it was hard for us to make informed choices about where were good spots to cut the project. We eventually agreed on a plan.
We liked the design a lot once it was installed. However, it seems the designer didn’t take into account our microclimate and some of the plants that were installed had a very hard time in our area. Several had to be replaced more than once. Plus they need more care than I had anticipated, eg covering in winter, frequent trimming, etc.
We also chose to use the company for irrigation checks and management, contracting with them for a four time a year assessment. The staff they sent seemed very nice and seemed to know what they were doing. BUT, in 2 years there were 4 different people assigned the work, due to a lot of staff turnover. Each one told us what we needed to do to have a good system that was problem free, yet we continued to have problems. We still do, despite spending a lot of money and being assured that everything was working fine.
We also used them for periodic consulation for plant care and maintenance. Again in the 2 years there were at least 3 different people, all nice, but all with different opinions.
Bottom line, I got an impression of a company that is not well run.
We are VERY clear we will NEVER use them again and I would recommend that others be forewarned if they choose Realm.

Overall, we’ve had a very unsatisfactory experience with Realm. We contacted them about landscaping the three courtyards in an older house we bought about three years ago which had very little outside landscaping. Jason’s landscaping plan was very creative and we asked them to submit a proposal, giving them some idea of our (fairly substantial) budget. His first proposal came in well above that budget and whittling the project down to what we were prepared to spend was an agonizing process, as we found it extremely difficult to understand Realm’s pricing so that we could make informed choices as to what to cut out. Eventually, though, we reached agreement and a revised proposal was implemented. But that only led to a series of new problems. Several of the plantings Realm recommended turned out to be inappropriate to the locations in which Realm placed them and had to be replaced, mostly at our expense. All the staff we dealt with was very pleasant, but there was frequent staff turnover and each new specialist seemed to have different ideas as to what we should do. For example, the first arborist recommended that we do a good bit of work shaping the trees in our yard, which we did at a cost of several hundred dollars, only to have his replacement tell us that different work should have been done and recommend several hundred dollars of additional work.
Our most serious problems, however, had to do with our irrigation system. We initially kept the valve assembly that was installed on the property, as a budgetary measure, but accepted Jason’s recommendation that it be relocated. Then, about a year later, the valves developed problems and we had to have them replaced. Had we been given any idea, up front, of how much labor would be involved in replacing the valves, we might well have decided to replace them up front, so as to avoid a duplication of these substantial labor costs. Then, about a year later, we discovered that the irrigation was running ²⁴⁄₇ in our back courtyard, leading to a $ 400+ water bill. A Realm tech came in, fixed the problem, and told us that it was due to «rust in our pipes.» He didn’t specify which pipes were involved or that there was some feasible remedial action that we could take. Realm made no suggestions along these lines. A few months after that, we returned from a long trip and were greeted with a water bill of more than $ 700! We figured out it was due to the irrigation valves having become jammed open again while we were away. This time, the Realm tech told us that the problem was due to the galvanized iron pipes that were part of the valve assembly and recommended that we to replace them with the copper pipes, which we promptly immediately authorized him to do so as to avoid another enormous water bill. We pointed out to Realm that they had been negligent in not advising us to replace those pipes both when the valves were replaced and when the first problem with the new valves occurred and asked Realm for some financial relief. Realm first misrepresented that they had advised us about the nature of this problem previously, and when we demonstrated that they had not, simply told us that they no longer wished to discuss the matter and that we had no choice but to pay their bill. We did, but it will be the last bill from Realm that we will ever pay.

Stellar service, great people
What a totally professional company! Everyone I’ve worked with, from Jason, the owner, to everyone on their team is so above-​par in their attitude and knowledge. They’ve done two projects at my property, accomodating my ideas, requests and requirements and being creative about problem solving. They are attentive to details and meet every deadline. Although I used them to finish the work on an existing design, which many companies wouldn’t have been so gracious about doing, I know that their design work is amazing and hope to use them for that in the future.

Realm just designed my backyard landscape including an outdoor pizza oven, outdoor shower and Petscape (funky pet-​friendly landscape) for my two pooches. The owner, Jason, went above and beyond the call of duty– he chose gorgeous native plants, modern building materials and he even brought doggie biscuits for my dogs. Well done, Realm!