Comments regarding Gardens Alive!

I have been a member of Gardens Alive for over three years now. I use several of their products Regularly. I order for my indoor plants, outdoor gardening, pets and family. I like the worms castings, kelp meal, foliage Spray, Insect products, pet products, cleaning ..Every single item I have ever purchased from Gardens alive has been more than excellent ! I order from them several times a year good size orders each time. My orders are always packaged carefully and shipped fast. Shipping cost even for the heavy items I buy are low.
I always order from on line never a problem.
In over three years I have had only excellent service and products from Gardens Alive. I highly recommend them !

Prior to using Gardens Alive products I used a national chemical lawn-fertilizing service. The lawn started to thin out and needed a lot of water (we used to live in San Diego.) It's not that it looked bad, just unspectacular. I decided to try Lawns Alive from Gardens Alive. The lawn started to fill out, became green and lush, and needed far less water. I started using sea-kelp and several other products, all of which are truly excellent. The snail bait is the only product that didn't work for me, but now that we are in Illinois--who cares. Service with Gardens Alive has always been excellent, I receive 10% off for the Garden Club and use a coupon when I can. But truly, products this good are uncommon at any price.

I have ordered many things from them in the last few years, including beneficial insects and everything has come in great shape. I will be ordering from them in the future.

I placed an order very early in the year using the coupon for $25 in free product. I was wary at first, because it sounded too good to be true. Received my products promptly though, the 'Natural Beginnings Seed Starting Mix' and the 'organic yellow crookneck squash' seeds. Used both in the spring of 05 to start mutliple trays of seedlings. The yellow squash seeds performed beautifully, every one I planted sprouted and I have healthy plants that are bearing well. The seed starter mix was a disappointment though. It dries out very quickly, does not retain moisture well, and I had very poor seedling growth compared to other brands of starter mix I have used before. I would order the seeds again, but the remaining mix will just get tilled in to the garden as filler next spring.

On the advice of a good friend, I ordered a small batch of their "Tomatoes Alive!" product. The order came in a quick, timely fashion and the product works out quite nicely for me. I'm pleased and will gladly shop with them again. =)

I just placed and received another order from Garden's Alive and used their on-line discount to get 20.00 off. My order came in a very timely maner. I really love their products, especially because it is safe for my dog to be around.

Jodi

Very good selection of products, all work very well. Shipping is really slow, though. My plants have really benifited from the compost I ordered from them. Gardens Alive is a pretty good company, but it does not have the best customer service.

I placed 2 orders in August & one in October for spring delivery. In March I had to close & reopen all my bank accounts & debit cards due to a security breach. While I was waiting for my new cards, I got a letter from Breck's telling me my card was declined, but we sent your order, just pay using this coupon. The letter was dated 3/24/05. I wanted to check on my other orders, so the day after I got the letter, I checked the status. Both orders from August were cancelled. So I emailed them. No reply after a week, so I emailed again. I rec'd an automated reply saying I would get an answer in 24 hours. 6 DAYS later, I received a reply saying the other 2 orders were declined so they were cancelled. I figured as much, but I wanted to know why I wasn't notified at all & why they just sent an invoice on the other order? (One order was $7, one was $36 & one was $39, they sent the $36 one.) All I have gotten from them is one lie after another. One person says one thing, then another one says something else. One person said I was notified, I must not have gotten them. Right - yet I got the invoice. Then someone said that these orders were declined by my bank in SEPTEMBER. So, I called my bank - they did not decline any orders from Breck's in September. The declinations occurred on 3/23/05. So, bottom line is that after 9 days of emailing back and forth, I have not gotten a correct explanation, I have gotten various bits of information that I have proved to them are false and their latest claim is that they mailed one invoice on one order and expected me to contact them to fix the payments of the other 2. I got the invoice on 3/28, when I looked at the orders on 3/29 they were already cancelled. If this is the truth, they gave me ONE day. I will never do business with this company or any affiliate again. And as a side note - they have no toll-free number, so if you call them it's long distance, so email was the only option in my opinion.

