McKinney Capital is growing its presence in the landscaping arena.

Before the end of 2012, the Birmingham-based private equity group said it bought Grounds Unlimited, which ranked fourth on our most recent list of Birmingham's largest landscaping firms, and merged Memphis, Tenn.-based Environmental Landscape Services with another landscaping business the firm already owns, said McKinney Managing Director Sam Eskildsen.

By the end of this year, Grounds Unlimited will be merged with Landscape Workshop, the business that Environmental Landscape Services just merged with, Eskildsen said.

"The overall goal is to make Landscape Workshop the number one landscaping business in the Southeast," he said, "and we're very close."

Eskildsen declined to disclose group revenues and purchase prices.

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