Head of the class

Twice a year, HighGrove Partners takes its clients back to school.

The Austell, Georgia-based commercial maintenance firm offers a series of courses for its key customers to educate them on the basics of landscaping, and offer customers the continuing education credits they need for their own professional licenses.

“It’s an opportunity to show the industry that we are professionals, not just a bunch of blue-collar guys with our shirts off pushing lawn mowers.” Gib Durden, vice president of business development

“It’s an opportunity for us to give them something they need, and at the same time … (we’re) doing some seminar learning, too,” says Gib Durden, vice president of business development.

Two courses are offered each year, typically in April and December, and are certified by the Georgia Real Estate Commission. Topics have included basic landscape management, water management, landscape construction fundamentals and sustainable landscaping. HighGrove has also asked some of its customers to share ideas about how to increase rental rates and activity at their properties.

The sessions run about two and a half hours, and take place at Turner Field – home of the Atlanta Braves and a HighGrove client, so they can also schedule a tour of the facility. About 40 percent of the attendees are current customers and the rest are prospects or colleagues of clients, Durden says.

Durden runs the talk on the basics of landscaping, and other speakers have included CEO Jim McCutcheon, Tom Shannon, a water conservation adviser with Ewing Irrigation, and Mary Kay Woodruff, executive director of the Urban Ag Council, Georgia’s state landscape association.

Regardless of the topic, Durden is adamant that the sessions not turn into an advertisement for HighGrove. The goal is to educate property managers and help them make more informed choices about what they do to their landscapes.

“This is not a HighGrove sales pitch. It’s all about giving these folks some tools to talk to their landscape contractor, whether it’s us or any of the other companies that are out there,” Durden says. “It’s an opportunity to show the industry that we are professionals, not just a bunch of blue-collar guys with our shirts off pushing lawn mowers.”