I have been buying extensively from this company for about 10 years without any trouble (although I agree it would be nice if they took Amex). Their products have been excellent, and worked as advertised (including the gnat killer, but follow the directions carefully as a repeat dose is necessary). Delivery is very good, and customer service has always fixed any problem without any gruff. On one occassion I ordered two bird houses from their Audubon Workshop, but only one arrived in the package. When I called they immediately sent another, postage free. Their coupons have always worked via internet site for me, but be aware that using a coupon from Gardens Alive or Audubon Workshop is the same coupon, and be sure to click "update" when appropriate. The "Wow Plus" is a terrific organic lawn fertilizer/pre-emergence weed control, and far superior to chemical fertilizers, especially if you have trees. All of my neighbors now use it too. Today I'm ordering more using their buy 3 get one free promotion, and I'm getting the club member 10% discount, too, which just about covers the shipping costs. All of their pesticide and fungicide products are fine, and it's one of the few places to get a good liquid sulphur product for roses. I do wish they hadn't stopped selling "Maxicrop" kelp concentrate, and hope they bring it back. I use it all season long inside and out. Their discount plant offers are very reasonably priced and always arrive in excellent condition. Very highly recommended.

No problems at all with Gardens Alive! Their seed starting mix works great, and Escar Go is effective in ridding your garden of slugs.

Good first order. Requested catalogs for friends.

Second order initially placed on the website, but was problematic, so I called it in.

A week later my credit card was billed for a duplicate web order I did not place. With the trouble I had before, more web orders were out of the question. The computer was OFF at the alleged order time.

Customer Service response: "No sir, we show you placed it." Customer Service Manager: "No sir, I see it right here. A web order from you."

Never one word of acknowledgement that the error might be on their end.

I wrote the President of the company, after 10 days I got a terse e-mail from Customer Service saying, "We show you placed a web order on this date. Please send the item back and we will credit your card."

The item had long been sent back.

From the president on down, they treated me like I was trying to get something for free. A lot of Good Will, future business and future recommendations squandered here because of Bad Customer Service.

They must be doing awfully well for even the president of the company to take such a jaded attitude.

This was my first experience with this company. On the front of the Gardens Alive catalog was a $25.00 coupon, stating that there were no strings attached, to use towards my order. So I ordered the "Shield-All 2" which sells for $l8.75. With shipping the order totalled 24.70, so I not only received the Shield-All for FREE, but they also paid the postage....I owed nothing! I think this is good business because it allows the customer to try out their product for free or at a discounted price and I already feel positive about this company because of this....if the Shield-All works (its still too early up here in N.H. to use it) I would most definitely order it from them again. And by the way, the shipment arrived very quickly even though I placed the order by mail.

I love this company! I am new to organic gardening, and their prices are high so I joined the club to get the 10% off each order - it has more than paid for itself. I use a coupon every time I order - yes EVERY TIME!! Ya, gotta know how to surf the net. They always take the coupon - $20.00 off, plus they give me my 10% off. I have their respirator, house plant food, fertilizer, plant starter mix - which I highly recommend as I am a novice gardener and every seed came up using their product - I have their pet supplements (dog is allergic to grass, ergo need to be organic) and I just ordered their everything you need to organic garden kit with seeds. I paid the $4.95 for UPS, cause sometimes the postal system is rough. Good luck and good surfing!

Had to place my order via telephone because the website wouldn't take my coupon. But customer service rep was friendly, I got an immediate e-mail confirmation followed by a shipping notice the next day. Everything was packed well and delivered promptly.

I've had a very positive experience with ordering from this company. They e-mailed me when they received my order and e-mailed me when it was shipped. There was no problem with using their coupon. The order arrived yesterday.

I have been a customer of Garden's Alive! for quite some time now. I've tried to use their coupons as my orders can get pretty expensive. Some products, like Escar-Go did not work for me. But I kept ordering my favorites as I was transitioning my yard to organic. My last order did not go through on the internet after several attempts. So I ordered by phone the same day. The operator suggested I not use the web anymore because their site "never works". I asked why they don't fix it, but she didn't know. My order arrived and I was satisfied--except a 5lb bag of kelp never was packed with my order. Their records indicate it was sent, but it was not. Then today I received an e-mail notification that my order is being processed. I checked out what order they were talking about and it was the internet order that finally went through--ALMOST TWO MONTHS LATER and without the coupon discount included. Well, I called to tell them I already received this order since I made it by phone (duplicate items). The customer service rep. took about 30 minutes to sort it all out. She kindly said, "I will send you the kelp free of charge"--I said, "I would hope so...it's already paid for!" ANOTHER CUSTOMER LOST.

Gardens Alive's service seemed to be just fine. Although the coupon didn't work, as others have posted.
My problem is with the product I ordered. I spent $15.95 and with shipping it was about $25.00 to get rid of an infestation of fungus gnats. The product, Knock Out Gnats just did not work. I used as directed. If anything, the product actually encouraged gnat production! I know it is a larvicide and is not designed to get the adult bugs, but after two applications, witnessed the largest larvie hatch imaginable!
My container has the date 11/17/04 on it, so perhaps it has expired.

