Hey guys, this blog post is going to be a little different than most of my posts. I wanted to give you something a little more personal about my journey in the landscape business and why I chose to stop providing lawncare services. First things first though, let’s talk about why I even started my own business.
I’ve been working in the landscape business for about 5 years now, mostly working for other landscaping companies. At first, it was just a way to make some money over the summer and pay for school and other bills, but I soon realized that I actually loved working hard and coming home exhausted after a fulfilling day of putting my body to work to help others. At that point, I was in school for mining engineering and honestly, I hated most of my classes. The only classes I actually enjoyed were the classes about mining and how we can use the world’s resources to improve lives and make money. So I figured I would combine my love for hard work and my interest for mining. I dropped out of university and took a course to get my drilling and blasting license.
The course was a lot of fun and when I got back home I started applying to every mining job I could find while working some odd jobs and eventually ending up back in the landscape industry. I soon found out that it was a lot harder than I expected to get a mining job. Whether it was because of where I lived or my lack of experience, I couldn’t tell you, but nobody wanted to hire me. I applied for one job at a mine that my cousin worked at, and while I was optimistic, I knew there was a good chance I would get the same results. My cousin said they’d be hiring in January 2020, and I told myself that if I didn’t get the job I would find a new career path to pursue. So that’s exactly what I did.
I didn’t get the job, so I decided to start my own lawncare business. I figured that if I was going to continue working in the industry, I’d rather be working for myself than making my boss rich. I knew that start-up costs were relatively low and that I could build a steady weekly income from regular cuts. I started planning in the winter with plans to launch in the spring. I registered my business, built a website, and ordered some business cards (with lots of help from family and friends). My plan was to go door to door to advertise my business as I already had some experience doing door to door sales. Everything was going as planned until I started pounding the pavement and the whole world was hit with the pandemic.
Very few people would even open their doors for me and those who did were telling me to go home. I was furious. My plan was falling apart just as it was starting. I knew I would have to move my marketing strategies online if I wanted to get any clients, but there was nothing special about my business model to make me stand out. I was like every other property maintenance company but worse: I had no track record and no clients. I couldn’t figure out what kind of content to post because I thought my business was pretty self-explanatory. Cut grass. Trim shrubs and trees. Clean up leaves. I needed something that made me special.
Now at this point in my life, I cared about the environment but it certainly didn’t show in my actions. I was eating tons of meat, buying single use plastics, running a wasteful business centered around growing a useless crop, and I’m embarrassed to say it but I was littering. My uncle John and my sister Brooke were both immersed in the world of sustainability and waste reduction. They were great role models for me and I knew that all the excessive consumption I was partaking in needed to stop. Then I learned about native plants and carbon sequestration and my business did a 180.
I realized that my business didn’t need to be a part of the problem but rather it could be part of the solution. Suddenly, I had many topics that I was passionate about that I could use to create content for my website and my social media accounts. I could plant trees and prairie grasses to absorb carbon rather than burning fossil fuels doing lawn maintenance. These landscapes modeled after nature could attract pollinators and other wildlife. I could even grow food crops to give my clients better food security. I was no longer in the lawncare business. I was in the habitat restoration and urban farming business.
It became my mission to make sustainable, carbon-negative landscapes that are both beautiful and functional. I gave my website a complete makeover and announced that I would no longer be providing lawncare service. I knew that I had something real when I got my first client who wasn’t a friend or family member. My brother Josh and I planted 7 native trees on their property, reducing the total area of their lawn and providing cherries for their family (and the birds). I was finally doing something I could be proud of.
Since then, my business has continued to evolve in many ways and I’m excited to continue to watch it grow and change. Unfortunately, not everybody thinks the same way as me and I continue to get requests for non-native plants and sod jobs. While I may take some non-native tree planting jobs that I don’t fully agree with because I still think it’s better than turf grass, I continue to refuse any work that involves lawncare. When I get requests for lawncare, I always tell them about the lawn alternatives we provide but so many people are set on having a pristine, green, monoculture of Kentucky bluegrass covering their whole property.
I’m stil far from perfect and I know I have so much more to learn about sustainable landscaping. I’m learning more every day and I’m excited to have you along for the ride! I hope to continue to get my message out there and hopefully get people to think a little bit more about how they can use their land to heal the planet.
We only have one!
