Thursday 10 August 2017

I Am A Landscaper: Bob Grover

Bob Grover

Bob Grover says he has never spent a day working outside of the green industry — well, unless you count that paperboy route he had when he was 11. Having grown up on a 1-acre lot of “suburbia” in southeast Portland, Grover spent his childhood playing outside, building forts and digging holes. He regularly enjoyed helping his family plant and maintain a garden and ultimately got his first job at age 15 working at a next-door retail nursery.

After graduating from Oregon State University, Grover got his first professional taste of the landscape industry as a crew leader for Oregon Landscape Maintenance (which later became Northwest Landscape Industries and, even later, became part of TruGreen). Knowing he didn’t want to work for a national chain forever, Grover decided to launch his own business, and with that Pacific Landscape Management was born. We recently caught up with Grover, president of the Portland-area company, to find out what continues to drive his passion for the green industry that he came to love at such a young age.

I love plants, but I love human interaction more. I appreciate the opportunity to help others enjoy nature through plants by being their “gardener.”

I am also an aspiring traveler, and I would love to go everywhere once. We haven’t traveled extensively yet, but we went to Italy 10 years ago and absolutely loved it. Locally, I love all national parks but have many more to visit.

Being an outdoors guy, I love gardening, skiing, camping, hiking and water sports. I like waterskiing, wakeboarding and anything else associated with a warm summer day spent on our boat

I am an addicted remodeler. I always have some sort of project in progress or am planning one. Over the last 30 years, I have progressively gutted and redone all the rooms in our house, including adding a second floor and tearing down and rebuilding a bigger garage. As a landscaper, I have re-landscaped my yard multiple times, including leveling out my backyard and building a water feature, pond, outdoor kitchen and fireplace. Most of the work I have done myself.

Live your passion and work hard to be the best you can be. That’s my motto in life and in work.

My current indulgence is to see as many classic rockers as I can before anymore die. When Glenn Frey died, I thought, “Crap — I never got to see the Eagles live.” I saw 15 shows last year and will probably see more this year. If they come near Portland, I go. If they don’t, I will go wherever I have to. I’m going to Playa del Carmen in November to see Rock Getaway, which includes 15 classic rock bands. I met my wife, Theresa, at a Van Halen Concert in 1985. And we rock on!

The post I Am A Landscaper: Bob Grover appeared first on Turf.



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