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In 1950, Richard J. Gooding founded Gooding's Evergreen Nursery in southern
Ohio. After 32 years in the nursery business the firm became incorporated
and changed its name to Gooding's Nursery Incorporated. Richard J. Gooding
suffered a massive heart attack and passed away in 1990. The Board of
Directors appointed Richard's son, Richard F. Gooding, President and General
Manger of the firm. After expanding the nursery and its available services
to its clients, the Board changed the firm's name to its present name,
Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping
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A visit to one of the landscape sites
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Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping offers a variety of services
to their clients. The firm's nursery, retail garden center, design, lawn
care, and main office sit on eighty-nine acres of land in Sherrodsville,
Ohio. From this location Richard and his staff tailor to the needs of their
clients, which include landscapers, commercial properties owners, residential
properties owners, and weekend green thumbs. Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping
exists to provide quality care and service to their clients while tending
to the needs of their employees and the environment. Gooding's believes
in selling quality plants and honest service at a reasonable price. Originally,
the nursery grew its trees and shrubs, but after the death of Richard J.
Gooding the growing process was quickly phased out. Now, the nursery and
retail garden center sells a variety of trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials,
lawn products, garden dˇcor, and stone for walks and patios. Gooding's also
provides a full lawn maintenance service, installation and construction
of gardens and patios, arbor care, and a professional design service. |
| Eventually, Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping hopes to terminate
its mowing service and continue to grow in its other areas of service. They
are also trying to keep up with the latest technologies available. For example,
the design office is now switching over to computer drawn blue prints. The
nursery and main office sit on eighty-nine acres of land, but not all of
the land is currently being utilized. Along with the average nursery buildings,
the firm owns five work vehicles, a two ton-trailer, maintenance equipment,
and a few pieces of heavy machinery. Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping has
fifteen year round employees and twenty-three seasonal helpers. Richard
Gooding tries hard each winter to have a lot of pruning and winter jobs
lined up to help minimize the number of seasonal workers laid off. Richard
and his brother are firm believers in proper job training. They believe
that with job training comes more efficient and better quality work. The
downside to the job-training program is that often times workers go through
the training and then quit too start their own companies with the knowledge
that Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping taught them. However, Richard believes
that the job training has helped the firm to make 1.057 million dollars
in gross sales this past year. Most of the clients of Gooding's Nursery
and Landscaping are part of the upper middle class in Tuscarawas County.
Eighty percent of the landscaping jobs are residential, while only twenty
percent are commercial. |
| They do not do competitive bidding because of the uncertainty
that comes with the jobs. Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping does reasonable
work considering area and clientele that they have to work with. Most of
the clients redo their landscaping in phases because the cost to do it all
at once would be overbearing. Those phases often last several years. Therefore,
the property takes a long time to look complete. The plans for most of the
properties were simple and had no real character to make the place stand
out from the other properties on the block. However, Gooding's Nursery and
Landscaping knows how to treat their clients and employees. The clients
stick to Gooding's plans because the work is properly and efficiently done.
It was also good to hear that as the company becomes more successful and
makes more money all of the employees benefit. Gooding's Nursery and Landscaping
was a helpful source on this field trip. |
Computer-Aided Design at Gooding's
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