Snow removal?

After traveling to Virgina and North Carolina during the Christmas holidays where we experienced large amounts of snow and ice, we were reminded of the possibility of Columbia receiving winter weather.
Should this happen, Heritage can remove snow and ice from your properties. We will be sending out letters to confirm if you are interested in this service.

This picture is from our trip to Roseland, Virgina, where we visited Debbie's family. 15+ inches of snow fell while we were there.
This picture is from Ashe County, NC. Anna grew up in this part of North Carolina. 12+ inches of snow had fallen on Western NC a week prior to our visit.
And who says a Southern guy doesn't know how to build a snowman? Ashley demonstrated his own snow removal skills by building this snowman at Anna's parents.

Efforts to be "green" at Heritage

As a company that relies on the land for our existence, we understand the importance of doing our part to reduce our waste and impact. Recently Robert documented some of these efforts, which we would like to share with you.

Scrap iron (such as old mower blades) are collected and taken to a recycling center.
Used oil (from our lawn mowers, trucks, and other equipment) is stored in this container. This will be picked up by the Santee Cooper GOFER Program to generate energy.
Pallets from the various shipments we receive (fertilizer, mulch, etc.) are stacked and returned to a company that reuses them.
Plant containers are collected and returned to nurseries, where they are cleaned and reused.

Old mulch and flowers from the properties we maintain is returned to our lot, where we compost it instead of taking it to the landfill. We use this rich soil material to rebuild our plant beds.
These are only a few of our ways of reducing our impact on the environment. We will continue to look for additional methods of being really green as landscape professionals.

Office Holiday Party

On Tuesday, December 15, the Heritage office team and their invited guests gathered for our annual Christmas dinner. This year we met at the Mediterranean Cafe in Lexington. We enjoyed a delicious meal and fellowshiping with each other.

The youngest employees also attended--Mallory (daughter of Kleck and Carey Harman) and Levi (son of Ashley and Anna McLeod). Both are 18 months old and full of life.

Irrigation clocks off!

With all the rain the Columbia area has received in the past few weeks, folks may be wondering about the irrigation systems on their properties.

We have turned off the majority of the irrigation clocks for the winter unless new plants or flowers have been recently installed. The systems will be checked early in 2010 for needed repairs but otherwise will remain off to prevent freezing of pipes and other damage.

Rainy days...

Thanks to the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida, we've had a rainy week in the Midlands. Our guys have not been able to get in full days but will be making up time over the weekend to keep up with the busy fall. The good news is plants, flowers, and turf love the rain!

Fall Flower Installation

With the changing seasons comes new flowers for the properties we maintain. The fall flower mix is predominately pansies because they survive the (mild) South Carolina winter and provide a nice splash of color during the cooler months. The flowers arrive in large flats on a truck from our supplier. Here is one delivery waiting in our nursery.
After the summer flowers are removed and the soil is prepared for new flowers, our crews carefully position the pansies and accent plants. Here Dusty Miller has been planted and the holes for pansies have been punched.
Once the bed is prepared, the installation goes surprisingly fast.
Installing a large bed requires many hands.
Although the new flowers are smaller than those they are replacing, it won't take long before they're flourishing.

Faces at Heritage

Heritage employs over 50 people. Here's a glimpse at some of the folks that keep the business running as smoothly as it does.

Ian Randolph, our office manager, is originally from Ohio. Ian started with us this spring and has done a fantastic job with responding to customer requests, billing, organizing databases, and various other tasks.
Jamie Martin began with us this August as one of the managers overseeing the mowing and pruning crews. He worked with Heritage last fall to learn the business and then spent the spring in Memphis. Jamie is a cousin of Robert and Ashley's so the family connections continue!

Darrell Adair manages the shop at Heritage. He keeps the mower blades sharpened, backpack blowers tuned up, and fixes about everything else in between. Darryl has been with Heritage for several years.

Alvero Martinez is in charge of irrigation maintenance and repairs.

The little ones are out!

If you see these two cruising around, please let us know. They've been known to hijack the car and do their own property inspections.

Getting started with property inspections

It's one thing to see one or two Heritage trucks at a property in Columbia or Lexington. It's another thing to see them all lined up after a day's work. Here's a shot of the Heritage shop in Gilbert.
Levi is going to be accompanying me on our weekly property inspections. Here he is guzzling some milk after a hard day's work.
Levi and Ashley after work. Ashley's Blackberry buzzes all the time and Levi is learning how to use it quickly.
One of the beautiful flower combinations this spring/summer. Ashley usually designs the beds but his guys took the lead on this one and did a fantastic job!
Always a striking combination...lantana, setcreasea, and petunia.
The wave of red salvia and setcreasea look fantastic here.
After a morning of property inspections, Levi calls quitting time!

Welcome to the Heritage Landscape Services Blog!

We are entering a new phase at Heritage--the world of blogs. I'm going to be the resident blogger (Anna, Ashley's wife). Welcome! To launch our blog, here is a photo of Levi training to do some soil samples. Unfortunately, there's not going to be much dirt in the sample because he keeps eating it!

Last summer we saw some beautiful plants at the Riverbanks Zoo that would look great in a professional or residential landscape. Here are a few:




Also looking back to the summer of 2008--some of the flowers in full bloom.

We look forward to sharing more with you in this format. Stay tuned for regular updates featuring photos of our properties, bits about our families, and other information.