When we became the new owners of Gardens by Oz in 2024, we didn't take it over. We joined it. The team had decades of knowledge in this watershed — how clay soil acts, what a Hampton Roads microclimate will and won't grow. We brought a different set of skills: how to ask better questions, how to invest in long-term thinking, how to show up with more curiosity and grace, how to lead a business with intention. None of us has the full picture alone. We're building this together. We're growing with excellence.

Here's what we believe — and what we try to live by, every day.

We help the environment we live in. Gardens by Oz sits in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The properties we design and care for drain to the same Bay our new home does. Working with the water — not against it — isn't just our specialty. It's our responsibility. We help the community we're rooted to. Hampton Roads is where we live, where our team lives, where this work happens.

Our goal is to build a workplace where humans want to work in because they enjoy what they're doing, and they feel valued. Part of the team came with the company. They're our colleagues — not employees we inherited. We're learning together. We push each other to be better.

We take the work seriously. We try to not take ourselves too seriously. Some days are heads-down focused. Other days Luke — our Chief Joy Officer (he's our dog) — reminds everyone to take a breath of fresh air (and that petting him and a snack are the answers to all their questions). Both matter.

What we want for the homeowners we work with: having an outdoor space you actually want to be in. Not a yard you maintain — a landscape you live in, designed with care, built with expertise and intention, and made for being outside more often.