Selected as one of Inc. Magazine’s “Winning Workplaces” for our open-book management and innovative employee development, A Yard & A Half Landscaping is a landscaping company committed to sustainable and organic practices. Our mission is to design, build, and maintain beautiful and healthy outdoor spaces that enrich the lives of our co-workers, clients, and community. A Yard & A Half Landscaping has been designing, installing and maintaining Boston-area landscapes since 1988.
The landscape structures and stonework we install are meant to last. If for some reason they don’t, we replace, repair, or redo them at no additional cost to you. We call that our “Guarantee & A Half” — a serious, satisfaction-guarantee you can believe in.
Our Services
Residential Clients
A Yard & A Half Landscaping designs, installs, and maintains sustainable plantings, hardscapes, landscape lighting, and habitat ponds. We offer organic landcare & horticultural maintenance, tree care, hand-pruning, and garden mentoring. We provide environmentally sensitive solutions to drainage, rainwater recapture, urban & rooftop gardening, and the changing needs of families and communities throughout the lifecycle.
Design Professionals
Service Area
Our maintenance division serves Newton, Watertown, Brookline, Jamaica Plain, Wellesley, and Lexington. Our design and landscape construction divisions serve residential and municipal clients in greater Boston, but we do travel for special projects.
Our Story
A Yard & A Half Landscaping is a design/build/maintain landscaping company founded by Eileen Michaels in 1988. Over the years, she grew the company to a place in the top 15% of U.S. landscaping companies and the top 3% of all women owned companies by annual sales. Eileen accomplished this by by guaranteeing all of A Yard & A Half’s work and investing in her employees. In preparation for her retirement, she offered the employees the chance to buy the company, and we incorporated as a worker-owned cooperative. The company has historically operated with open books, shared profits with employees, and involved employees in decision-making, so the cooperative model is a natural step for us.
A Yard & A Half Landscaping Cooperative, Inc. was formed in 2013 to preserve and continue to develop a locally-owned, safe, just, and democratic workplace in an industry where workers often face exploitation, wage theft, and hazardous working conditions. Participation in the cooperative is a financial and career investment, not just a job. Worker-owners participate in professional development, learning transferable skills and creating economic growth and self-sufficiency. We also share in the profits of our labor, allowing us to reinvest in our own communities and families.
We are fully-insured, pay into workers compensation and unemployment, and offer excellent benefits and compensation to retain the best workers. Because we love what we do, we’re certified in various fields within our industry. We’re Master Gardeners, Massachusetts Certified Horticulturists, Massachusetts Certified Landscapers, ICPI Certified Concrete Pavers, and NOFA-Accredited Organic Landcare Professionals. We are always seeking new additions to our team of energetic, creative, responsible, caring people. Click here for more about employment/ownership opportunities.
Hi there! love what you are doing in the world of landscaping
particularly when it comes to your designing and building landscapes with ‘integrity, pride, and determination’ – brava!
Also, thanks to Nick Morgan and this site for mentioning my first online Brand Reinvention Summit – a virtual event and Interview Series broadcast Oct 1 -2 so many thanks to you!
PS Zing Your Brand is an offshoot of my company – A New Brand Landscape 🙂 I do get some inquiries at times re quotes for planting trees in Arkansas sometimes and so I know where to refer them!
Look fwd to staying in touch, thanks again
Van
Van – Thanks. Though we wouldn’t be much help to folks in Arkansas — we’re in Boston! 🙂 Best of luck with the summit — looks like you’ve lined up a good group!
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I have a gardening company in the Palo alto, California area–Julia Powers Landscape Services–I want to do a gardener training program with daily training–there’s so much to know to really do this professionally–and evolve the company into a worker owned cooperative. I’m inspired by your example.
Thanks, Julia! I think it’s great that you’re starting to think about the cooperative model while you’re in the business, rather than as an exit strategy. We work with a non-profit here, COGDesign.org, that is exploring horticultural training with formerly homeless folks as a social entrepreneurship model. Skill development is key — both the hort. skills and the ownership/democratic participation piece. Best of luck to you!
[…] bilingual cooperative, and we need your help to grow as a team of worker-owners. By supporting A Yard & A Half Cooperative, you are supporting the local Boston economy and creating resilience, self-determination, and […]
[…] your employees don’t need MBAs to get the hang of it, either. Take, for example, A Yard and a Half Landscaping Company, in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1988 by Eileen Michaels, the company was already succeeding […]
[…] your employees don’t need MBAs to get the hang of it, either. Take, for example, A Yard and a Half Landscaping Company, in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1988 by Eileen Michaels, the company was already succeeding […]
[…] your employees don’t need MBAs to get the hang of it, either. Take, for example, A Yard and a Half Landscaping Company, in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1988 by Eileen Michaels, the company was already succeeding […]