Environmental Insights

At T. Lake, we always appreciate a hardworking guy, and Jose Perez—better known around here as Opie—is one of our best. 

Ask any landscape contractor, big or small, if they have a safety plan and they’ll inevitably say, “Oh yes, of course we do!” But what does that really mean?

It takes a lot more than landscape expertise to run a successful landscape company. Just ask Kaylie Loftin. Kaylie recently celebrated her 10^th anniversary of working here at T.Lake. For over seven of those years, she has held the indispensable position of Office Manager. In other words, she keeps everyone’s toes to the line to make sure everything happens when and how it’s supposed to.

With unemployment at a nearly fifty year low, this is the most difficult labor market I can ever recall in my entire 29 years in business.  Finding competent, hardworking people who want landscaping jobs in the numbers we need is just plain tough right now.

Recently, we were contacted by a nice couple who owns a property in Glenwood, a tiny rural town in south-central Georgia. It had a lovely view of a beautiful pond. They’d owned the home for a while, but now that they were both retired, they were ready to turn it into the home of their dreams.

Luis Arreguin  hasn’t been with T. Lake for long – just since last August. But in that short amount of time, we’ve come to appreciate him as a valuable team member and a great guy to have around.

Luis started his career in landscaping back in high school, working at a plant nursery. He earned a degree in horticulture from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, but left the industry for eight years selling used car parts. After a while, though, he realized his heart was in landscaping. He says “I would always be working at home on my yard, or just working on somebody else’s yard on the side.” Eventually, his passion for plants led him back to the landscape industry, where he found his place at T. Lake.

Landscapes have a life span. Not only do trees and beds get bedraggled and overgrown, infrastructure wears out and trends change, but your needs change, too, over time. What once was the ideal recreational space for a growing family may not feel so attractive any more when your focus has shifted to entertaining or to new pastimes such as yoga or meditation. Or, maybe you finally have the budget to build that show-stopping outdoor paradise you’ve always dreamed of.

Most landscape designers have to work in the industry for a while before they start earning accolades. Not Robert Arrington. Robert got his first taste of the landscape industry in FFA while in high school, where he was part of both the nursery landscape and floriculture teams. He had the chance to compete in the national competition for nursery landscape where the team placed 3^rd overall. Robert says his experience drawing up a landscape plan to meet guidelines for the competition was pivotal to his decision to pursue a career in the landscape industry.

Got a call recently from some friends who had just returned from a trip to Spain. While there, they fell in love with the simple but formal European garden look – the sculpted topiaries, pollards, and tasteful incorporation of architectural elements in the landscape. Could we recreate something like that for them?

Looking for a job is a full time job in itself. And because it’s a job with zero upfront benefits and no pay (yet), it’s tempting to simply grab job opportunities as they arise and hope they will work out OK. But taking a bit of time to sort out in advance whether a company is a good match for you helps both you and your prospective employer.

When you walk into an interview knowing a company is a good fit, it gives you a boost of confidence that will help you stand out from the crowd. And, finding a work environment that suits your personality and working style will make a big difference in how fulfilled you feel once you actually start working there—as well as advancement and career opportunities down the road.

At T. Lake, we’re busy. Really busy. Which is why we’re always interested in speaking with potential new hires—but to be quite open and frank, only if there’s a good chance we’ll be a happy match. So before you reach out to us, here are a few job seeking tips to help you decide if T. Lake is the right company for you.