Grounded in Father and Son

By K. Schipper

VENTURA, Calif. –Scarlett’s Landscape Inc. always had a hardscape component to it – dating back decades ago when Tom Scarlett ran an ad in the local shopper looking for any type of extra landscape work to help support his young family.

However, as the company grew – and its reputation along with it – clients began trusting Scarlett with all aspects of their landscape jobs, from sod to concrete and from irrigation to electrical.

By the time Scarlett was able to retire from his first job – in pipeline construction – what was then Scarlett’s Landscaping had become a going concern well able to carry its founder into his later years.

Click photo for galleryThen, what he describes as “a dream come true” happened. His son Jeremy, who had grown up working Saturdays and vacations with his dad, opted to return to the business. Today the company is a family-owned corporation with a full-time in-house landscape architect, a need for more space and a project list that will carry Scarlett’s Landscape well into 2013…and beyond.

Making Ends Meet

There’s plenty of landscaping in both men’s backgrounds. Tom Scarlett worked on landscape crews during the summers while still a college student, and his son claims industry lineage on his maternal side.

“My grandpa on my mom’s side had a horticulture degree and ended up working at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles),” says Jeremy Scarlett. “He worked at UCLA for 33 years and retired as superintendent of the grounds. And, his father had a yard maintenance route in Beverly Hills back when they had push mowers.”

It was only natural that when Tom Scarlett wanted to pick up a little extra money to supplement his income in the early 1980s, he would turn to landscaping.

Click photo to enlarge“When it rained, obviously, I wouldn’t get paid, so I put an ad in the local shopper saying I’d do clean-ups and things like that,” says Tom Scarlett. “My wife stayed home and it was a little side job to make ends meet.”

At that time, the business was a Saturdays-only operation, but successful enough that Scarlett would often need to hire additional help. As Jeremy grew older, his father says he developed into more than just another good worker.

“He really became my best worker,” Tom Scarlett says. “When he was in high school, I could send him to a job, and he would bid it and do it. He really grew into the business.”

And, Tom Scarlett continued to grow the business. When his regular employer offered him the chance to go to a four-day workweek (“a godsend,” he says), he researched it and bought a lawn maintenance route, which he did on Mondays.