Incorrect planting
techniques lead to...

Trees that look like this!

Windmill Farms:
NO WARRANTY
on their work.

Windmill Farms,
Chino Valley, Arizona

No Warranty, No Standing Behind their Products or Work.

Ever had such a bad experience with a vendor that you just had to let your story be known?

Well, we have. And we'll share our story with you.

Reader's Note: We understand that trees can die. The main point here is that the primary contributing factor to our trees dying was incorrect planting techniques. We paid Windmill Farms to plant our trees, and they are not standing behind their work that led to unhealthy and dead trees.

My wife and I purchased $1700 worth of shrubs and trees in January of 2008. (it's now October of 2008). We purchased the trees at Windmill Farms, and paid them to plant them for us(this is a key point).

4 out of 5 trees are not doing well, or have died. We've already lost two trees and one shrub. We have two more trees that are dying.

Here is our story:

Our Trees:

• We had 5 large (24" to 36" box) trees planted by Windmill Farms.
• Also had 8 shrubs planted.
• All vegetation is on an automatic watering system.
• One of our trees (pictured right) NEVER really bloomed. By the time spring arrived in March, 1/2 of the tree was already dead.
• 1 Colorado Blue Spruce died in a matter of a week in September.
• 1 deciduous tree currently dying in a rapid manner
• Our other Colorado Blue Spruce is starting to yellow.

We called a professional arborist to look at them. We had no idea what the problem was, so we wanted a professional's opinion. The arborist has been in business in the Prescott area for about 11 years.

There are three sections to this story. Click a link below to jump to a section, or read through the whole story (recommended)

• The Arborist Examination
• Calling Windmill Farms
• Windmill Farms' Owner Visit
• The Final Result

The Arborist's Findings:

• No evidence of insect infestation.
  
  
• No evidence of severe over or under watering.
  
  
• The trees were planted to deep.
  
  
  • Trees should be planted so that their root system starts just beneath the soil's surface. These trees were planted so that the top of the root ball is about 8" beneath the surface.
    
    
  • We called other local nurseries to verify this information. This appears to be the common school of thought. All said they were planted too deep.
    
    
  • NOTE: Windmill Farms planted them.
    
    
• The holes were dug to shallow and narrow for the area soil type.
  
  
  • The holes should be approximately 2 to 3 times wider than the root ball (if the root ball is 1' wide, then the holes should be 2 to 3 feet wide. This is so that the roots can be planted with plenty of mulch to allow optimum spread of the roots.
    
    
  • This is based on the soil type in the area.
    
    
  • NOTE: WIndmill Farms dug the holes
    
    
• The above issues, combined with the fact that a jackhammer was used to dig (which creates a solid glaze on the hole walls and makes it tougher for the roots to spread), contributed to the dead trees.
  
  
• The soil in Chino Valley is very tough on trees. This is why the incorrect planting techniques played such a role.
  
  
• With the above, the roots essentially suffocated, and the trees died as a result.

We contacted Windmill Farms (since they did the planting mentioned above):

We then called Windmill Farms to talk about the issue. My wife, who is a very gentle person and is always quite nice to everyone, spoke to Tony, the Nursery Manager. The conversation went something like this:

• My Wife: "Hi, we purchased some trees from you back in January, and are now having some of them die."
  
  
• Tony: "Yea?"
  
  
• My Wife: {tells Tony the details as noted above}
  
  
• Tony: "Listen, Lady, we don't offer ANY sort of guarantee on our trees."
  
  
• My Wife: "You offer NO guarantee? Even if you planted them?"
  
  
• Tony: "That's right (now in a very sour tone)"
  
  
• My Wife: "Ok, so you don't warranty your trees - but how about your work? You planted them. The arborist says that they're dying because you planted them incorrectly."
  
  
• Tony: "I don't care what some guy says. How do we know he knows what he's talking about. As long as the roots are in the ground, it doesn't matter how they're planted."
  
  
• My Wife: "So you are not going to back up your trees or your work at all?"
  
  
• Tony: "No. Maybe we can work out a deal on a new tree."
  
  
• End of conversation.

So at this point, there's no help from Windmill.

A little taken aback by Tony's attitude, my wife calls Windmill again, asking for the owner (I forget his name). She did get hold of the owner, and he offered to come out to our property to take a look at the situation.

The Owner's trip out:

We showed him the situation. While we appreciate his coming out, it was quickly apparent that he would accept no responsibility.

• Upon taking a quick look at the first tree, he says "How often do you water?"
  
  
  • I say "Right now, about twice a week at 45 minutes." (it was very hot and windy at that time)
    
    
  • He says "Not enough. You're under watering"
    
    
  • So then I ask him "How do you know? 45 minutes at 1 gallon per hour (GPH) is a lot different than 45 minutes at 10 GPH." I then tell him I'm watering at 5 GPH for 45 minutes twice weekly.
    
    
  • He then tells me "You're over watering."
    
    
  • So - even though I know he's not taking any responsibility and will say over/under watering no matter what, I realize that maybe I was a little heavy on the water. But based on the arborist's findings, I wasn't watering enough to kill.
    
    
• So now we take a look at the hole where I had just dug out the dead Colorado Spruce.
  
  
  • Windmill's Owner says "The hole is too small. The roots need more room to spread, and you need more room for the water to drain."
    
    
  • I tell him. "EXACTLY. You guys planted them and dug the holes. I PAID you to do this! Why didn't you dig the holes right?"
    
    
  • He says, "I pay my guys by the hour (meaning that it would take to long to make a bigger hole)."
    
    
  • Then, he backs that up with "It's not our responsibility to know the soil on your property."
    (NOTE: He lives in the same town we do, and the soil around here has generally the same characteristics.)
    
    
• As far as the depth of the trees, the Windmill's owner completely disagreed with the information we obtained from the Arborist and other local nurseries. He said depth of planting did not matter. Hmmmmm.
  
  
• Regarding the tree pictured on the upper right of this web page, we told him that this was the best it had ever gotten. It's currently 2/3 dead (meaning that 2/3 of the branches are dead and have no growth)
  
  
  • Windmill's owner actually said that "There's nothing wrong with this tree. It will come back to become a very beautiful tree."
  • Personally, I've never seen dead plants come back to life.
    
    
• He DID offer to consider giving us a "deal" on a new tree purchased at Windmill. No thanks, we'll pass.

The Final Result

• A final result is that we are S.O.L. That is, unless we want to go to court. We don't. Not worth it, and too hard to really prove how a tree died. All speculation, unless professional witnesses were brought in. This is not worth the expense.
  
  
• A final result is that we learned, the HARD WAY, that Windmill Farms does bad work and does not stand behind their work. At least not for us.
  
  
• A final result is that I spread the word about our experience. Make one customer happy, and they tell 5 people. Make one customer unhappy and they tell everyone.

Why am I going through the effort of making this public? That's easy. I'm tired of ineptness. I'm tired of businesses that "don't give a damn" about the customer after the sale.

And mostly, I'm venting.

I recommend buying your trees from a REPUTABLE landscaper or nursery that will back up their work.

Here are some nurseries to try if you need plants:

• Waters Garden Center
• Mortimer's Nursery
• Prescott Valley Nursery
• Earth Works

Comments? Questions? Contact us at

This is (was) our Colorado Blue Spruce. It was planted about 8" too deep, in a hole
with glazed sides. After it died, I dug it up. We found no evidence of any root rot, or
other abnormal findings. What we did find was a root ball that had not had any
spread at all. Seems that due to the depth, and the hole it was in, the roots simply suffocated.