I have had great success with Gardens Alive products. They take the guess work out of organic gardening. However, I only buy their products with a discount or coupon. Without that they are too expensive.

Have ordered twice; so far, so good! Interesting products, reasonable prices (promotions and discounts abound), prompt delivery.

I received a catalog by mail, along with a coupon for $25.00 off the total of my order free. This was my first order using the free coupon. I went online and ordered Tomatoes Alive 1lb bag, and Liquid Kelp 1 quart. I only had to pay .85 cents after the coupon savings. I ordered on March 10th and recieved my order on March 16th. It came nicely packed, and was exactly what I ordered. It came by USPS, and I was able to use the tracking system to see where my package was while on its way here. This will be my first time using these products, so I can't say yet how they work. However, I can say I was satisfied with my experience as far as ordering the merchandise and receiving it a timely manner.

I used their coupon last season and purchased some compost from them. I love the brown paper bags and I am thrilled with the results the compost gave to my roses and other plants. I will buy from them again if the coupon is available. Their prices are too high for me if the coupon isn't available.

I have ordered from Garden's Alive many times over a period of several years & have NEVER had any problem. I love the fact that many of their products come in biodegradeable brown paper bags instead of plastic, & most importantly, that their products actually DO what they're advertised to DO. I've purchased row covers for the veggie garden, bird netting for my fruit trees, organic pest sprays, & fertilizers. Everything has worked perfectly, was shipped quickly, & was fairly priced. My only beef would be that they don't take American Express, which is what I use for all my garden purchases. If they did, I would probably order even more from them - lol!!

I'm also a member of their "Stay Organic Club", which gives me an additional 10% off of all my purchases. I've already made back the minor membership fee twice over in savings.

I ALWAYS use the wonderful $20 gift coupon that comes on the cover of my monthly catalog. It couldn't be in plainer language that you have to order $40 worth of goods in order to get the $20 off. Which in essence means that you are getting $20 worth of products free & are only actually paying $20.

i got a gardens alive catalog with a 20dollar coupon no strings atatched try us FREE so i used it deducted coupon sent remainder got product in almost 4 weeks a week later got a bill money due for amount of coupon called but they said i needed to spend $40 to use the coupon i saw nothing like this on the catalog OR coupon OR order form if i owed 20 dollars WHY did they ship the product ( their shipping is costly)customer service was rude no satisfaction here im sending the back they said they would pay for the return (wait and see) avoid this RIP OFF stillerfan in PITTSBURGH

After seeing the recent negative comments I was hesitant to order from this company, but they had 2 items I could not find any place else. I ordered online 10 March, and got my order today on 14 March. I could not ask for better service. I would order from them again.

I received their March catalog this past week. (I've never heard of them before nor used their products.)

Prominently on the front page was a $25 coupon so that I could "Try [their] products absolutely FREE, no hook, no minimum order"

When I added two small items to my order online basket and tried to apply the coupon, it said "offer is expired". Even though the coupon clearly states it expires 5/4/05 and their is a big yellow sticker on the cover saying "Hurry! Offer expires May 4, 2005"

This is NOT the best way to welcome new customers. My time is valuable - and I hate companies that waste it.

Also to note, shipping and handling on a $25 order is a whopping $7.99. That's almost 1/3 of the total ...

Be very cautious when dealing with this company. I ordered from several of their subsidiary companies before I learned they were all owned by Gardens Alive. My experiences have ranged from great to abysmal, from live plants to sticks in a bag. One order placed with their "free" coupon ended up costing me money in shipping and one never arrived at all. This company really needs to work on getting their act together and being consistant. If they cannot supply good products from the companies they own, they should be closing those down, not continuing to send bad products.

I've ordered from Gardens Alive several times over the past year and have been very happy with their customer service and their products. Their natural fertilizers and insect control potions do what they say they're going to do, and they do it well. To get the best prices, call them and ask if they have any coupons in effect when you want to order. The coupons often come attached to their catalogs, but if you can't find one, call and ask. They almost always have some variation of a "$25 off $50" kind of coupon in force, even for existing customers.

I have ordered many things over the years and have been extremely pleased with this company's fast and reliable service.
Re: CountryDaddy
It would be wonderful if all companies used their own photos of products, but most companies from computers to food to plants etc. use bought disks of 1,000's of photographs in their ads. The reason is it's cheaper, simpler and faster than paying someone on their staff to photograph something. This is why so many ads look the same :) I would check a plant reference site (not a place that sells plants) to see if I could find a photo and information before purchasing if accuracy in that was important.

I have never actually dealt with Gardens Alive, but I have with both Gurney's and Henry Field's and I have no complaints with either company as far as service or quality. However, I have discovered something mildly disturbing and I am posting my comments here because they pertain to both of the latter and since they are both affiliated with Gardens Alive.

