So…Who is this “Lisa” Anyway?

Lisa's Landscape & Design ♦ 03/07/2013 ♦ Leave a comment

In my favorite place…the garden

Well, I will tell who I am. First and foremost I am the wife of an awesome husband for over 20 years and the mother of two amazing boys. One who just turned 21, who is a full-time honors college student, an incredibly smart and talented artist and photographer, and a part-time production assistant at a local production company. The other, is a 13 year old with Autism, who is bright, funny and incredibly imaginative, with a heart the size of Texas.

I am a lucky woman who spent many years as a full-time Mommy, who has since been able to juggle a business and home life with the support of my husband who has always encouraged me to chase my dreams.  My dream is to create a planet of gardeners one yard at a time.  I want to change the way people think about their landscape opportunities. Your yard should be an extension of your living space and my mission is to teach people to create the most symbiotic relationship with nature possible. If I had the power, I would make traditional lawns illegal, as they are one of the greatest water waste offenders out there. I would require rain water collection systems for all home use in addition to city water, allow only native and adaptive plantings and ban chemicals when organics will do the same job without the harmful side effects. It is very important to me to be a teacher in all ways and to lead by example.  I would like to pull people away from their TV’s and grocery stores and get them back into their gardens for entertainment and sustenance. Garden’s bring people together, cleanse our souls, and have therapeutic properties.

I began my current business over 10 years ago as a personal gardener, designer and installer, who did some commercial work and consulting. I also installed and maintained landscapes for flips and make ready’s for local real estate companies, but there is far more to the story…

I was inspired to be a gardener by my grandparents who used the garden as therapy and a delicious source of food and it was a great source of pride to them. I have assembled the skills I have been blessed with and made a path all my own. As a landscaper I wanted to be different from the rest, and my philosophy is “Keep it simple”.  To me, to be truly successful you have to meet the customers needs in a very specific way and be able to speak to their hearts and their heads. The customer needs to feel heard and respected and while honesty and integrity have become past tense in many businesses, it is at the forefront of mine. I believe working to make a better connection between people and the planet is a great honor.

I am a Master Gardener, a certified Oak Wilt and water conservationist, I have several years of  landscape design education and certifications and I take about every extended education course available to me. Additionally, I pride myself in my knowledge and use of native and adaptive low water, low maintenance plants. This has certainly been important to my success but I believe that the best education I have ever received is the experience I have attained over the past 25 years as a Central Texas Gardener

 I am teaching my customers when I speak and write so it is important to keep it user-friendly.  In that same vein, I have kept those same principles in my practice. The least amount of  amendments, use plants that belong here, use the right plant for the job,NO CHEMICALS unless absolutely necessary, organic alternatives and compost saves the world.  I educate clients to be better gardeners with the basic information needed to be successful . If I had my way, I would teach everyone to put me out of work and feel really proud of that accomplishment.  However, so far I have my work cut out for me 😉

I would say that my favorite part of what I do is to help people make better choices. Part of my educational back ground has been spent learning about our past mistakes, when we know better, we have got to do better. We have got to conserve our resources and respect what our Planet has provided us. Simple changes really do make life altering differences and we are all capable of such change. I sleep better knowing that I am a contributing force in what I do as a profession. My super awesome assistant Melissa and I believe that we work for Mother Nature first, and the customer second.

-Be the change you want to see in the world – Gandhi

Lisa LaPaso , lisalapaso@gmail.com or 512-733-7777

Lisa’s Landscape and Design- ( “like” me on facebook)

“Saving the Planet One Yard at a Time”