Avant Gardens, Inc

Nine written reviews, and nearly all of them are about plants rather than patios. Avant Gardens sits on High Hill Road in Dartmouth, and by its own account has worked there for more than 30 years as a destination nursery and landscape installation firm, with Chris and Katherine Tracey named as its principals. The work it describes for itself: garden design, planting, and dry-stone hardscape construction. What customers write about is what shows up in the box. A 2024 buyer described plants arriving "full of roots and crowns, carefully wrapped"; another, writing in August 2025, said several online orders that year came healthy and expertly packed, including varieties hard to find elsewhere. The most recent note, from April 2026, is 36 chrysanthemums shipped to a friend that arrived in good condition. Google shows 4.7 across 19 ratings, and the nine reviews on file run from 2024 into this year. In-person visits read the same way. A 2025 reviewer called the place "a little hidden gem" for unusual indoor and outdoor plants at reasonable prices; a 2024 visitor singled out the selection and the staff, and April 2026 brings the same short verdict about knowledgeable help. One sour note is worth raising. In September 2025 a customer signing off as Russ left a single star, saying he called and left messages twice over a month about moving a rock he had bought and never heard back — his read was that the request wasn't worth their trouble. Nothing else in the reviews echoes it, but if your job turns on scheduling and callbacks, press on that before you commit. Katherine Tracey's horticultural standing turns up outside the reviews too: a garden writer sought her out for succulent design advice in 2017, a 2025 flower-trade newsletter quoted her on a hard-to-source plant, and a 2002 South Coast Today piece listed "Kathy Tracey of Avant Gardens" among area figures giving horticultural demonstrations. That is a reputation built on plants and design. Call them for uncommon perennials, whether you're driving to the Dartmouth nursery in season or ordering by mail — that's where the praise is thickest and most specific. If what you want is a designed garden or a dry-stone wall, the site says that's their trade too and Dartmouth is the stated service area; ask to see recent local installs and confirm they're booking that work now.