I was going to order rhubarb roots and I started checking in each of several catalogs to see which variety I might like to order. In doing this, I happened to notice that in Gurney's catalog the photo of Valentine rhubarb was the same photo used by Henry Field's for Chipman's Canadian Red. "Hmmm¡ mistake?", I wondered,... so I began comparing other photos in the two catalogs and here is what else I found;
...The photo for Honey & Pearl sweet corn in the HF catalog is the same photo used by Gurney's for Quickie sweet corn, but the photos are reverse of each other.
...The subject matter in the photo for HF's Sweet Purple asparagus is obviously the same as Gurney's Purple Passion, with one spear slightly moved.
...The same goes for HF's photo of Annie Oakley okra and Gurney's Clemson Spineless.
...In the HF catalog, the photos for Detroit Dark Red beets and for Ruby Queen are the same photo, reversed.
...HF's photo of Little Finger carrots is the same as Gurney's Scarlet Nantes.
...HF's photo for Tendertreat sweet corn is the same as Gurney's Illini Xtra Sweet.
...HF's photo for Earli-Dew cantaloupe is the same as Gurney's Milky Way.
Obviously, in each case only one or maybe neither is the correct photo for the variety coupled with it. I don't know about everyone else, but I always trusted the photos in catalogs to be accurate representations of the products. Now I can't do that with these two companies. I will still buy from them, but only products that I am already familiar with.

WILL THE REAL VEGGIE PLEASE STAND UP!

I got a coupon for free product and chose their seed starting mixture. It really is good and I have had better than usual success with my seedlings. Ordering was easy and product arrived quickly. And the product really was free. I didn't even have to pay shipping.

While my experience is for their free product offer, I
must say I was thrilled to find a big box on my porch
this afternoon, and because it was free, even better.

I tried their complimentary coupon for a bag of seed
starting mix, and was rather suprised to see it so quickly.
I send the coupon in via snail mail a couple weeks ago.

While my first time was free of charge, I have to admit
I'm tempted to order some of the fertilizers.

We shall see. :-)

I've been ordering from them for a few years now, and am a huge fan of their Escar-Go and seed starting mix. I've never had any trouble with my orders. The last two orders I never received any shipping confirmation via email, which is desirable, but none the less, I'll continue to order from them.

I have dealt with this company over a period of years. Their products do what they claim. Their service is efficient; they fill orders accurately. I have filled two orders in the past couple of months and am completely satisfied with both products and service.

Strong positive experience: over the last 5 months, I've placed several orders with Gardens Alive and its related company, Henry Field's. I've ordered seeds, plants, gardening-related items, and humane mouse traps from them. Each time, I've received good-quality products and prompt, courteous customer service. I will definitely order from either or both companies again. I have no affiliation with either company, other than being a satisfied repeat customer.

Ordered 10 daylilies on special. All arrived in good condition. A couple were on the small side, but prices were good, about $2 each + shipping.

My experience with this company was a definate Positive. They are very effecient.

The item was alot less expensive than other sites and shipped a lot sooner than the time the time allotted by the company.

My only concern however, was the item is not supossed to come in contact with skin but the bottle that it is sold in drips down the side when you pour it.

I have made 2 purchases from Gardens Alive. My first order was with the $20 off coupon (which worked just fine!) for their unique oil/pesticide combination, Pyola. This stuff is wonderful and less toxic than most! The order was processed quickly and arrived very quickly.

My second purchase was the Asiatic Lilly Collection. I ordered 2 and they arrived quickly. I planted the nice, good-sized bulbs immediately and I am already enjoying wonderful blooms. I highly recommend this collection and Gardens Alive!

Recently I ordered a bag of fertilizer and some miniature roses from Gardens Alive. The roses arrived in fine shape and are doing great. The fertilizer, however, didn't appear, though the shipping receipt was in my mailbox. I called them and asked what to do in this situation; without hesitation the operator told me she was sending a replacement bag, this time via UPS, at no cost to me, and that this was their standard policy (the organic fertilizer in question is expensive stuff, I should add). Over the years I have ordered lots of products from Gardens Alive and have always been well satisfied. They are an excellent company.

I've used them for years for organic pest controls, with a lot of success. They're expensive and their shipping costs sometimes make me gulp, but their products have worked - especially the Escar-Go, the corn gluten products, and some of their insect controls. I was very impressed, too, this spring - the day I received my order, I also received a small refund check - they were apparently running a sale I didn't know about and gave me the sale price.

(I've never bought any of their plants.)