Alpenglow Sprinkler and Landscaping, Inc. was founded in 1985 by Brad and Michelle Petschek. By the mid-2000s the Fort Collins company dropped the landscape part of the business to “concentrate on installing and especially renovating and maintaining sprinkler systems,” says Brad Petschek, president.

Keep learning
Petschek says he is mostly self-taught and continues to attend seminars and trade shows to acquire more knowledge. He attended online sessions of the 2021 ProGreen EXPO while skiing at Jackson Hole between seminars.

Alpenglow supports accreditation and certification of irrigation technicians, business owners and designers. Petschek pursued and successfully achieved Landscape Industry Technician certification in irrigation—then known as CLT—when the program initially launched in the 1990s. He went on to acquire five more certifications through the Irrigation Association (IA), including a Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor (CLIA), Certified Landscape Water Manager (CLWM), and Certified Irrigation Designer.

His commitment to learning the appropriate hands-on skills led Petschek and many of his employees “to volunteer at the test site in Fort Collins and then at Pickens Technical College in Aurora when the site was moved some 20 years ago.”

Petschek also believes in educating his customers. He sends newsletters because “we feel knowledgeable consumers will help save copious amounts of water.”

Quality and efficiency
“We have always prided ourselves for our quality workmanship and our tenacity to save water,” Petschek says. “We trench most all of our sprinkler installations and use PVC pipe for its reliability and resistance to root restriction.”

Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC) awarded Alpenglow Sprinkler one of the first Excellence in Landscape Awards in Irrigation (the predecessor to the ELITEs in1995) by installing a relatively efficient sprinkler system in place of the existing poorly designed one. “We trenched through the old poly lines and located heads where necessary to achieve head-to-head coverage and as close to a matched application rate as possible. The result was the disappearance of all the dry spots and a saving of approximately 33% of the landscape water use.”

Challenges

Petschek admits that with “any seasonal business, hiring and especially retaining quality employees is the key to the business’s success.” His company doesn’t seem to be lacking in business and as the season winds down, especially from the irrigation side. Petschek, who is still hands-on, is working seven days a week.

The pandemic has sidelined many hard-working individuals for various and mostly valid reasons, he believes. He hopes “now that the federal unemployment checks have run out, perhaps things will get back to ‘normal,’ although I’ve heard normal is only a setting on one’s dryer.”

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2021 issue of Colorado Green magazine.