For 25 years we have focused our business on sustainability values: Planet, People and Profit.
This year we are celebrating our 25th year in business. We believe that part of our company’s success has been our focus on our values. We did not start In Harmony just to make money. We have always wanted to do our part to make the world a better, healthier place.
The Three P’s of sustainability
We have worked to focus In Harmony on the three P’s of sustainability: planet, people and profit.
Planet: protecting the earth
We started In Harmony in 1994 as an alternative to the chemical mindset then common in the landscape. We wanted to make landscapes healthy, to create landscapes that would grow in harmony with Mother Nature.
People didn’t talk much about sustainability in 1994. Now sustainability values have a higher profile. Many of us are worried about the future of our planet. We believe that healthy, green landscapes are one small way to help sustain a healthy planet.
Natural lawn, tree and shrub care
Our natural lawn, tree and shrub care services focus is on feeding the soil. When beneficial soil organisms in the soil thrive, plants thrive as well. They have more fruits and flowers and are more resistant to pests and diseases. We use products such as organic fertilizers, effective microbes, mycorrhizae fungi, kelp and microminerals to build soil health.
We also do aeration and overseeding to help lawns grow thick and lush. And our pruning goal is to develop healthy, stable structures for trees and shrubs.
Landscape design and installation
Our landscape design and installation practices include selecting the right plants for our local climate and placing them where they will thrive. We amend the soil as part of installation to help plants get off to a good start.
We use materials that reduce the landscape’s overall environmental impact, such as efficient lighting and water pumps. Instead of using crushed rock as a substrate under patios and walkways, we use a recycled concrete product.
Education about natural lawn and landscape care
As more people create landscapes that grow lush and healthy without needing chemicals, as they plant trees and build healthy soil, our region’s air and water will become cleaner. We spread the word by educating our own clients as well as a broader audience.
Ladd Smith, one of our co-owners, has given zillions of talks over the years to home gardeners, landscape professionals and retail nursery staff. His entertaining talks always focus on natural ways to care for lawns and landscapes.
We also reach a wider audience with our blog and our YouTube videos. We have addressed a range of topics over the years, such as proper ways to water and mulch, recommended plants, sustainable landscape design and less-toxic ways to manage pests.
Our most popular video, about how to prune a Japanese maple in summer, has received 53,000 views to date. Similarly, our blog post about growing roses in western Washington continues to get readers three years after it was first published.
We have changed and adapted over the years.
As we continue to learn about landscapes and sustainability, we have changed our practices accordingly.
Bees and other pollinators. Concern has grown in recent years about stresses on pollinators. We have tried to protect pollinators with our practices. For example, while we use very few pesticides, we were doing Pointer injections for insects in birch trees. We found out the insecticide was harmful to bees, so we stopped doing them. It was a loss of revenue, but it was the right thing to do. It fit with our sustainability values.
Climate change. As the earth warms up, we have seen hotter and drier summers. In recent years we have seen signs of drought stress in more and more of our clients’ trees and shrubs.
Our pet goats, Lulubelle and Daisy, eat weeds on our property and entertain our staff.
Last year we wrote several blog posts about the importance of watering and how to water correctly. In spring and summer months, we often emphasize watering when we visit clients, such as talking with them about watering trees and leaving fact sheets about proper watering.
Water quality. In Harmony’s property is located next to a stream. We wanted to get rid of weeds, but we were concerned about water quality, so we looked for nontoxic ways to manage weeds. We began by renting goats to eat the weeds.
Then we bought our own goats. Now our two pet goats, Daisy and Lulubelle, maintain the property and give our staff lots of enjoyment. You might want to check out Karrie’s photos of our cute goats on our Facebook page.
People: respecting our clients and employees
People are an important element in sustainability. We value our clients and our employees and work to create good relationships with them.
Clients: creating partnerships
Natural lawn, tree and shrub care. We have always believed that our clients’ landscapes are more likely to thrive when we create a partnership with them.
We use natural methods to service their landscapes. However, our treatments won’t be effective if our clients are not doing their part to keep them healthy, such as proper watering and mowing practices. To help them know what to do, over the years we have created a number of education sheets about our services and about natural ways to maintain lawns and landscapes.
Our service technicians always seek out the homeowner to have a conversation about their landscape questions and concerns. When techs have finished treating a landscape, they leave a note about what they treated that day and what they noticed, along with an education sheet about next steps for our clients.
Design and installation. We are always pleased when a client tells us that we are good listeners. Our designers work to understand our clients’ desires for their new landscapes so they can design something that will be enjoyed for many years to come.
Our installation staff keeps clients updated on the process so they know what to expect. After we install the landscape, we walk through it with the homeowner to talk about what they should do, and we leave a packet of education sheets for their reference.
Employees: building a team
We have worked to create good relationships with our employees. We offer them health insurance, continuing education, benefit packages, paid vacation and holidays, and a retirement program. This is unusual in the landscape industry, but it fits with our values.
We strive to treat our people with respect. We try to promote from within when there are job openings. Out of our 28 employees, eight have been with us for more than 10 years. Ten others have been with us for over five years.
Profit: building a solid business
We were pleased to be named one of the first five-star EnviroStars. We appreciated the program’s help in promoting our business.
Our focus on protecting the planet helped our business grow in the early years. We were one of the first five-star EnviroStars, a program that certifies businesses for preventing pollution and reducing hazardous waste.
The EnviroStars program promoted certified businesses through advertising, a directory, a website and other means. The recognition and promotion helped us gain clients who shared our concern about keeping the environment healthy.
In 2000 we received a State of Washington Governor’s Award for Achievement in Pollution Prevention.
In 2007 we received the Environmental Achievers of the Year from Washington State Nursery and Landscape Industry (WSNLA)
Over the past 25 years, we have grown from a two-person operation to now having 28 people working with us. We have four landscape crews and we send out eight lawn/tree technicians daily to serve the Puget Sound area.
As with any business, we need to market our business to help it grow. Over the years the ways we have marketed the company has changed.
We used to spend more money on advertising. Now most of our marketing is online, through blog posts, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Houzz, Google and our YouTube channel. We continue to focus on sustainability values and hope that focus will help our business continue to thrive into the future.
