Overseas Deployment Leaves Landscape Work Unfinished; Local Green Industry Professionals Git-R-Done

K & W Greenery, a GreenCare for Troops volunteer contractor, onsite at the Filters'.

Major Aaron Filter, Wisconsin National Guard, didn’t get the chance to finish landscaping the front of the house he, his wife Kristi and their three children share when he was deployed overseas to Afghanistan. Chris Williams, owner of K & W Greenery in Janesville, Wisconsin deployed his own landscape design and installation crew to finish the job.

“Those with us who have somebody deployed do need a little help once in a while,” said Kristi. In the spring, the family planned to landscape the area after putting in a new sidewalk and having to remove a solitary mature maple tree in the front yard leaving them without any shade in front of the house. “I think it’s awesome and beautiful.

K & W and the others who donated plants and materials are just so wonderful and generous,” she continued. When Kristi e-mailed the photos of the completed project to her husband overseas, “His comment was, ‘What a blessing,’” She said.

K & W Greenery is s member of the Wisconsin Green Industry Federation (WGIF), an organization of seven Wisconsin trade associations representing the nursery, landscape, greenhouse, garden center, and Christmas tree producers and service providers. In addition to K & W Greenery, WGIF members Beaver Creek Nursery donated plants and Carlin Sales/ProGreen Plus donated fertilizer, and landscape fabric. The Federation, whose mission is to promote the “green” industry, is also an affiliated organization of a national project called GreenCare for Troops.

The donated supplies and labor totaled between $3,000 and $4,000. K & W’s Williams indicated to his local newspaper the Janesville Gazette, “I though it would be a nice thing to do. “Help somebody out that needed some help.” WGIF Executive Director who coordinated the project indicated that these industry professionals understand the sacrifices that the soldiers and families of soldiers undergo when family members are deployed overseas. When our folks heard about landscape project barely started and left unfinished, they just wanted to “Git r’ done, as the saying goes, and the Filter family loves them for it.”