What 127 Westchester landscaping reviews say (September 2026 study)

The goal was simple: find out what homeowners actually write about when they review a landscaper, and what they almost never write about. Baudi Landscaping published this study and is one of the six companies in it (see the disclosure at the end).

Each cell shows how many reviews mention the theme at least once, and that count as a share of the group. One review can mention several themes. "Others" are the five competitor companies; the Complaints column counts their complaint mentions.

All 22 Baudi reviews in the sample were 5 star, so none of them was coded as a complaint. The competitor sample included some 1 star reviews.

The complaints in this sample were about how a job was run, not how it looked at the end. That points to five checks worth making before you sign.

1. Ask how schedule changes are communicated. Weather moves landscaping dates. Ask who tells you, by what channel (call, text, email), and how far ahead.
2. Ask how long a written estimate takes after the site visit. Estimate follow-up was one of the complaint themes. A clear answer up front sets the expectation.
3. Watch the estimate visit itself. Conduct was the most discussed topic overall, and conduct complaints included behavior during a visit. How the person walking your property treats you is a preview.
4. Ask what the bill will itemize and when it arrives. Billing drew a complaint in the sample. Agree in writing on what counts as a change and how changes are approved.
5. Ask who your point of contact is once work starts. Responsiveness came up in 18% of competitor reviews. Knowing whom to call, and how fast they usually reply, avoids most of the friction reviewers described.

Reviews are usually written within days of a job finishing. That is the right time to judge cleanup and courtesy, and the wrong time to judge a retaining wall, a walkway or a regraded yard. Frost, settling and a few heavy storms are what show whether base preparation and drainage were done well, and that takes seasons, not days. That is why only 1 of 105 competitor reviews in this sample, and none of Baudi's 22, spoke to how hardscape held up, and only 2 competitor reviews mentioned drainage results.

So star ratings tell you little about the part of a hardscape or drainage job you cannot see. Ask for evidence that covers time instead:

• Dated photos of older jobs, ideally the same patio, wall or walkway photographed at install and again a few years later.
• Return visit photos after a winter or a heavy rain, especially for grading and drainage work.
• A reference from a job finished two or more years ago, not just last month.
• A plain statement of what happens if something settles or shifts, and how a callback is handled.

Related services: lawn care, masonry and hardscaping, and drainage solutions.

• Source: public Google Maps reviews only.
• Date read: September 22, 2026.
• Companies: six landscaping companies serving Westchester County: Baudi Landscaping and five competitors, shown here as Company A to E. Competitors were found through web searches for landscaping and hardscape companies near Mount Kisco and Bedford. One further company was found but its reviews would not load, so it was left out.
• Sampling rule: for each competitor, the first 25 reviews with written text in Google's default review order (Google's "Most relevant" sort; a strict newest first sort could not be applied reliably). One competitor had only 5 reviews that loaded, so the competitor total is 4 x 25 + 5 = 105. For Baudi, all 22 reviews were read. Star only reviews with no text were skipped because they contain no topics.
• Keyword coding: each theme has a list of words and word stems. For example, "on time", "punctual" and "reliable" count toward on schedule; "clean", "tidy" and "debris" count toward cleanup; "drain", "flood" and "grading" count toward drainage. A review counts once per theme no matter how many matching words it contains. We count mentions, not how strong the praise is.
• Polarity rule: a review of 2 stars or fewer that mentions a theme is a complaint about that theme. On a review of 3 stars or fewer, a negative word near the match (such as "never", "late" or "rude") also makes it a complaint. Wording like "I wish" or "should" makes it a request. A 4 or 5 star mention is praise. Anything else is unclear.
• What counts as a complaint: a theme mention coded as a complaint by the rule above. The 9 competitor complaint mentions are theme mentions, not 9 separate reviews, since one negative review can touch several themes.
• Hand checks: every complaint and every durability or drainage match was read by hand. One false match was removed.
• Privacy: no reviewer names, no prices or amounts, and only short fragments were stored.

• Google Maps only. Other review sites were not sampled.
• Not strictly the newest reviews. The sample follows Google's default order, and review dates are shown only as relative dates (for example "a year ago").
• Counts are a floor. 32 reviews were cut off at Google's "More" link, so some text was not read. The true share of reviews mentioning a theme may be higher.
• Keyword coding was not human verified for every review. Only complaints and the rare themes were checked by hand. Praise counts for common themes may include some loose matches.
• Small numbers, especially for Baudi (22 reviews). Differences of a few points are not meaningful. The pricing gap is 5 reviews against 10.
• Competitors are anonymised as Company A to E and are not named. We did not verify anything about them beyond what their reviews say.

This study was commissioned and published by Baudi Landscaping Inc, which is one of the six companies in the sample. We have reported Baudi's numbers alongside the competitor numbers using the same rules, including the themes where Baudi reviews say nothing.