I’ve often been asked, “Why doesn’t Green Industry Pros publish its own version of the Biggest Landscape Companies list”? My first response is: Because somebody else does. My second response is: Because all but a few landscape companies are privately held, so verifying the financial data would be extremely time-consuming, if not impossible. My third response is: Who cares?

I mean, it’s interesting, I guess, to see who made the list or to see how much bigger (or lately, smaller) TruGreen got, or to try and figure out who should be on the list but isn’t because they didn’t fill out the entry form. But to the overwhelming majority of our landscape contractor readers, who by and large operate on a local level, none of this matters. They know who their competition is—big and small—so this list provides no value to them.

We want to simply focus on good ideas that help all landscape companies get better. We don’t use sales volume as a barometer for good ideas, which is why we aren’t even publishing sales figures in our contractor stories anymore. I remember what Arizona contractor David Spector once said to me: “My company’s success simply comes down to feet on the ground.” In other words, to the client, the only thing that matters is how a given crew services their given property. One of the big market research firms I track also said it well: “Large landscape companies still operate on a localized, branch level.” So there you go.

Just look at the numbers. I’m not dogging the huge companies. They do phenomenal things for our industry. I’m just saying that this industry rises and falls on the strength of its “middle class” so to speak.

For instance:

• The 100 or so biggest landscape companies have like 10% market share … the four Titans of Turf and Trees (TruGreen, Brickman, ValleyCrest and Davey Tree) have around 5% all on their own
• The other 90% of market share is fought over by tens of thousands of landscape companies

Now consider this:

• Roughly 95% of landscape companies have fewer than 20 employees, and sales of no more than $2 million or so
• Roughly 75% of landscape companies have fewer than 4 employees, and sales of no more than $300,000 or so

So as you can see, in terms of sheer numbers, this industry is largely made up of numerous “smaller” companies. The really successful ones all look and act “big” in their clients’ eyes.

Let’s give some “hidden gems” some recognition! Here’s one more statistic to chew on: There are somewhere in the ballpark of 3,500 to 4,500 landscape contractors with sales between $2 and $10 million. Keep in mind that the cut-off point to make a biggest-companies list is around $12-13 million.

So … what about the hundreds if not thousands of contractors that are not quite big enough to make a top 100 type of list, but are still outstanding companies that are doing innovative things, creating jobs and enriching lives in their communities? Who are they? Don’t they deserve some recognition of their own? And what about those companies that aren’t anywhere near large enough to make a top 100 type of list? Many are also innovative, philanthropic, and deserving of some recognition.

We want to start the process of assembling a list of “hidden gems” in the Green Industry. If you think your company is a hidden gem that deserves some recognition, click on one of the links below to fill out a quick form (will take you literally a minute or two).

Sales from $100,000 to $2 million

Second in a four-part series in which Steve Whysall looks at gardening and professional horticulture

Today: a look at a landscape course offered at UBC

Ron Rule, one of Vancouver’s most successful garden designers, has been running the Landscape Design certificate program at the University of B.C. for the past 14 years.

The six-month course appeals to people with a variety of interests and motivations.

Some students are keen to launch themselves into a career as full-time garden designers.

Others are already working in horticulture and have either landscape installation or maintenance companies and are eager to add design skills to their portfolio.

Avid home gardeners also take the course to learn more about the basics of good garden design so they can put the knowledge to work for themselves in their own gardens.

“We get about 35 to 40 students a year with ages ranging from the 20s to the 60s, although most students are about 35 to 40,” Rule says.

“We have made a policy from the beginning of trying to achieve as diverse a group of people as possible – doctors, nurses, computer people, pilots, graphic designers, architects. We like that. Some of our graduates have gone on to do landscape architecture.”

Started in 1997, the design certificate program came out of a garden history course that Rule was teaching at UBC. The Continuing Education department asked him to design a course because there was a lot of demand for it.

“We studied the top garden schools in North America and England and came up with a curriculum covering five basic modules. We basically took all the best ideas from all the different schools,” Rule says.

The five sections of the course comprise history and theory of garden design; drafting, design and communication skills; garden case study; hard landscaping (permanent features such as walls, paths and solid structures); and soft landscaping (planting).

The course takes 154 hours, but classes are spread over weeknights and weekends. The program takes six months to complete.

“Someone working full time could take a couple of weeks off work and still be able to do the program without having to quit their job,” Rule says.

The garden case-study part of the course requires students to work in teams of four to produce a design for an actual garden.

“We pick a typical urban garden and students have to come up with plans to suit the needs of the client.

