Creating Sustainable Landscapes LLC Reviews

Came to give us an estimate for native plants, but firm owner was not very knowledgable about common plants, e.g., failing to distinguish a native willow shrub from an invasive shrub.

I have had a great experience working with Creating Sustainable Landscapes. The gardens they created turned out even better than I hoped and everyone I interacted with was really kind. The rain garden has eliminated standing water in our yard and we frequently get compliments on our easement wildflower planting. Even though the gardens were only planted a few months ago, we are already seeing an increase of monarchs and other pollinators in the yard.

Edited as of 8/1/2023 I wanted to add an update to my review. While I appreciate their work during installation, I am greatly disappointed with their support post installation. Our of the 3 patches I installed, two of them are doing badly with little to no growth and I have 0 response from them on what I can do better on my part. I see lot of weeds growing in one variety of the plant. Many dried up inspite of having lot of rains. All I wanted was a response on what I can do on my part to have a success. So if you are new to native plants like me I would have better communication with this company before the payment on how to handle growth issues. I have paid close $1000 for the two patch which looks like need rework next year. I had a good experience with their installation but a tough time figuring out post installation issues. Partly am new to native plants and need more support had I know I wouldn't get good support I would have thought twice before going with them. I had a a amazing experience with creating sustainable landscape. Alyson was my on point. She was great to work with. I had short listed the native plants and she covered most of the fav during installation. They went above and beyond and helped me clean up some of the winter storm damages. The whole crew was communicative throughout the whole process and also very economical. Would definitely recommend them if you looking to add native plants to your garden. I can't wait for my garden to flourish and fill with beautiful flowers

Very happy with the work. They worked within my budget and my yard is lovely. They are knowledgeable and easy to work with. Very happy I found them!

Fantastic experience having the team at Creating Sustainable Landscapes transform our overgrown front yard into something we really enjoy. Very professional and did an amazing job.

UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. Throw out every review that mentions Drew. He sold the company to a person named Chris who is really bad at all aspects of his job. Terrible to get hold of. Doesn't follow instructions. Took multiple times showing them the property boundaries before they maybe kinda understood, even though they told me multiple times they were sure about the job. Didn't use true native seeds which was the entire point of the multiple thousand dollar job. Didn't kill many invasives, which is what I hired them to do. Did kill many natives, which is not what I hired them to do. Killed 5 of my baby redbuds I had been taking care of. Replaced them with smaller ones, 4/5 of which never produced leaves this spring. Sent me a fraudulent invoice. When I paid the correct amount, he asked me why I didn't pay the whole amount. In his defense, he did accept my explanation. But I never got any compensation for the red buds he killed. Terrible to get hold of. At one point I had tried calling for weeks and sending emails and didn't get a response until I just happened to bump into him in a restaurant bathroom. 0/10. Go to any other native landscaper around here. Again, disregard anything that mentions Drew. Maybe Drew was good. Chris is not.

Chris and his team did an excellent job. I can't wait till everything fills in!

They couldn't help. But there so kind. And explain why our project wasn't right for them. And i agreed.

Great creative designs that respect the nature of things.

Drew has done far more than just kill my lawn and landscape the yard. He has changed the way I think about landscaping, my home environment and the role of plants in my little slice of urban space. It has been an enlightening experience to work with Drew, and he truly delivers when it comes to the plants. We worked with Drew over two seasons to add native perennial beds and native shrubs and trees to our yard. He worked with us beforehand to select plants that fit our aesthetic, but also provided the most broad ecological benefits. Being new to native plants, he answered dozens of questions that we had and was available for follow-up instructions and questions that came up as the seasons progressed. The whole experience working with Drew was great, and the transformation of our yard in such a short time has been incredible.

I was well on my way to transforming my yard and gardens to native plants in my usual self-taught way and using conventional landscapers for the big stuff, when I met Drew 5 years ago at the Wildflower Association of MI conference. He is the president. Then I attended one of his lectures at a local library. That is when I decided to hire him. What a huge difference. For starters his crew came into my yard and could immediately identify the natives and had respect for them. I hired them to help me deal with the invasives. I had already taken care of the large buckthorns but was being overrun with thistle and Canadian Goldenrod. They went after it. I have 5 different Goldenrods and was only getting rid of the Canadian. They are also very knowledgeable and passionate about sustainability. After the first year I got on his schedule for yearly maintenance. I have them come to my yard twice in the season now and look forward to our work days. I was just getting ready to place my order and schedule for the season when I realized I have never written a review. I highly recommend Drew and his crew. He is one of the leaders in native sustainable landscape. I love his passion, knowledge and straight forward approach.

