Boodle Concepts

Ben is a dream to work with. He believes in a quality result and listens to his clients needs. We have used Ben for three projects now and would always have him back to do more. Ben brings great ideas to the table and gives the client images and drawings so it is perfectly clear what the end result will be. Always on time and excellent at follow up. We can’t thank him enough. Now we love driving up to our house. The view is wonderful. Thanks Ben

Ben worked with us on our front garden and totally transformed it from unusable, to a space that the whole family can enjoy. He understood exactly what we wanted and provided us with a design that maximised the usability of the space as well as making it look beautiful! Ben worked with us a team, listening to our ideas (including our 3 and 5 year olds), suggesting great ideas, whilst keeping in mind our budget and requirements for a low maintenance garden. There was always clear and transparent communication which we really appreciated. His work is very neat, and he pays attention to detail. We especially love our corner bench, and the garden fairies that he made. Ben is friendly and very easy to work with. We are extremely happy with what Ben has done with our garden. We would highly recommend him to anyone.

We worked with Ben to give our backyard a complete overhaul. And the result was way beyond what we expected. We came in to this with very little ideas, although we knew we wanted something low maintenance. As we thought more about it, we really wanted no maintenance! Ben came to us with a few different designs, and we fell in love with one of them. He was so easy to work with throughout the construction. He was clear with communication around times and days he was not going to be available, as well as prices for anything that we hadn't factored in or thought of beforehand.The end result has created a whole new space for us to use, and has extended our living space to the outdoors. We love the space he has created, and we know we have added not only value to our property, but more importantly, a space for us to create memories. Thanks Ben!

Working with Ben to redo our small front garden was a great experience. He had great ideas, consulted and discussed all aspects of the project and his attention to detail was fabulous. Project started on time, standard of work great, communication was brilliant and Ben made the whole process easy . We are delighted with the finished product Would recommend Boodle Concepts to anyone wanting something different and done well.

Ben helped me with a big tidy and revamp of my courtyard and front yard. The end result was different than what I originally intended- I just wanted a bit of a tidy, but Ben was able to suggest a range of options that I hadn't considered before, though without being pushy. The yard looks very neat and tidy, and is something I'll be able to maintain. Ben is easy to work with, has great communication, and most importantly, is reliable! He also quickly fixed any small issues. Looking forward to more updates in the future.

BEN is a gentleman . He worked with great passion an creativity to design a front garden for ouR house. He also created walls in our backyard for some amazing wall art to be hung . HE worked systematically with us , communicating his ideas in clear and cohesive ways always respecting yours as well. I would totally recommend him

Reliable, efficient, and most importantly flexible. I had two jobs done by Boodle, both were done professionally. Solid work for a good price, and Ben is very pleasant to interact with. Would contract Boodle again anytime --- in fact I'm right in the middle of doing that.

I am the Chair of an Owner's Corporation that manages a 3 hectare site in sT Kilda . We have extensive gardens that were in a state of disrepair. We engaged Ben to assist us to improve them. Ben was creative, professional and quickly understood our needs and budget to assist us to upgrade our gardens. He carried out the work without fuss. Feedback from residents is that the gardens look the best they have in years.

Ben is talented fast and reliable . He adds his own artistic flair to the job. He has solutions for screening and uses the most magnificent sculptural pieces .. He pricing is fair and affordable f He Knows how to create the wow factor in your garden

