Admiral Green Landscaping

Terry has been keeping the front of our house looking awesome for a few years now. What we had before was a patch of dirt with some weeds that dogs liked to poop on. Now we have this awesome desert-​y vibe thing going on with cool looking succulents and Arizona-​looking gravel… that dogs still like to poop on. Seriously, pick up after your dogs when you walk them! He also takes care of our backyard and makes that look amazing as well.
Give Terry and Admiral Green Landscaping a ring. Nice, solid dudes who will take care of you. Couldn’t ask for more. Thanks Terry!

Terry took the small space that we have in front of our home and installed drought tolerant plant material that connected nicely to the sand dunes In front of our house. We live on the beach. The naturalized landscape requires minimal maintenance. We live here because we love the beach. Terry’s landscape brings the beach even closer to home, right to our front door. In our backyard we had a previously installed landscape, which lacked some uniformity. Some would have approached the situation by tearing everything out and redoing it all, Terry was able to take what we had and with some minor modifications and additions, create a fantastic functional space of the pre-​existing layout. It not only looks great, offers comfortable living spaces but was also much cheeper than a complete redo. Thanks Terry!

Did a great job for us back in 2003. His garden design stil looks beautiful after all these years.

Despite Terry’s enthusiasm and charisma, the quality of work was really poor. He created a water feature on our patio which was awesome, but the execution was a mess from start to finish. The contractos were always waiting for Terry to deliver the necessary parts. Then the water feature leaked. When we had a tile expert come to fix it, he called the job a «hack job» and we had to spend over $ 800 to fix all Terry’s mistakes. it’s too bad because Terry is a nice guy, but I would not recommend him.

I have waited to post this review — Terry redid my backyard in SF several years ago, and it still looks beautiful today! We are completely satisfied with the work they did — a beautiful fence, planter boxes on our deck and then the main part of the backyard has several areas — a lawn, roses, a secret hidden area with a firepit — I highly recommend Admiral Green.

We’re on at least our 2^nd iteration of our Terry Mulrooney garden, and the result just keeps getting better.
Our garden is tiny: 17′ x 20′, but it’s a mini Eden. Not your basic urban back garden/​patio surrounded by fences and fence plantings; instead a tiny green refuge from city sights, sounds and smells, complete with stepping stones — and an old-​world stone terrace — water noisily running into a small pond, small bursts of color, privacy, serene.
Terry is anything but the image of a spiritual earth person — more the extremely outgoing perennial California surfer-​dude — but, he has all the necessary tickets, including the creative, the education, the training and the experience.
Do yourself a favor: Ask him to your home to survey your garden and chat about what it is you want your garden to be. If that’s the closest you ever come to «professional landscaping», you will have had a delightful, mind-​expanding experience (FREE! except for a beer or two)
Beautiful urban gardens that reflect your own sense of nature are an investment in your (urban) self.

Here’s the problem we had when looking for someone to create and install a beautiful and imaginative landscape for our home in Belmont — we could only seem to find:
a) designers that were outrageously priced and would not get involved with installation and
b) landscapers that lacked creativity and wanted to install the same garden in every yard.
We wanted an original, creative design, planned around our specific needs and tastes, from someone who would see the project through to the end and work within our budget. We got that and much more from Admiral Green Landscaping.
We called originally after seeing his work in Sunset magazine, and although he’s based in the city, Terry was willing to come down the peninsula to work with us. He spent a lot of time just talking to us and listening in the beginning to determine what we really were looking for, and then was constantly communicating with us to be sure we were both on the same page. His design was incredibly unique (we still get comments all the time) and at the same time worked seamlessly with how we use our yard. He was very upfront about the costs, and his prices were right in line with other, less creative landscape designers.
Terry was always in contact throughout the installation, and was very flexible in redesigning or adapting his plan as we changed our minds or encountered situations in the process. He has also been great in helping us learn how to care for the plants he installed and answering any questions even long after our landscape was completed. We feel very confident in recommending Admiral Green — Terry is extremely ethical, responsible, and trustworthy — only wish it hadn’t taken so long to find him!

