Scaling Evergreen Landscapes: From Teen Mower to 15-Person, Year-Round Operation

In this episode of The Lawn Care Grow Show, host Mark Lamberth talks with David Romanoff of Evergreen Landscapes in Skokie, Illinois about how he grew a one-mower neighborhood gig into a 15-person, full-service lawn, landscape, and snow operation serving Chicagoland within a two-hour radius. David shares how he started as “David’s Lawn Care” in high school, then came back from three years studying in Israel, invested his savings in a first truck, and stacked formal training in botany, horticulture, pruning, and design at the Chicago Botanic Garden to build a company that now handles residential and commercial maintenance, turf care, enhancements, and snow removal. He breaks down how Evergreen separates its work into clear departments—mowing, turf science, pruning, planting/softscape, tree work via arborists, hardscape via subs, and winter snow with both owned equipment and subcontractors—so each crew can specialize and stay efficient, while most core staff stay on the team year-round. You’ll also hear how he thinks about slow-and-steady growth, trusting and empowering employees, and winning reviews: do excellent work, listen for genuine compliments, then make it easy for happy clients to share their experience online. What you’ll learn on this episode: How David grew from “one mower and a few neighbors” to a 15-person landscape and snow companyWhy Evergreen rebranded from David’s Lawn Care and now balances 60% maintenance with 40% enhancements and constructionHow they structure the business into departments: mowing, turf care, pruning, planting/softscape, arborist partners, and hardscape subsWhat goes into high-quality turf care beyond mowing: fertilizers, weed control, grub control, fungicides, and timingHow they run snow removal as an emergency service using a mix of owned plows/equipment and subcontractor capacityWhy David offers winter positions to most of his summer staff to avoid retraining new crews every springHis philosophy of “slow and steady wins the race”: adding crews, equipment, and service area only as systems and people are readyA simple, low-tech way to get five-star reviews consistently: deliver great work, listen for praise, and send a direct review link right then