“I find the presentation skills of our students are far beyond what I dreamed possible in a short course like this.”

At the end of the course, students are able to prod uce a design, complete with instructions for materials and planting.

Rule thinks the demand for competent garden designers is on the increase in B.C. and graduates of the design course are well equipped to meet the needs of clients. “A lot of people travel today and they are returning with ideas about how they want their gardens to be a place they can relax in.

“They are spending a lot of money on kitchens and bathrooms and automobiles and now they are looking at their gardens as a personal expression.

“The economy is fairly stable here in B.C., so I think the need for quality garden design will continue to be a growth industry for quite a while.”

swhysall@vancouversun.com

LOYALTON – When am I ever going to put this to practical use?

Students at Upper Dauphin Area Middle School (UDAMS) have a solid answer to that age-old question on learning.

As part of the “Real World Math Course” eighth-grade students have made improvements to the school’s existing courtyard, using their creativity, math and technology skills to spruce up their learning environment.

“I liked going outside and making what we planned on doing possible,” Bailey Maurer, a member of “The Constructioners” winning team, said. “The rendering of the site was probably the most difficult to do, because I had never done anything like that before,” said Maurer, of Spring Glen.

Teams of students were presented with a real-life challenge. Principal Michael Sim portrayed a potential customer, who indicated that he needed some help with the landscaping and re-design of the courtyard.

Students were tasked with the job of calculating the perimeter, area, and volume; the cubic feet of flower beds and how many yards of mulch would be required to fill each bed. Teams had to determine where to purchase the mulch, after acquiring quotes from local businesses.

They did a scale drawing of the plot on graph paper, designed a computerized rendering of their idea using Google SketchUp, and then presented their ideas and developmental drawings to district staff and administrators.

The final part of the 11-week project was to select a winning presentation and then have the students actually install the design in the courtyard, based on their calculations, and under the guidance of Technology Education Instructor Blake Dutweiler and Computer Instructor Dan Frake, who co-taught the class. This is the first year for the course, which was created to challenge eighth-grade pupils who scored well on their standardized tests and other benchmark data in the classroom.

Joining Bailey Maurer on the winning team were Ryan Strohecker and Jeff Klinger. “All three of us are good in math, our calculations were correct, and we had some good ideas,” said Maurer, when asked why his team’s design was selected. Other teams were: “The Trojans Landscaping,” “The Wild Flowers,” “The Mighty Morphan Flower Arrangers,” “Mulching Monkeys,” and “The Time Breakers”. Elements from several of the teams were incorporated into one, winning final design, which Maurer put together for the final computerized rendering.

Then, the class put their plans into action and began the actual upgrades.

“I like being outside and playing in the dirt,” said Morgan Maurer, of Elizabethville. (No relation to Bailey.) “I like to do ‘guy’ things and I’d rather be out than sit inside,” she said. As a member of the Mighty Morphan Flower Arrangers team, Morgan Maurer said doing all of the math calculations was the toughest part of the course. She was the only team member, according to her instructors, that was confident enough to use the power edger while making the necessary improvements at the site.

“Instead of just talking about it, I liked that we actually got to do it ourselves,” she said.

Another classmate, Brittany Kinney, of Elizabethville, thought the effort to do the calculations and proper pre-planning was well worth it. “It’s a lot neater and cleaner now,” she said.

Keegan Kerstetter, meanwhile, thought figuring out the patterns and doing the rendering was the most challenging aspect of the course. “Finishing it up and putting the final touches on the courtyard, and deciding what type of plants that we’d use was my favorite part,” said Kerstetter, of Elizabethville.

Strohecker could see the practical uses of the course.

“I think it can help you in the future. One day when you have your own home, you can figure this out for yourself,” said Strohecker, of Spring Glen.

Some of the improvements made at the site included: adding walkway stones leading to a bridge in the center; power-washing and clean-coating wooden picnic tables there; re-designing the layout and including spaces for mulched flower beds, bird feeders, and a maple tree. Staff members donated items for the class, and also held dress-down “jeans” days to help raise funds for the improvements, which students had estimated to cost around $600.

“Once they got the hang of things, it went well,” said Frake. “From the start to the end of the project, they’ve enjoyed it and want to do more of this. They’ve executed it very well.”

“I was extremely surprised with how it turned out,” Dutweiler added. “There were limited items that needed to be fixed and their work ethic was ten times harder, I think, knowing that this (courtyard) will be here when they move on to the high school,” he said.

Another rotation of eighth-graders will be making similar improvements to the front of the school building grounds, Sim said.

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