I spent my childhood in a small New England town scattered with family owned businesses.
My family started a small business in the 1950's which has survived 3 generations.
As a child my grandfather would take care of me while he was working, teaching me the secrets to
owning a successful business: Honesty, fairness and good customer relations.
I spent my early life training to run our family business, attending New England College with a focus
on business and art. After two years of college I decided to make a change to the direction my life.
I transferred to The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA where I earned a BA in business and art
history. During that time I fell in love with the nature that Washington offers, particularly plants.
I wanted to learn more about plants so I worked in the nurseries doing tasks from tissue culture
propagation to sales. In 1995 I started working for Bamboo Gardens of Washington in Redmond WA.
I became a valuable employee because of my business experience and passion for bamboo. I learned
all about the different species and their variety of uses and I wanted to educate people about it.
My need for growth brought me back to school in 1996. I attended the Landscape Design Program at
Lake Washington Technical College. When I finished it was clear that it was time for me to open up
a company that I could incorporate my values, education and passion into.
Susan Gainer Landscaping opened for business in 1997. I worked part time at Bamboo Gardens and
offered their clients consultations and design/installation services. Eventually I became busy
enough to put all of my efforts into what is now Bamboo Guru Landscaping. Since the beginning I
have offered honest and fair services where I focus on the client's needs. These basic work ethics
are responsible for fostering relationships with clients that are long lasting and have multiplied
by word of mouth.
Over the years bamboo has been the plant that gets me invitations into peoples yards. Once I'm there
and the clients view the quality of work I offer most of them ask if I can do other projects. I now
have experience with the design and installation of landscapes in residential homes of all sizes,
commercial buildings, an amusement park as well as small spaces including seasonal color containers.
Knowing the habits of the plant material that grows in the NW enables me to to pick the right plants
for the spaces as well as predict and take care of the maintenance necessary for the future.
I only offer services I can be proud of. I have located over qualified people who are passionate
about their work and have employed them. If there are things that we need a specialist to perform,
we have a list of sub-contractors who have the same work ethics we offer. As Bamboo Guru Landscaping
grows I want to make sure that we stay true to our small business success and offer our clients
honest individual attention at a fair price.
