Refuge Design & Landscape

Our nightmare of a backyard needed serious help and expertise to remedy. The yard would flood after any rain that wasn’t a light drizzle and we’d quite literally have ducks swimming in our backyard. The yard was a disaster every spring after the snow melted until it was hot enough to clear it up. We have dogs and it was a muddy mess. We hated the yard and it was an eye sore. We reached out to SO MANY landscapers over the last 2 years who gave us quotes and solutions that didn’t sound confident their work would solve it and they all had different plans. We didn’t know who to trust and this was going to cost a lot of money so we needed this project to work. I reached out to Ramsey county to inquire about their grant program for native landscaping for storm water management and applied for their grant. I was approved the entire amount! Then I found Matt who has a lot of experience in rain gardens and sustainable landscape practices - we finally felt we met someone who was confident in managing this. It took a long time to get here. Matt and his crew just finished this huge project in the backyard. They regraded most of the yard, installed a rain garden to specs, installed French drains, and planted native species that are dog friendly and easy for us to maintain. The county is reimbursing a large portion of this project otherwise it would not have been possible. Matt communicated and coordinated with me and the county to ensure this was all done to scope and Matt pivoted when the county required changes or had specific requests for the funding of this project. The yard isn’t pretty yet, and it probably won’t be for awhile, but we know it will be!! We are so excited to see the yard when the snow melts next year and we are so excited to see the rain garden in action after a heavy rain. Matt has been a great resource and has answered so many of our questions and requests. We’ve felt confident in his expertise which has been so refreshing after all the time and research we’ve spent on this. We will have him out for the next several years to help us maintain and manage the rain garden to ensure it remains healthy and happy and grows appropriately. I’ve got some before and after for reference - we’ve had some ongoing, light rain after the completion and it’s already working. Mind you the rain started a couple days after the project completed, so there’s still a little pooling, but the ground hasn’t had a chance to settle and there isn’t any grass yet to mitigate the rain we’ve had. But it’s a massive improvement and we can’t wait to see it handle the rain next year. Big relief. Thank you Matt!!!

Matt and his team at Refuge installed the landscaping design my friend created for my backyard. In about a week my backyard went from blah to brilliant! Matt and the team helped me work out beautiful details like - stone color and transitions, custom raised garden beds, to creating a little entry pad near one of my fence gates. This is my second time using Refuge, and the team deserves the 5-star rating!

I am so happy I found Refuge for our landscaping project. Matt is fantastic to work with and really helped make my vision come to life! The entire process was so smooth, great communication and we will be using Refuge again for future landscaping projects. The front yard to our building is now beautiful.

Matt and team did a great job cleaning up our planting beds with mulch and new plants. They also cut and ground the stumps for our old hedges to open up the front of our house and disposed of a bunch of old worn out plantings.... Excuse the grass in my photos... that's my next project, and no doubt Refuge would have regraded and sodded it beautifully had I asked them.

We are very happy with the patio and deck that Refuge worked on. Matt was easy to work with during the design process. He listened well to what we wanted, our design style, and he provided some really nice suggestions that we incorporated. The work itself was top notch and was completed quickly. We had a couple things change during the build and working through those changes was very easy. Definitely the most enjoyable project we've ever done. I highly recommend Refuge for landscape work. Matt has a great design eye and really top notch staff. The photos show Refuge's work on patio and deck, but we are doing plantings, so don't judge them by barren yard!