Leprechaun southernwood provides texture and wildlife resistance 

 Contributed by Ross Shrigley and Bev Shaw for Plant Select®

Dustin Dayton has moved through the ranks since starting with Zak George Landscaping (ZGL) in 2012 as a maintenance crew member. He moved to maintenance crew leader then on to a maintenance field operations supervisor position, then maintenance operations manager. In 2021, the company needed a full-time fleet manager, and called upon Dayton to fill that role. He is also the company’s snow commander. All in all, Dustin oversees 10 maintenance crews, three junior supervisors, three in-house mechanics, over 300 small engines, and many trucks and trailers. 

Char Farley Chacon has been with Designscapes Colorado since 2001, starting out as a team administrator, and progressing to her current position as Residential Team Manager over the past 20 years.  

In October, the 2022 Hardscape North America (HNA) Awards ceremony was held at the Kentucky Exposition Center. These awards recognize top residential and commercial hardscape projects including walkways, patios, outdoor living spaces and kitchens, driveways as well as commercial plazas and streets.

Congratulations to Colorado's American Design & Landscape for their Outdoor Living Features award for Wolverine Kitchen in Parker. View more HNA awards: 2022 HNA Awards Winners and Honorable Mention Recipients Announced

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Tom Handy has been in the industry for 37 years. Before managing the irrigation service department at NationScapes, he was employed by a company acquired by NationScapes.  

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Colby Woodvine is a surveyor at Phase One Landscapes, Inc. The company upgraded its technology in surveying, utilizing a Top Con LN-150 instrument. This made the survey operations a one-person job – that one person was Woodvine. He’s anchored every survey that came in this year.  

How Yampa Valley reshapes local landscaping
By Kate Brocata

Residents of the arid mountain West in the Yampa Valley, it’s no secret that we are facing devastating impacts caused by a historically unprecedented 23-year drought. Despite a strong monsoon season that brought relief to much of our region, we are far from drought recovery.

Routt County, home to Steamboat Ski Resort, sits at the headwaters of the Colorado River with the Yampa River at the heart of our communities. However, being at the headwaters doesn’t mean the region is free from drought impacts. Agricultural producers suffered 70-90% reduction in hay and alfalfa yields in 2021 due to extended drought. For the past three summers, the Yampa River was closed to recreational uses due to high stream temperatures caused by low flows. River closures and use restrictions place burdens on the region’s already economically strained recreation and tourism industries.

Confessions of a serial entrepreneur
By Jessi Burg

 I have started two successful companies over the past five years, and I’ve learned that growing a successful business means following the money. You have to ask yourself: “What are my client’s currently paying for, what else are they willing to pay for and how does that overlap with the work I want to do?”

I opened my first business, Soe Harvest, in 2017, planning to teach people how to grow vegetables in their garden. This rapidly became overall garden maintenance, followed by working with clients to incorporate more sustainable and edible plants into their landscapes. Three years later, my vegetable garden coaching business had turned into Pears to Perennials, a design/build and maintenance company focusing on sustainable landscaping. I sold it in 2021.

My current business, Outgrow Your Garage, was started in 2021 and has followed a similar trajectory. What began as a direct- to-business consulting company has become an on-demand business development program. At the beginning, my clients were mostly existing trades and service companies looking to solve specific problems. Soon, I needed programs my clients could work through on their own. This segued into working with other consultants, nonprofits and business coaches to create business education that could be used by any small business — whether my clients or someone else’s.

 Waterwise creates positive experiences for clients and employees 

Waterwise Land & Waterscapes, Inc., Fort Collins, with its 100-plus-years of combined experience, serves a range or clients from small residential properties to million-dollar developments. The company provides landscape design, build, maintenance, construction and management services, and prides itself both on providing positive experiences for clients and valuing each crew member on every project.

When owner Lorin Bridger started his company in 2001, he had one truck, one small trailer and a lot of passion. His passion then and now is to improve people’s well-being with tailored environments. Bridger’s goal is to inspire other people’s passion for outdoor living by creating change through natural material projects.

Bridger’s company culture grew multi-fold from this passion. “As a company we care about each other,” he says. “We make it a priority to be sure all are enjoying their days while doing quality work. Our culture is one where we do right by each other to help make the quality of life, for our clients, better through landscape.

Waterwise wants to guide clients into landscapes that maximize use of natural resources, honor budgets, are creative and have a positive impact on people’s wellbeing. “We are creating ecologically minded projects” shares Bridger.