I don’t know where the time has gone.

In May, our oldest son Andrew Garrett Sykes will be graduating from FIU with a Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture; he was three when we took his middle name and made it half of our logo.

On March 10th our youngest son Sumner ChurchillSykes will be celebrating his 21st birthday; he was less than a year old when Janet and I decided it was time for us to launch a creative landscape company with services rooted in integrity and beauty.

We are very proud of the men they have become, and of our family business that you have helped us build: Garrett Churchill.

I am grateful for our team. Our Office Manager, Suzanne Wyman, has been my right hand for the past 16 years. Born left handed, I always needed a strong right hand, and Suzanne brings strength to our organization.

She is reliable, detail-oriented, and she has our clients’ best interest in mind.

This year, to address growth, we hired a project manager to help run the installation side of the business.

Heath Magill joined us in January, and we are looking forward to embracing his talents to grow the business. Our crews are the best and they work hard every day to meet your expectations.

Some of our best employees have been referred to us by clients. If you know a career minded individual that fits into our team and company culture contact Suzanne to brag about them and we will set up an interview.

Enough about us. Let me talk about you, our clients. I love to meet with new prospective clients, as they are a key element in our growth. However, our returning clients drive our business.

We are still working for clients that called me the first year or two in business. We have clients that we have worked for that have moved on, only come back for various reasons. I truly gauge our success on keeping clients, and on their continued support. Anyone can get a job from a customer once. It’s when you get the second, third, and fourth that you have built a relationship with someone, and there is trust that the project or the maintenance work will be done properly.

In 1999, we started this business doing design and installation projects along with garden maintenance. I didn’t want to cut grass, and avoided it until too many clients were asking us to come do it “Just this once.” As we grew as a company we added services that complemented the work we were already doing. 

Currently, we offer landscape maintenance services that include:

• Spring clean up
• Mulching
• Bed care – weeding, perennial care, pruning
• Lawn mowing
• Fall cleanup

On the landscape installation side of the business we offer:

• Landscape design
• Planting installation
• Patio, sitting wall, retaining wall, outdoor kitchen installation
• Water feature installation (including ponds and fountains)
• Landscape lighting and outdoor audio systems
• Drainage systems

When so many small businesses fail in the first five years, we are blessed to have reached the 20-year mark. We could not have done it without each and every client we have worked with. I am humbled and grateful for your support.

To honor our commitment to the community that has sustained us for 20 years we are looking for a charity to support, write back and make a recommendation of a group that you think is deserving.