Today we’d like to introduce you to Greg Noonan.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I created Connected Landscapes to save the suburbs.
I was the 4th generation to grow up on a small family farm in Eastern North Carolina. We grew our own vegetables, had chickens for eggs, cattle for beef, and grain for feed. I sort of just assumed that this way of living was the norm because I didn’t know anything different.
When I moved away from home, I lived in walking distance of downtown, in towns throughout NC, and as far as I was concerned, this was big-city living.
When my roommates and I moved to the suburbs, I was 25. It was the first time I had lived in a single-family home neighborhood. It wasn’t the country or the city. It wasn’t walkable, and it wasn’t farmable, and I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live there.
I got obsessed. As I learned more about the history of agriculture and urban development in the US, I realized that the suburbs were built on land that had been previously occupied by small farms like the one I grew up on and I got an idea.
Landscaping is an 88-billion-dollar industry in FL. Most of that is lawncare.
I figured if all that farmland could grow 88 billion dollars worth of grass that didn’t do anything for anyone – it could do something a little more useful too.
I moved to Orlando back in 2015 and looked for like minded people to try to make something happen. I was fortunate to be able to work with a local non-profit called Ideas For Us through their Fleet Farming program to develop and manage the Edible Landscapes service that continues to do doing amazing work all over Central Florida. I also saw just how much landowners were ready for a change in the way they use their outdoor space and felt that there was a bigger market than a single non-profit could serve.
After working with Fleet Farming to develop and manage the Edible Landscapes program, I saw just how much people were ready for a change in the way they use their outdoor space.
In 2019 I decided there was a much larger market opportunity than a non-profit could serve, and decided to strike out on my own to create a revolutionary new kind of landscape design firm – Connected Landscapes was born. Our mission is to fuse the community of small downtown living, with the efficiency and resourcefulness of small farmsteads. We believe we can do this by making the suburban landscape more productive, ecologically responsible, and truly beautiful
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Ha!
We started in November 2019. I had some background running small businesses and I had a pretty good strategy for our first year that revolved around leveraging in-person speaking and networking, as well as tabling at the numerous street fairs and markets around Central Florida.
Unfortunately, 2020 was not the year to base your entire marketing strategy on in-person networking. To make matters worse, we didn’t make much money in 2019 and so we didn’t qualify for any PPP or Covid relief.
Instead, we buckled down and tried to deliver the best service we possibly could to each and every client we were lucky enough to have.
When the parks reopened, I took a 3rd shift job as a horticulturalist at Universal to “keep the lights on.” I would work from 3 am to 11 am every day and then come home to work on client designs or installs.
In the process, I learned how resilient I can be, if necessary, as well as how to respect my own body’s need for rest.
After a year of “bootstrapping” we were finally profitable and had incredible word of mouth spreading our mission throughout Orlando.
We’ve been impressed with Connected Landscapes, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Connected Landscapes designs, installs, and maintains ecologically responsible, functional, and beautiful outdoor spaces. We do this by growing food, using native plant species, and carefully auditing our supply chains to ensure our entire service is as sustainable as possible.
Our approach is radically different from traditional landscaping firms in 3 key ways.
1) We are radically client-focused.
A good landscape design isn’t about what looks good to me, it’s about what looks good to our clients. The trouble is, most landowners don’t know how to articulate what they want out of their space, or are unfamiliar with how to make decisions about plant species and functional elements. We bridge that gap by helping our clients visualize their yard as an extension of their personality, the same way that you’d think about your living room or your kitchen.
2) One of our “clients” is the earth.
We believe that the landscaping industry is uniquely positioned to mitigate climate change and reverse eco-system collapse. This is why we focus on using techniques, plants, and even hardscape materials that are sustainable and beyond.
We believe your yard shouldn’t just look nice, it should be connected to the ecology of our state through responsible water use, pollinator-friendly native plants, and local and recycled stone materials.
3) We do things other companies just don’t
You won’t find another company in Orlando that can design a patio that directs stormwater into an orchard that provides shade for a butterfly garden. You won’t’ find a company that uses malted barley instead of fertilizer, and ground bamboo instead of pesticides. You won’t find a company that can help you set up a composting system and a small pond to collect rainwater to irrigate a vegetable garden.
We can plant a hedge, or trim a tree like all the rest, but we believe that your landscape could and should be so much more!
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a strange, intense kid, and now I’m a strange, intense adult. Because I grew up out in the country, there were no other kids around and I spent the years before I had a car just kind of wandering around in the woods.
In retrospect, I was learning how to look at wild places and see how my own experiences and ideas connected to them.
I was learning that when it rains, you’d see mushrooms, but only if the last frost had come, that the ladybugs wouldn’t show up to eat all the aphids on Mama’s Garden until after March, and that if you could see a glare on the puddles or shiny leaves, it meant the rain was ending soon.
Besides that, I loved music and learned how to play the drums and the guitar, if only to cover sappy pop-punk songs for girls at school. I was sure I was gonna be a rockstar “when I grew up,” until the bands I played in started opening for real bands and I found out you had to tour like 200 days a year. No thanks – I’ll stick to the veggies.
Pricing:
- Our designs start at $1200 for a “standard” suburban lot
- Installation is dependent on the client’s budget
- Site Assessments are $250 for a one-hour meeting
Contact Info:
- Website: ConnectedLandscapes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/connectedlandscapes/
- Other: TikTok = @ConnectedLandscapes
