Business of the Week: Gardens by the Yard

Wayland resident Leisha Marcoccio embraced a hobby in 2004. Today, that hobby is a full-grown business with employees, awards and clients throughout Wayland and other nearby towns.

Gardens by the Yard, Marcoccio’s business, embraces the idea that “Landscaping done well requires a balance of many disciplines — horticulture, engineering, life sciences, art and design, physical work and project management,” according to its website.

Marcoccio, a mechanical engineer by college and a Master Gardner by passion (and training, obviously), prides herself on bringing all those skills to the table when she meets with clients about “beautifying their outdoor rooms.”

In New England, those outdoor rooms are all situated in a natural woodland.

Marcoccio said that even residential spaces in New England, if left to their own devices, would return to their natural woodland setting. Understanding that setting is the first step in helping clients create landscapes they both enjoy and know how to manage.

“We try to work with folks to work with the existing setting they have,” Marcoccio said. “Plant choice can make a huge difference on the look, the quality of the curb appeal, and what kind of maintenance you have to put forward.”

She added that there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance landscape, but she does use “bulletproof plants” that require little pruning, deadheading and other maintenance to keep them healthy.

Gardens by the Yard, Marcoccio said, is unique in that the client is fully involved in the process, including updates on the project via email, text message, phone call or whatever works best.

Marcoccio serves as the primary customer contact, and she said some of the best tools she can offer clients are computer renderings of their landscape featuring the work her company plans to do.

“If a customer is invested and owns the design, they’re going to make it succeed,” Marcoccio said.

She said she sees each landscape as a problem-solving project, “not a recipe,” and since she’s an engineer by schooling, probelm-solving is right up her alley.

“I adore [landscaping],” Marcoccio said. “The passion for it is also what sells people on wanting to work with us. When I start going through with people what’s possible, they light up.”

More information is available at GardensByTheYard.com.