Gardeners’ Guild Recognized with PLANET Awards

Landscape Contracting firm Gardener’s Guild announced recently that the company was recognized by the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) for three separate projects that showcase the company’s expertise in both interior and exterior landscaping. This “triple crown,” as the San Rafael, Calif-based company refers to it, encompasses a residential landscape construction award, a Judge’s Award for interior landscape maintenance and a Decade award for 10 years of excellence at a single site. Gardener’s Guild is the only landscape contractor in Northern California to have won major awards in all three categories.

“This recognition is great validation for our team,” notes President and Chairman of the Board John Ossa in an interview with Lawn & Landscape. “The awards honor our expertise and our commitment to excellence and for that we’re very excited.”

In addition to bringing hard earned recognition to the Gardener’s Guild team, Ossa says recognition by industry peers provides an opportunity for the company to further market itself to current and potential customers. “Like many companies, we have a wish list of customers we’d like to work for and who we market ourselves to regularly,” he says. “By including these awards, we can remind them of who we are and of the expertise we bring to each job.”

In terms of promoting industry awards, Ossa says Gardener’s Guild uses its Web site as a focal point of its marketing efforts and makes sure recent awards are announced soon after they’re received. “We’re grateful that we’ve won so many awards,” he says. “On the Web site, we put up the most recent ones in order to keep it fresh. Our PLANET awards are listed, and we’re working on posting other awards we’ve received recently in order to keep the site updated.”

News releases are another way Gardener’s Guild keeps clients informed of the company’s goings-on. The firm drafts different releases for different audiences – customers, media and vendors, for instance. As local media outlets report the exciting news, Ossa says Gardener’s Guild notifies existing customers of the awards via e-mail. “We also market a lot to our suppliers and let them know about the recognition,” he adds. “We’re successful because so many of our key suppliers have stood by us through the years and we want to remind them that their products are going toward many well-respected projects.”

Gardener's Guild's awards were announced at the PLANET awards banquet, which concluded the organization's Green Industry Confernce held Nov. 2 to 5 in Orlando, Fla. For more information on employee-owned Gardener’s Guild, visit www.gardenersguild.com.