Joseph Marino Landscaping

Joseph Marino Landscaping works out of 2 Hanley St in Swampscott, on the North Shore, and its public footprint is about as small as a working landscaper's gets: a Google listing and a single review. That review, posted in August 2022, gave five stars and called the company the best landscape and yard maintenance outfit in all of New England — enthusiastic, but with no description of the property, the job or the price, so it says more about the customer's feeling than about how the work went. With one rating behind it, the five-star average carries almost no weight, and the written record has not been added to since 2022. That is not a mark against the business — plenty of small crews work almost entirely on word of mouth and never collect reviews — but it does mean a homeowner has to do the checking that a longer record would have done for them. Ask for two or three recent local references you can call, ask whether the price covers seasonal maintenance visits or one-off work, and ask for a certificate of insurance before anyone starts. If any part of the job goes beyond lawn and planting work into patios, walls or paving, ask for the Home Improvement Contractor registration number and confirm it with the state.