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Journal staff
The Journal surveyed some of the area's most respected landscape contractors about their companies . Here's what they said.
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Jan Rodda of Rodda and Sons finds that the landscape construction is growing again after a slump two years ago. The firm handles a construction volume of about $500,000 per year, mostly in the residential market.
"Interest is growing all the time," she said. "As life becomes more hectic, people want to have a place to be 'grounded' -- to dig around, and to relax."
Consumers of landscape services are cutting down on lawn areas, according to Rodda, and adding more planting areas and living areas, including decks, patios, gazebos.
Also, "More and more people are interested in some kind of a water feature . . they like the soothing qualities of the sound and looks."
Rodda finds that more clients are interested in attracting wildlife, in butterfly gardens and bird sanctuaries.
The annual Flower and Garden show has made a difference for the firm. "This year, we're seeing more interest earlier the flower and garden show," she said. "That one event has helped to generate interests and awareness about what can be done," she said.
Charles Martin, owner of Beowulf, a landscape contractor that serves the north side of Seattle and East Side and the southern end of Snohomish County, finds that he now has "more business than we can do . . . and one year's worth of work in eight months." The commercial and residential landscape contractor finds that the upturn in the market is tied to a perception by consumers that things are going well in the economy.
He expects to expand the firm by three people this year and handle about $200,000 in construction volume.
Philip Goodwin of Parkwood Services likes commercial work -- and plans to stick with it. The 25-person firm, which sees about $1.5 million in construction each year, specializes in commercial landscape maintenance and construction, concentrates on small city parks, wetland mitigation, athletic facilities, and general landscaping. The firm is finding that aggressive marketing last year is now paying off, but Parkwood is not adding staff.
Tina Peterson, vice president of Hendrikus Schraven Landscape Consturction and Design Inc., said her firm is different from others in that it works as a general contractor, rarely hiring a subcontractor on a job.
Peterson said performing all the work withing the firm leads to a high level of quality control. Plus, she added, ``We don't want to give the fun away.''
The firm's specialties include water features, rock work and the use of organic fertilizers and sprays. However, the firm does all types of outdoor work, including unusual items such as tree houses, hot tubs and pickle ball courts.
Almost all of the firm's clients are residential. Peterson said landscape installation jobs have ranged from $20,000 to $1 million, with most jobs on the lower end of the range.
``A homeowner is looking for the artistry,'' said Peterson, pointing out commercial clients are mostly concerned with their bottom line.
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| A renovated residence combining innovative architecture with landscape design and construction by Hendrikus Shraven. |
``Business is good right now,'' she said, adding it should pick up more as the traditionally busy spring season arrives.
Peterson did admit that 1994 and 1995 were soft for the company. She attributed that to the slowdown in the Seattle economy that began in 1993. However, the effect of the slow economy didn't hit Hendrikus Schraven until 1994 because of a number of jobs that were lined up at the time.
``Landscaping is not a priority (in slow times),'' Peterson said.
For this year and beyond, Peterson said the firm will focus on expanding its organic maintenance division because more and more people are expressing interest in the benefits of organics.
The Highridge Corporation, a 120-person Issaquah firm, sees some bad new and good news in the marketplace for landscape contracting.
"The commercial arena is becoming the most competitive. That's changed dramatically in the last five years," said owner Mike Bushmaker, who believes that the competition has driven the demand for quality down. In that market, he finds that there is "less emphasis for holding the contractor responsible for size and quality of nursery stock, irrigation system, and drainage issues . . . and that's disheartening, because those projects are very visible."
At the same time, "We're seeing an upswing in home sales -- with more parks, more wetlands, more common areas, entry ways -- and that's exciting."
"Things aren't going downhill," according to Tom Berg of Berg's Landscaping, which employs 10 people full time in Woodinville. Berg finds, however, that quality -- and client demand for it -- is declining in some markets, especially commercial. Berg, who specializes in residential landscape design, has added a commercial division to his firm in order to diversify. But he admits that the field is very competitive. "There's only so much out there," he said. "My market share just seems to get stuck."
Berg finds that the best clients come by word of mouth.
"We've been around a long time. We have a lot of past clients, and a lot of references," he said.
At his rate of growth, Berg said he will be happy to add just two new clients a year to his list.
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