Marty's Landscaping, Inc

Marty's Landscaping is a South Chelmsford outfit run by Martin Peal — Marty himself, who reviewers say turns up on site while the crews work — and the jobs people describe are heavier than lawn care: hardscaping, tree removal, retaining walls, river-rock beds, decks and porches, chain-link fencing, gazebos and sunrooms. The repeat customers are the strongest thing here. A June 2026 review from someone who has used the company for years across landscaping, tree removal and hardscaping projects describes crews arriving on time, quoted prices that did not move once work started, and follow-up calls afterwards to check the job held up. That pattern of people hiring them again for a second and third project runs through the older comments too. The Google average is the thing to reckon with: 3.1 across 41 ratings, well below what the readable comments alone would suggest. Part of that gap is who is doing the rating. Several of the harshest one-star reviews come from people who say they were never customers at all — an apartment resident objecting to early-morning snow clearing, and a next-door neighbour whose property the crew blew leaves onto during someone else's spring clean-up, then argued with when asked to clear it. But not all of it. One customer described a fall clean-up where a worker blew rocks, twigs and leaves over their parked car, and said the call that followed from the owner disputed the damage rather than settling it. Another said a 20-yard fill order arrived as sand after a mix-up with the office. The through-line in the complaints is not workmanship — it is what happens at the property line and on the phone when something goes sideways. BuildZoom lists a Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, number 190629, under the company's own name with Martin Peal as owner, and says it checked it in July 2026; that is the directory's entry rather than a state confirmation, so it is worth verifying with Consumer Affairs before signing. Note too that the company works well beyond the landscaping-only work Massachusetts exempts from registration — retaining walls, decks and gazebos are squarely home-improvement work. This is a reasonable call for hardscape and yard-structure projects where a repeat relationship matters and Marty's own site visits are part of the deal. Before booking, agree in writing where debris goes and what the boundary treatment is with abutting properties, pin the material spec down in writing rather than by phone, and confirm the registration number yourself.