After a botched start with another Landscaper, we settle on Admiral Green to help us out with a garden plan. Terry didn’t over-​anaylse the plan or go bonkers with a million different «new and artistic» suggestions. He helped us realise our plan to our budget. He and his guys were friendly and he got the job done quickly. There was a minor problem with the watering system, but when notified, he came back immediately and fixed it.

Just so you know the initial visit is not free, it’s $ 150. Then the design fee is $ 2000. But worst of all, he forgot to listen.

If you have worked with contractors and have done several home projects with outside help (I am NO Handy Woman — My husband is NO Handy Man) then you’ll appreciate what I have to say about Terry and team at Admiral Green.
PROBLEM: We purchased a house with a big, un-​usable backyard. We lovingly called it «Grandma’s Garden». It looked like they went to Sloat every weekend, bought 5 plants and put them in the garden. Plus, we inherited an overgrown greenhouse slash shed. Major maintenance needed on a regular basis.
SOLUTION: We now have a glamorous, urban, live-​able outdoor space complete with 3 levels: BBQ and eating area, grassy zone with trees, herbs, flowers, and an outdoor, sheltered living room (the once scary «shed»).
I won’t go into a whole hoopla about the details of our experience — here is a quick summary.
— Immediately able to get an appointment and evaluation, discussion about what we wanted
— Terry is creative, knowledgeable, listens to your needs and has a certain vision and knack for landscaping and outdoor environments; very talented, thorough, friendly, approachable, available
— super group of guys on his crew
— they showed up every day and got it done ON TIME
— stayed on budget where possible
— Flexible with the snags we ran into, like having to build a new 80′ fence completely unplanned
— accommodated our desire to recycle and re-​use as much material as possible plus use FSC certified and/​or green products wherever we could
— They cleaned up after themselves
Simply put, Terry and the gang at Admiral Green transformed our backyard from unusable «grandma’s garden» into ultra-​fab city chic garden. What a fabulous experience!!!

We used Terry to design a garden remodel for us. He was full of ideas and open to listening to what we wanted in the space. He creates a very livable environment with his gardening.
If you use Terry you will get high level of service, good creativity and deep knowledge of local flora.

We had a gross little yard and finally gave up the thought that we would be able to transform it to something nice. We interviewed a few landscapers and told them that we were open to anything. We finally found Admiral Green and Terry. He came over and had the most amazing ideas for our small garden. He was excited by the prospect of the job and understood our lifestyle and lack of time to maintain a garden.
What we got was so amazing! It’s been about 3 years and it looks as great today as when Terry and his team put it in. What was once a home for spiders and other creepy crawlers is now our outside oasis! Terry even put in a swing for our kids! We LOVE our garden and would highly recommend Terry and Admiral Green to anyone who wants to transform their yard.

Coming clean: I am the black thumb of death. Plants wilt in my presence and I can over/​under-​water anything to death… it’s like I have dyslexia of plant instructions. But I happen to have snagged the best deal in the world during an especially productive week in my life several years ago. I met Terry the owner a few years back and we struck a deal.
Terry and his crew use my back yard as a repository for their plants and greens. There is a very nice area, cordoned off from most things doggy, filled with lovely greens and plant growth. So I get to enjoy the loveliness of the horticulture and not kill any plant life in the process. And they have helped me keep the existing trees and plants back there alive!
Anyway, they do amazing work… I actually have had a few small projects done in my yard and my little plot of land in front. They can help select appropriate plants for your situation (soil, light, etc.)…very helpful in our microclimates. A friend of mine hired them for her backyard and she was extremely impressed. Their website has photos of some of their jobs, which are impressive. Terry has also been featured in magazines (Sunset, no less!) and on TV (HGTV). I think he was also on some kind of makeover show and got to keep the clothes. He is extremely helpful, cheerful and the eternal optimist… that is the kind of attitude I like of people who work in my house. Oh, his reputation preceeds him; the guys are very busy with many many jobs.
Lastly, there was a husband and wife team (shout out to Nate and Eleanor!) that used to work for Terry (and they adopted a puppy from Rocket Dog!
) but they deserve special mention because they put up with the a**hole resident dogs, loved the foster dogs and would even scoop poop on occasion! sadly, they moved to portland to buy a house…