Dave’s Story

From Tree Climbing to a Degree in Dirt (and Plants) to Greening the Earth and Homes

Dave has devoted his life and education to growing plants. With an undergraduate degree in plant and soil science from the University of Massachusetts and graduate work in sustainable agriculture at the University of Minnesota, he likely knows more about your garden than most anyone. Dave has owned his landscaping and handyman business for eleven years, working in urban gardens with a handful of plant-loving helpers to make the world a greener, happier place.

He is a nationally published writer of books and articles on landscaping and handyman topics and has raised organic vegetables in small urban lots for decades, long before it became cool. His next big adventure is remodeling a 1920s Minneapolis home with energy retrofitting as the driving force and focus. Watch his blog for tales of tribulation and triumph in all things landscape and home.

The Rest of the Story

Dave grew up on a double lot in Salem, Massachusetts and spend most of his childhood climbing in or swinging from an enormous Norway Maple. From the top of this and other trees on the property, Salem appeared a vast and billowing world of treetops. Wouldn’t it be great if the ugly city of asphalt and buildings below could succumb to this higher, mystical world of green? As he grew older, Dave became dedicated to populating his parents’ yard with trees found as seedlings growing here and there.

Dave brought his love of the plant kingdom down to earth with an interest in organic gardening, which he pursued on his parents’ property while in high school. After living and working on a number of organic farms, Dave completed a degree in plant and soil science at the University of Massachusetts. Later, a year spent working with perennial grain crops at the Land Institute in Kansas re-kindled his interest in plants that don’t die in the fall. This led to a graduate fellowship in sustainable agriculture at the University of Minnesota, where he worked with a hearty perennial legume that could grow in concert with corn and oats, keeping agricultural earth more constantly covered with plants.

After a stint in academia, Dave returned to his first passion, reclaiming the concrete jungle with the life-giving jungle of trees, shrubs and perennial plants. In this pursuit, Dave gradually realized a need to cede some territory to modest and benevolent human constructions, such as patios, retaining walls and pergolas. Thus Dave developed a proficiency in the construction of landscape structures, yet another service for Dave’s Landscape Services clients.