I hired a less than spectacular gardener to do a brand new landscaping job for my house after it was built about 3 years ago. Since then almost half of the 30 some plants and trees he had put have died or are very unhealthy. He has long been out of the picture. Likewise, of the 10 plants that I had personally placed, only one had died.

I recently dug up two of his dead Dogwood trees and noticed that the root system seemed to be surrounded by rusted steel wire. Is this normal to plant a dogwood with this surrounding the roots? I can understand it being there to hold the roots and dirt in place over transport but shouldn't he have removed the wire before planting it?

Is this normal for a landscaper to do?