The story behind Landscape Solutions and Maintenance
John Riera didn’t start out swinging a hammer. Before landscaping, he spent years as a corporate executive chef, running kitchens where every plate had to look exactly right and every detail mattered. That habit of obsessing over the work followed him outside.
He started Landscape Solutions and Maintenance in 2012 with a simple belief: most of the backyards in West Hartford, Avon, Simsbury and the surrounding towns are full of wasted potential. Beautiful homes. Real budgets. Owners who entertain, raise families, and want to actually use the space behind the house. And almost none of them had a backyard that matched the rest of their property.
Thirteen years later, that’s still the work. John runs a small, experienced crew that handles every project from start to finish. No subcontractor surprises. No assembly-line builds. No commodity lawn-cutting. Just hardscape transformations done right by a team that has built more than two hundred backyards across Hartford County.
“I tell people, listen, go out and price things out. Get different quotes from other people. I stand behind my work for years after it. If something falls apart, we come back and fix it. My goal is to build relationships, not chase one-off jobs.”
What makes Landscape Solutions different
We bring real equipment, real insurance, and a real warranty
Every project shows up with $200,000 to $300,000 of professional equipment on site, depending on what the build needs. Boulder walls don’t get installed with shovels. Patios that span a thousand square feet don’t get leveled by hand. A retaining wall holding back a slope isn’t a job for someone who borrowed a skid steer for the weekend.
We carry a $2 million umbrella insurance policy. If something happens on your property, you’re covered. If someone gets hurt, you’re covered. If a tree comes down the wrong way during excavation, you’re covered. That’s not a sales pitch; that’s the baseline a serious contractor should meet.
And we stand behind the work for years after the job ends. If a paver settles, we come back and re-set it. If a joint opens up, we re-fill it. If something doesn’t perform the way we said it would, we make it right. That’s not a marketing line. It’s the actual reason most of our clients hire us a second time.
We work in writing, with everything spelled out
One of the most common ways landscape projects go sideways is verbal scope creep. Homeowner remembers John mentioning a thing. John remembers a different thing. Both walk away frustrated.
So our contracts itemize everything. Fifty feet of steel edging on the north side. One hundred feet on the south side. Three boulder steps. Four hundred square feet of bluestone. Eight low-voltage uplights. The exact pavers, the exact stone, the exact quantities. When you sign the contract, you know exactly what we’re building. When we finish, you know exactly what you got.
This is also how we work with the design architect we partner with. Most projects over $20,000 benefit from a real to-scale blueprint before the build starts. Aaron at Mapletree Nursery is the architect we trust with that work. He bills hourly, you pay him directly, and you keep the blueprint regardless of who eventually does the work. That blueprint becomes the foundation of our contract.
We don’t take every job
Most of what we build sits between $20,000 and $200,000. Custom patios, water features, fire features, boulder and retaining walls, full property transformations. The kind of work that takes weeks, not afternoons.
If you’re looking for someone to drop ten yards of mulch and call it a day, we’re not the right fit and we’ll happily tell you that on the first call. The same goes for shopping a quote against the cheapest number you can find. We’ll always be in the higher end of the middle on price. We’ll never be the cheapest. The customers who hire us understand that they’re paying for the work that lasts five and ten years out, not the work that looks acceptable for a season.
That doesn’t mean we’re rigid. For longtime clients we’ve worked with for years, we’ll happily come back to install a granite bench, a bubbling boulder, or fix something small without making it a project. That’s part of the relationship.
The kind of work we say yes to
Custom patios, water features, fire features, retaining walls, boulder walls, walkways, full backyard design and build, drainage solutions, and follow-on work for past clients.
The kind we politely pass on: emergency mulch jobs, one-off lawn cutting for new contacts, projects where the homeowner is comparing us to the cheapest possible bid, and anything we don’t think we can do right.
The work we’ve done
More than two hundred backyard transformations across Hartford County since 2012. Every project photographed. Every client name on our review list. Five-star ratings on Google, Houzz and Facebook with no exceptions, because we don’t take a job we can’t make great.
The portfolio leans heavy on water features and hardscape because that’s where John’s craftsmanship shows best. Boulder walls that look like they grew out of the ground. Waterfalls that move enough water to actually sound like water. Patios laid so flat that ten years later you still can’t find a puddle after a storm. Fire features that anchor a backyard the way a fireplace anchors a living room.
If you want to see the work, the gallery is at Transformations. Most projects have a story attached, the town, and a few notes about what made each one specific. If you see something close to what you have in mind, mention it on the phone and we’ll bring photos to your design visit.
Who you’ll actually be working with
John Riera, Owner and Lead Designer
John handles every first call, every property walk, and every design conversation personally. You’re not getting passed to a salesperson and you’re not waiting two weeks for an estimate. When you call (860) 200-3506, you’re talking to the person who’s going to design and run your project.
That’s a deliberate choice. Most contracting headaches come from the gap between what the salesperson promised and what the crew actually does. We removed the gap by removing the salesperson.
A small experienced crew
Three to four full-time team members who have worked together for years. They know how to read a print, set a stone, and rebuild a section if something isn’t right. They’re the people who actually show up at your house in the branded truck. They’re insured. They’re employees, not day labor.
Aaron at Mapletree Nursery, Design Partner
For projects that need a real blueprint, John works directly with Aaron, a landscape architect at Mapletree Nursery. Aaron handles the to-scale drawings, plant selection, and the design work that turns a backyard idea into a buildable plan. He bills hourly through Mapletree, you pay him directly, and the blueprint is yours. We use it to price the build, but it’s your document.
Licenses, insurance, and credentials
● Connecticut Home Improvement Contractor — registered and current
● Fully insured with a $2 million umbrella policy
● Workers’ compensation coverage on every crew member
● Houzz Trade Pro with 5.0 stars across 13 reviewed projects
● Google Business Profile at 5.0 stars across 8 reviews
● Facebook Business Page at 4.8 stars across 24 votes
If you want to verify anything before we meet, ask on the call. We’ll send you the registration numbers, the insurance certificate, and any reference you’d like to talk to.
The towns we serve
Most of our work sits inside a tight corridor in northwest Hartford County and the eastern edge of Litchfield County. That tight geography is intentional. It means we can be on your property quickly when something needs attention, we know the soil and the drainage patterns, and we’ve worked on enough homes in your specific neighborhood to know what tends to come up.
How to get started
The first step is always a ten-minute phone call. You tell us what you have, what you’ve been thinking about, and roughly when you’d want it done. We tell you straight whether we’re the right fit. If we are, we book a property visit. If we’re not, we point you toward someone who is.
No estimate over the phone. No high-pressure sales call. No five-hour quote meeting. Just a real conversation between you and the person who’s going to do the work.
See whether your project is the right fit.
Ten-minute call with John. No pressure, no commitment, no sales pitch.