The Narrow Lane

The Narrow Lane Company is a Needham, MA landscape design-build firm working across Greater Boston — Newton, Norwood and the city itself turn up in customer accounts — founded by Ron Goode in 2009, with Jonathan Gulley as CEO and Scott Koenig as chief operating officer per its own website. It designs and builds the whole outdoor project: stone patios and walkways, retaining and boulder walls, plantings and garden beds, irrigation, drainage, landscape lighting and fire pits, plus weekly maintenance and snow and ice service. Its Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration (#172461) is active in the state registry, and the Better Business Bureau grades it A+ and lists it as accredited. The customer history is deep and consistently strong: 4.9 stars from 88 Google reviews, 4.8 from 126 on Angi and 4.6 from 10 on Houzz, with a hundred written accounts running from 2015 into 2026. Reviewers name the designer they worked with — Jeremy, Alison, Julianna, Nicole, Ron — and describe a process that starts with listening. In May 2026 a homeowner said Ron helped them visualize the backyard and offered ideas they had not considered; in a December 2025 review, a Newton family described Jeremy guiding a patio, seating area and soake pool through design, permits and installation. A November 2025 customer hired the firm to replace a faulty retaining wall left by a previous landscaper and said the job finished on time; an October 2025 reviewer said crews made visible progress every day and finished on schedule; another that month in Norwood had retaining walls, driveway paving, irrigation, lighting, hydroseed and walkways all done in one project. When bluestone pavers discolored, an April 2025 customer said the crew was back within days to replace them, and a 2022 reviewer recalled Ron talking them out of laying sod without irrigation during the 2020 drought. In a May 2025 r/newtonma thread, a poster listed Narrow Lane among the companies they had good experiences with for various jobs. The complaints are few but pointed. In a June 2026 review, a homeowner who paid a substantial fee for a front-yard redesign called the experience disappointing and said they would not use the firm again. In an October 2023 Angi review, a customer with a small front lawn said they reached out in June or July, planting did not start until mid-October, and communication was the worst they had experienced with a contractor. In a 2016 Angi review, a snow-plowing customer said crews did not always show up and often arrived late in the evening. A May 2025 reviewer noted the firm was not the cheapest bid but worked with them to trim costs. For a full-scale yard redesign in the western suburbs — hardscape, planting, drainage and lighting handled by one team — this is one of the most consistently praised firms around, at a price to match. Ask which designer will lead your project, get the start window and design-fee terms in writing, and if you only need a small planting job or seasonal plowing, ask how it will be scheduled against their larger builds.