Plainfield, NJ - The year was 1988 when Shelly
Hewson and her husband, Rick, decided to launch a
landscaping firm. She was looking to leave the real-
estate business, he was turning the page on an
excavating firm he had been managing with a
business partner, and both were seeking a change
of pace.

But neither knew quite where to begin.

"We had no idea what we were doing," Hewson
recalled. "We just called every family member we
had, reached out to friends of friends of friends. We
were shaking the trees (for customers)."

Memories of that time are much fonder today, as
Hewson Landscape slowly has developed into a
stalwart in the local field. The firm performs
commercial, industrial and residential work as far
south as Ocean County, as far west as
Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley and as far north as
Rockland County, N.Y., according to Hewson. About
80 to 90 percent of the business comes in the form
of lawn and landscape maintenance for utility
companies, but it also includes installations,
renovations, and work on patios, retaining walls
and drainage systems, Hewson said.

The firm is headquartered on North Avenue, where
some of the dozen vehicles emblazoned with the
Hewson brand's bright-green logo continue to
motor in and out of the area on weekdays. Contract
values range from about $2,000 to $200,000,
Hewson said, and business is good.

"Lately, we've been getting a lot of calls from people
who put projects on hold and now are getting them
restarted," Hewson explained.

Hewson credited a long-running series of Rutgers
University horticultural courses she and Rick started
taking around the time they launched the business
with helping them understand the intricacies of the
work, allowing them to grow their firm from the
ground up. The Warren couple still takes some of the same courses today, she added.

"There's always a learning curve," she said. "We'll
look at whatever we can to save us time and money."

The firm's location helps to that end, Hewson said,
calling the Queen City a fantastic place to set up
shop after previously operating the firm out of the  
family home until 2002.

"It's great - we find it to be very accessible to major
highways," said Hewson, also noting that a pair of
key vendors are located in nearby Scotch Plains and
Berkeley Heights. "Everything's real close."

 

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