Alexander Patrick started ATG Landscaping in 2013, while he was still in high school. It was part-time work, and at first it was just mowing. His work ethic goes back to his father, a janitor, who taught his son to work hard. In 2015 Patrick went into the Army and earned a bachelor’s degree in business from Franklin University at the same time.
The turn came in 2020. Patrick had also been flipping houses, and COVID wrecked that market, so he shifted his focus to the landscaping company and rebranded everything. “We no longer do mowing,” says Bobby Roberts, who manages the company. “Now we are a landscape construction company.”
The new direction held up. The pandemic years brought the company into large hardscaping, drainage and landscape projects, the kind of work it now goes looking for. “It really kind of showed us who we are and what we’re made of,” Roberts says.
The work runs from custom landscapes and retaining walls to outdoor kitchens and concrete driveways. “Pretty much if it’s outdoor we do it,” Roberts says. Crews cover the 270 belt around Columbus, in places like Upper Arlington, Pickerington and Reynoldsburg, and go as far as Delaware. Roberts puts the limit at about an hour from the city. Mulching and other upkeep are still on the menu, but he says the company wants to be known for the other end of the trade: the homeowner whose yard is a disaster and who wants it made over. He calls it “white glove landscape service.”
Drainage is the first specialty he names. One homeowner with a yard that turned to mud after every rain later described the fix. The crew laid a French drain and tied it into the existing catch basin, regraded the yard so water would run off, and finished the basin areas with river rock. The mud stopped pooling. With rock left over, the crew extended a rock garden along the back fence and leveled a few low spots nobody had asked them to touch.
Patrick is an Army veteran, and Roberts served too; both were honorably discharged. “I take my Army principles and establish them into our business,” Roberts says. “We kind of both run the business militantly, fair, but there’s procedures.” With the crews, that means “leading by example, paying them right, and just having a high standard.” He says the company treats its crews like family.
The procedures start with paper. “We give you a contract, we abide by our contracts,” Roberts says. Every job moves through a consultation, a design and proposal, revisions until the plan is signed off and a walkthrough before ground is broken. Patrick sends progress updates himself while the work is underway, and a final walkthrough closes the job.
The choosing runs both ways. Roberts describes “kind of a no BS type of policy.” The company meets a client, hears what they expect and tries to take on people who understand what the warranty and the craftsmanship are worth.
He reaches for a car comparison to describe the standard. “Some people like to drive a Toyota Camry, that’s awesome,” he says. “When you jump into a Range Rover, it’s a different feeling. We’re trying to be the Range Rover.”