We needed to protect our lakeshore and wanted something attractive, sustainable, environmentally friendly, and low maintenance. We decided on a natural shoreline and turned to Drew. We contacted Drew in the fall of 2019 to discuss and plan the project for 2020. We were extremely impressed with his extensive knowledge of native plants and their benefits to wildlife and the environment, as well as his innovative methods for preventing further shoreline erosion. He handled all the planning and permitting over that winter and gave us a start date and timetable for our project. The project began when he said it would and he was able to safely manage and coordinate the multiple phases of the job during the height of the COVID restrictions in July. His crew was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, hard-working, creative, and took pride in their work. Plant growth was better than we anticipated this first year and we look forward to watching the area continue to fill in and mature. Our shore has been transformed into a pleasant place to spend the afternoon now and into the future, and we can relax knowing that we’re protected from further property loss. Drew did what he said he would, when he said he would, and for the price he said he would, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results.. No surprises. All communication was prompt and responsive. Pricing was competitive. Pictures show before and after 2 months of growth.

Drew has installed native landscaping for our house over two seasons, and we are already on deck for a third. He is collaborative, knowledgeable, professional, and dependable! We could not be more pleased with our landscaping which is now attracting birds, butterflies, and moths of all kinds as well as providing enjoyment to us and our neighbors as they walk by. Drew has my highest recommendation!

We built a new house that backs to a wooded area. I wanted a landscape that used mostly native plants for two reasons: it’s better for the local waterways and animals, and it should be much easier to maintain plants that are native to the area. I asked for a landscape that looks similar to a typical suburban style in the front, with more natural plantings in the back. I got what I asked for, but also got a huge, densely planted wildflower garden in between. The wildflower garden was planted in July, and many of the later blooming plants were blooming by the end of the summer. It’s obvios that we will have blooms from April to October! Drew Lathin and his crew were wonderful to work with. They gave us lots of great advice on how to keep our sandy soil from washing away before the seeded prairie gets established, and helped us identify some rare natives growing in the area. We’re already planning to use them again next year for some rain garden improvements.

Drew was very helpful in making sure we had all of the knowledge needed to help us create a garden full of native plants. The team who came out to remove and plant were so quick at getting things done. All my neighbors are jealous of the results! Thank you so much!

I've been thrilled with the work that Drew has done for my yard. Through his vision and knowledge of landscapes and native plants, he's turned what was previously a muddy mess (the yard contains a little valley) into a lovely woodland garden. This work has taken place over the course of years, and it's all proceeded so far exactly as he's predicted it would. I love it and will actually spend time in my backyard now, something that I hated to do before. I additionally love that all of the plants are native and tailored for the specific landscape, so I know they can do well in their spots. And it means that my yard is providing habitats for the animals and insects that belong there. I love that this landscaping is more environmentally conscious. Drew has given me helpful advice along the way about maintaining the garden, and it's been effective and also not too onerous. I knew that I wouldn't be able to maintain anything that required too much work, and he's really delivered on that. But I do watch carefully and cut away the buckthorn and ivy that creep in from my neighbors' yards. I would 12/10 recommend Drew and Creating Sustainable Landscapes to anyone interested in putting in a native garden!

Five years ago we contracted Creating Sustainable Landscapes to transform our 3/4 acre parcel into a prairie. Our terrain is hilly and faces South. Because of a steep grade, proximity to a pond and a small rivulet, as well as varying soil types and exposure to the sun we had multiple microclimates that called for planting an array of different plant species — 49 in all. Some plants thrived, others succumbed because they weren’t ideally suited to the conditions, others became favorites on the ‘deer smorgasbord’ but, over time, we have established a beautiful, natural landscape. We live in Bloomfield Hills and our property absolutely lives up to the name. Over the course of a summer, different flowers bloom so we enjoy an ever-changing palette. Drew and his compadres at Creating Sustainable Landscapes are truly artists. We can’t recommend them highly enough! ~Art & Gail

In August 2019, Drew designed a beautiful native garden for our front yard, which had proved a challenging area to landscape. It's been over a year, the plants are filling in, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Friends and neighbors love our low maintenance, natural woodland, and our yard is healthy without the chemicals and fertilizers it would have taken to force grass to grow here!

Drew and his team did a fantastic job creating a very large garden of native plants. He was very creative and thoughtful in choice of plants and design of the garden, fast and thorough and careful in clearing and mulching and planting, and then followed up several times to answer questions and check things. The first year the plants were starting and the second year I have a gigantic lovely amazing garden full of butterflies and bees and a profusion of colors. Friends come to film it and sit in it. Amazing.

Questions I wish we had asked of CSL in advance: 1. What is the likelihood that some or all of the native shrubs will not be available within a month of the scheduled installation date due to “crop failure”? 2. Does the relatively smaller size of the native herbaceous perennials make them more vulnerable to predation from (native) backyard rabbits? 3. How many years will it take for the relatively smaller size of CSL’s native shrubs and perennials to “grow out,” i.e. so that there is a view of something more than vast swathes of mulch where the landscape design was installed? In spring 2019 we had our front and backyards landscaped (with mixed results). A larger rain garden was also installed (quite successfully).