Celebrating Diane - (Who is that? Come find out!)

Meet Diane Myers.

Diane is a leader in the landscape industry, not only growing plants but growing opportunities and other small business in the green industry.

Some of you remember Diane when she 1st started as a part-time crew member. In 1999. Notice the black and white photo
because it was before color. Kidding! Diane was a young master gardener who hired our company to service the lawn at her home. She was working in her parents’ business, managing the office when she saw that we were hiring help to plant flowers. Instead of taking a vacation like most people do, Diane took 3 weeks off from the family business to join our crews.

This was in the early years when Laurie Broccolo personally worked with crews. Diane showed amazing leadership and design skills, so Laurie told her to take over the layout and designing for the flower planting season. Laurie said she needed a break from the business to just enjoy physically working and planting. Did you know that gardening relieves mental stress and fatigue? The bending and moving is energizing and the soils have micro-organisms that induces serotonin in your brain.

Diane agreed to return the following season with a raise in pay of course. Then the rest is history. She left the office job and became a full-time junior foreman in training. Not only was she fantastic with customer service, but Diane also helped bring on new clients such as her parents’ home.

One of our key values is to have fun. Diane is constantly punning around and here are a few of our favorite quotes. “I have been emBEDded in landscaping for a long time. It is deeply SEEDED into me. Working with every aspect of the Broccolo business has allowed me to really BRANCH out. “

Over the years, the business has grown guided by Diane’s managing skills and business understanding for budgets and efficiencies. She has built most of Broccolo’s Standards of Operations for landscape planting, pruning, edging, and mulching. She has mentored other staff including Martha who has taken on her old job as field supervisor.

Partnering with other small companies to hire and train them as subcontractors has been a goal for our company. We are able to help our clients get the quality they expect in a timely manner during a very short season. Staffing in the landscaping industry has always been a challenge and the labor shortage has been a serious hardship for all small companies.

The Broccolo Entrepreneurship Program led by Diane helps small landscape business owners to understand how and what is needed for insurances such as workman’s compensation. The subcontract portion of our business has become a full-time job. She sets up the agreements, the training, and tests them on a few jobs to be sure they succeed with us. This in turn has helped them develop skills needed to grow their business with customers other than Broccolo. This allows owners to hone their skills and train their own staff without having to chase after new clients, giving out estimates and then invoice and collect payment.

As some of us slow down in our 60’s, we reflect on the significance of our contributions to society. Diane’s legacy is to continue developing the green industry into a respected profession with a decent income to sustain those working in the field and to create the best-looking yards in the
neighborhood.

The team and partners at Broccolo and the customers thank Diane for 26 years so far.