About Us

Axel Landscapes

"Believe the Hype"

WINNER: 2004 MNLA Award for Residential Rear Landscape

The Story of Axel Landscapes

by Chris Axel

I started a lawn maintenance company in high school, kept it through college and for two years after college. My degrees are from Washington University in St. Louis, MO, in Business Administration and French. I studied my junior year in Paris, and interned for Cargill for 5 months while I was there.

After college I kept my lawn company so I could spend the following winter in Chamonix, France. Chamonix is one of the best places in the Alps to climb and ski. I met some Canadian skiers there and spent the following winter in Whistler, BC.

By 1998, we had started to do light landscape work along with the lawn company. I decided to sell the lawn company, and intended to get a "real" job like most of my college friends.

As it turned out, after nine years of working for myself, the idea of working for anyone else didn't have the appeal it did when I was younger. So, I started Axel Landscapes instead, to do landscape design and construction. Our first projects were for friends and acquaintances with new construction homes.

My award-winning sister Amy Axel Bisbee now handles most of our design and sales, although she has "little feet" on the way in summer 2008, so we'll split up her role more this year. Award-winning designer Joanie Somerville is going to help us out, and I'll go back to some design and sales myself as necessary.

I team with Jon Errickson to co-lead our installation crew. We work together on setup, layout, and elevations, and when that is all set, I shift focus to the logistics of efficiently getting all the materials we need in and out. Either Jon or I are always on site-- usually both.

Jon has sacrificed a lot to be a part of this business. He would be a civil engineer with 5 years of field experience by now if he hadn't decided to come play in the mud. We both enjoy the work, and teaching new guys how to do it. We like working really hard all summer and then having downtime in the winter.

The business has grown every year, and we keep finding new ways to work efficiently while working to the highest level of quality. We spend a lot of time planning each project before we arrive to install it. This is good for you, because it means we can complete your project efficiently and get back out of your way so you can enjoy your landscape as soon as possible.

We've also chosen up to this point to remain a one-crew business. This means that you get the best workers we have no matter what. One drawback with some of the larger companies is that some crews are less experienced at certain things than others, and you have no way to control who will actually show up to install your project for you. With us, you know what you're getting.

We will have more than one crew eventually, but not until we have all the systems in place to be certain that the second crew will be just as productive and successful as the original.

We do this work because we enjoy it. We think there's no reason that even big stressful projects can't still be fun for all involved. We are absolutely committed to the success of this business, and I think you will feel the difference when you meet us.

Enjoy our website. I do my best to update it with new pictures every week during the season, so you can follow along if you like and see what we're working on.

Thanks for visiting!

Chris Axel

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