Quality pays off

$21 investment launches award-winning landscaping business

By CHRIS ALDRIDGE, Kentucky Agricultural News

J. Gary Puckett’s landscaping business in Rowletts, Ky., is a rags to riches story.

Puckett started Quality Landscaping in 1995 out of his home with an initial investment of only $21. “I bought $18 or $19 worth of tools, and a $2 classified advertisement [in the local newspaper],” he said. “Not bad, huh?”

Fourteen years later, Quality Landscaping & Garden Center has its own location on U.S. 31W and is worth an estimated $350,000, according to Puckett.

Puckett attributes some of his business’ success to Kentucky Proud, the Kentucky Department of Agriculture’s farm marketing program.

“They [KDA marketing staff] were instrumental in getting us going with their promotion of us,” he told a reporter from Jobe Publishing, which owns several weekly newspapers in south-central Kentucky. “It [Kentucky Proud] gave us the opportunity to market the nursery and garden center in a way we would have never been able to do without them assisting us.”

Puckett took advantage of Kentucky Proud’s advertising cost-share program, which matches half of the cost of a retailer’s ads up to $2,000 per year. “Boy, did it help!” he told Kentucky Agricultural News.

Puckett’s career in gardening began out of necessity – he bought a home 15 years ago that needed landscaping. “I didn’t know anything about it, so I went to the library and checked out some books on landscaping,” he said.

Puckett’s landscaping around his home was so impressive that passers-by took notice. “People started stopping by, asking who my landscaper was,” he said.

The compliments inspired Puckett to start his landscaping business, study landscape design at Western Kentucky University and become a certified master gardener through a three-month course offered by the University of Kentucky Extension Service.

In 2008, he was named Landscaper of the Year by the St. Jude Foundation for his design and installation of the landscaping to complement the $400,000 St. Jude Dream Home in Bowling Green, Ky. As one of its fund-raisers, the Memphis children’s research hospital raffles away new 3,000-square-foot homes across the country.

“Out of all the dream homes in 2008, the one in Bowling Green had the best-looking landscaping in America,” Puckett said. “That was pretty cool.”

Puckett was also recognized in the landscaping industry as runner-up in the 2009 Designer of the Year contest for his work over the past eight years on a 1-acre plot at Rowletts Station Inn and Gardens. The contest featured landscape designers and architects from the U.S., Canada, England and Ireland.

“I was speechless,” Puckett told Jobe Publishing. “I never thought I would even get a vote.”

Kentucky Living Magazine featured the gardens in its March 2009 issue. Some photos of the gardens can be seen at www.rowlettsstation.com.

“I love what I do, and I do what I love,” Puckett told Jobe Publishing. His business philosophy is simple: “Treat people with kindness and respect, and strive to be the best.”

Puckett is a member of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers and speaks regularly to garden clubs, civic organizations, horticulture clubs, schools and 4-H groups, and at gardening events throughout the country. He writes a Sunday newspaper column, “Gardening with Gary,” for Jobe Publishing and films gardening segments on WBKO-TV’s “Mid-Day Live” show in Bowling Green.

Puckett is currently working on a cookbook titled “Recipes from the Garden,” which he hopes will be published in the coming months.

Quality Landscaping & Garden Center is located at 3320 South Dixie Highway (31W) in Rowletts, just south of Munfordville, Ky. You can contact Puckett by calling (270) 524-7194.