The Story of Estate Gardeners Inc. Omaha Landscape Contractor

Estate Gardeners was not born out of a meticulously researched business plan or a drive to be the industry leader in providing the finest horticultural services to an unfilled market niche. It was founded by two people, Michael Becker and Patricia Burleson, two seasoned industry veterans who simply wanted to raise the bar for landscaping excellence in the Omaha area.

It would be nice to say we planned this company, secured financing, researched the market and launched an industry leader from its inception, capitalizing on the synergies of a diverse and talented workforce. The truth of the story is we did our first landscape job, converting a raspberry patch to lawn, tying the brambles to the kayak rack atop Michael’s Toyota hatchback and Pat hauling the sod in the cargo space of her Civic wagon.

In the early days, a classified ad in the newspaper served as the marketing plan, and worked well enough to provide employment for Pat’s two large sons Matt and Joe. Fortunately, the boys’ social life served as our employee recruitment plan and soon we had converted high school thespians and marching band members into Estate Gardeners.

So with a marketing plan and human resource management procedures in place we invested a $1700.00 inheritance in “Old Faithful”, a beige 1983 F-150 with 92 thousand miles on it. Later we acquired “The Lemon,” a slightly newer, prettier F-150 cursed machine that dug into the bank account like a tick and demanded a continuous infusion of cash to keep it on the road.

While all this was happening we were quietly designing and installing some of the finest landscapes in Omaha, and this was affirmed in 1999 and 2001 when Estate Gardeners was recognized by PLANET with Environmental Improvement awards for two residential projects. The recognition we received for these awards cemented our reputation as a premier landscape design-build firm in eastern Nebraska.

Today, after thirteen years, a staff of 14 talented people comprises Estate Gardeners. They boast degrees in horticulture and landscape design, years of experience, and most of all, a love for landscape and plants. There is nothing they can not imagine, there is nothing they can not achieve, because they have the credentials, the expertise and the passion to make anything happen.