"We’re proud of our upcoming birthday and equally as proud of our team and the service they provide," said Founder and President Rick Upchurch. In fact, service has been at the center of Nature Scapes' business philosophy since the beginning and, according to Upchurch, is the single biggest factor in the company's success today.

Dissatisfaction with the current climate has launched many an enterprise, and Nature Scapes was no different. It was a series of unpleasant experiences with landscape contractors, while working on projects for the MARTA rail system, that propelled Upchurch to start the company in 1983.

“I enjoyed the satisfaction that came with completing a landscape project, and I knew I could deliver a better, timelier product than the other companies I had been dealing with,” explains Upchurch.

From its modest beginning, Nature Scapes focused on a commitment to service and long-term relationships. And it has paid off. In the September 2002 issue of MALTA News, the Metro Atlanta Lawn & Turf Association publication calls Nature Scapes “a major player in the landscape market.”

The company’s emphasis is on landscape maintenance, prospering primarily in the multi-family residential arena, though Nature Scapes has also crossed paths with a number of interesting projects in other realms. “We have been maintaining the turf areas at the Atlanta Botanical Garden for the past five years,” says Upchurch.” That property really keeps us on our toes!”

Other properties of note, past and present, include the historic Margaret Mitchell House, where Scarlett O'Hara came to life in Gone With The Wind, the Cherokee Town Club, and Cross Creek Condominiums, the largest condominium property east of the Mississippi River. Landscape installations have taken the company all over metro Atlanta, and as far away as Rockford, AL, where Nature Scapes handled a landscape mitigation project for Transcontinental Pipeland Company.

In 1996, Nature Scapes acquired Greensphere Landscaping, Inc., a 12-year-old company specializing in the high-end residential market. According to Upchurch, it was the right move. “Both companies had hit a plateau and needed to be stirred up a little bit.” Since the merger, Nature Scapes’ revenues have more than doubled.

The same year, Nature Scapes purchased four acres just down the street from its office and shop facility to set up a recycling operation for landscape debris. After a couple of years, the company began thinking about a new facility. “We were running out of parking space for our employees,” says Upchurch.

The dream became a reality, and in October of 1999 the company moved into new office and warehouse space, occupying two-thirds of the 18,000-square-foot facility.

And what about the future? According to Upchurch, the company doesn’t plan to let reaching such a significant business milestone lull it into complacency. “New marketing, quality control, and management programs have us excited and poised to begin the next 20 years.”