During our initial consultation with Ben we were very happy with the passion he displayed and ideas that he suggested for our garden. He prepared a schematic of the garden and we were pleased with the proposal, so were therefore keen to move forward with the project. However, we experienced a significant number of issues once the project was underway: · The quality of the work carried out by the fencing contractors employed was abysmal. There were a significant number of gaps in sections of the fence and instances of panels that hadn’t been fully nailed on to the frame. We eventually managed to get Ben to arrange for them to return to try to resolve the issues (although had to oversee this ourselves), but now that the wood has settled we are still left with gaps in places. The contractors have since failed to return our calls to try to resolve this. · A small area of the existing decking was damaged during the work. Whilst accidents obviously happen, Ben was adamant that it was pre-existing. Luckily we had photographic evidence (he shared the same) of the state prior to work commencing and he grudgingly agreed to repair the damage, whilst still maintaining that he accepted no liability for the damage occurring. · Ben was very quick to add any additional costs to the invoice, which is understandable – but was extremely reluctant to remove any costs for work not carried out. During the planning stage we agreed with Ben that we were looking to reduce the quote in certain areas and he was in agreement with this. Two significant examples stand out: o The quote included costs to be incurred in the removal of a large metal shed as well as various trees and plants. Despite us removing this all prior to work commencing Ben was reluctant to reduce the quote accordingly. He ended up offering to stain the new decking in return; however, this was already something that was agreed up front! o The quote included an amount to cover the laying of a new concrete slab for the new shed to sit on. Instead of pursing this option we agreed to cut down the existing block which was already in place. However, Ben was insistent on charging for a new slab – essentially trying to charge us for our own concrete ($650 incl. GST). · Whilst the work was being undertaken, Ben was very defensive with any questions we raised. We agreed to set aside some time each morning so as to minimize us interrupting him, but I was told at one point to leave him alone to get on with his job. We ended up consolidating our questions in an email, but the feedback received was that Ben questioned our right as customers to query any of his work. We found this attitude to customer service extremely poor. · The lawn was laid with significant gaps in places, which we ended up having to fill ourselves. We have given it six months to settle, hence the delay in review, but it is still very uneven. · Ben was initially going to employ a contractor to lay the new decking – however ended up doing the work himself to cut costs. We have ended up after around three months with a decking which is cracked in a large number of areas and looks worse than the existing one laid between 5-10 years ago (albeit this one is under cover). · Ben ended up refusing to carry out certain parts of the work, which was disappointing – however was keen to complete others, which we found confusing. Given this attitude we felt it best to terminate any further work on the project and agree to a final settlement amount. At the end of the work being completed Ben tried to justify all of the above items and tried to portray us as being unreasonable in expecting a high quality job being completed in line with our expectations. We paid a significant amount of money (>$20k) for a small garden to be upgraded, so were extremely disappointed with this attitude and with various aspects of the end result. We would obviously not recommend working with Ben again as we would not want others to have to go through the same unpleasant experience.

My husband had been searching in the local papers for landscapers, and we’d had a few around to quote but had not been impressed. I had come across Houzz and decided to see if we could use it to find gardens that inspired us and see who created them. That’s how we found Ben Carter and we’re so glad we did. We were looking to re-landscape the front garden of our home in McKinnon. It came with a rose garden that had been run down by years of neglectful tenants. We wanted to start over completely. He was so excited that we wanted a native garden and understood that we were after something low maintenance. He got straight to work on a plan which was done within a day or two. The garden itself was completed within just a few weeks, and within our original budget (the low end of the indicated range). Ultimately we added to the plan: we needed a new driveway now, not later, and Ben helped us select the perfect exposed aggregate for it. We also decided that this was the time to set up a rainwater tank, and Ben advised us on size and a colour that ties in with the house and garden. We also realised we needed something to act as a screen outside our bedroom window and he sourced us a beautiful one, from Entanglements whose work I loved, on sale no less. He coordinated professionally with our plumber and identified an excellent tradie to lay the exposed aggregate driveway. And the result? The plants, trees, woodchips, pebbles and rocks he selected (in consultation) tie in with the bricks of our house and garden wall as well as the tree on the verge. We have a sitting area from which to admire the natural features, and to listen to the water in the frog pond he set up at our daughter’s request. In the end, we insisted that he display a sign so people would know who created our garden. We look forward to working with him again in the future. That’s the highest recommendation we can provide.