Spring in Their Step
Brian Campedelli says the harsh winter benefited landscapers in a few ways; it gave a solid start to those that plow snow, and it created great anticipation for spring.
After the long, hard winter of 2025-26, Brian Campedelli notes, “people are saying, ‘get me outside — I don’t want to be in my house anymore.’”
And not just get out there, but enhance their outdoor spaces and make it so they can spend more quality time there.
He knows this because of the number and nature of the phone calls to his Easthampton-based business, Pioneer Landscapes, and also because of the turnout at the company’s booth at the recent Home & Garden Show at the Eastern States Exposition and the eagerness of many visitors to do something with their backyards.
“We got a lot of quality leads,” he said. “And these are people who came prepared; we saw people who came in with sketches, photos on their phones, and the ones who didn’t have photos were bringing up their ring cameras and showing us their yard. They knew the sizes of the patios they wanted, the water features … everyone was driven this year; they were ready to go.”
An overwhelming desire to move on from this past winter is just one of the many factors likely to contribute to a good year for businesses in the broad landscaping category in 2026. Another factor is that winter itself; indeed, many companies in this realm, like Pioneer, also handle commercial and residential snow removal, and Campedelli counted 14 plowable events and dozens more salting events over the past four months, helping the bottom line in 2025 and getting 2026 off to a solid start, much better than many recent winters.
“Everything that takes your weekend away from you throughout the summer … we can handle that for you.”
Other factors include a still-strong market for everything from patios and retaining walls to waterfalls and koi ponds, the need for many residents to put a fresh face on work done years ago, and an improved labor market generated by slower times in other sectors. The landscape professionals we spoke with also describe a growing reluctance among homeowners to give up quality time to mowing, fertilizing, and trimming, and a growing desire to let someone else do all that.
“Everything that takes your weekend away from you throughout the summer … we can handle that for you,” said Campedelli, noting that, while a segment of the population has always been willing to pay to let professionals tend to their lawn and gardens, that constituency is growing, based on interest in the different packages offered by the company (more on them later).
Jacob Hall, an enterprising 17-year-old Minnechaug High School student who started his own landscaping business with two friends two years ago, agreed.
“They just don’t have the time to it, and they don’t want to get dirty,” he said, adding that this trend has helped him grow the mowing client list at Caesar’s Lawn & Landscape to more than 50. “In many cases, it can be cheaper in the long run to hire someone, and people are really busy; it just takes one thing off their plate.”
As for those backyard elements, everything from pavilions to firepits to waterfalls large and small, Stephen Roberts says they are part of an ongoing trend toward making these spaces entertainment centers that meld technology with comfort. And the list of what goes into backyards today continues to grow and evolve.
“There’s a lot that goes into creating a nice backyard with all the amenities,” the owner of Springfield-based Stephen A. Roberts Landscaping told BusinessWest. “There’s the shed, the pool house, fencing, retaining walls, paving, lighting, sound systems, and structures that can protect furniture from the elements.”
Roberts said his firm has a full slate of projects for the months to come — all of them booked last fall — and he’s spending his time now scheduling projects for later in the summer and fall, while also managing the expectations of those who thought they could call in March and get a pool put in by the start of summer.
Overall, he said the volume of work has declined from the boom times during the COVID years, when seemingly everyone was investing in their backyard. But it has picked up from a few years ago, when he was in “downsize mode” and doing more of the work himself.
If there is a concern heading into the meat of the landscaping season, it involves whether residents and businesses will continue to spend on their outdoor spaces amid rising prices for many items and general uncertainty about the economy and global conflicts, said Dan Ziomek, general manager of Sugarloaf Gardens in Sunderland, the retail arm of Snow & Sons Landscaping, which sells to the general public as well.
“People are investing more in their yards and gardens, but given the price of gas and the price of groceries, are people going to spend their disposable income with us?” he asked rhetorically. “We’re just going to have to see as we go along.”
But, overall, he and others we spoke with were generally optimistic that 2026 will be a year to grow — literally and figuratively.
A Cut Above
As he talked with BusinessWest, Roberts was working with a repeat customer — a Holyoke resident who was replacing a pool put in 20 years ago while also putting in a new backyard complete with retaining walls — and coping with a tight deadline.
“It’s a big project, and a lot goes into it because he wants to be swimming by May, and there’s a lot of pressure to get it done,” said Roberts, adding that this project typifies the opportunities and challenges facing those in this business.
“People are investing more in their yards and gardens, but given the price of gas and the price of groceries, are people going to spend their disposable income with us? We’re just going to have to see as we go along.”
There are many homeowners putting in new installations or upgrading old ones, he said, adding that managing expectations for many of these customers is now a big part of the job.
“A lot of people call and want miracles done in the spring,” he explained. “They need to realize that we’re booked up with projects that were signed up in the fall.”
Overall, business is good across the broad spectrum of the landscape business, from mowing lawns to designing and building those backyard elements.
Pioneer Landscapes does all of that, Campedelli said, adding that, on the design side, much of the project work involves designing and building what the industry calls outdoor rooms.
“They give you a space that makes you feel relaxed and cozy, between using all the elements such as lighting and music, waterfalls, and fire rocks — if you can dream it, we can do it.”
And what people are dreaming about are spaces where they can entertain, but that are also easy to maintain and protect from the elements, said Roberts, adding that many homeowners are moving from gazebos to pavilions.
“We’re seeing the outdoor rooms, the covered space outside, more than just a gazebo, which was a quick fix — those were mostly underutilized because there’s only so much you can do under a gazebo,” he explained. “People are putting in outdoor entertainment systems — maybe a drop-down TV, a fireplace, some nice couches that don’t get wet, sound systems, and outdoor lighting systems that are controlled by Wi-Fi so they can change colors and dim the lights.”
And, by and large, there remains strong interest in these big investments, said those we spoke with. While demand is not as strong as it was at the height of the pandemic, when the backyard was the only place people could go for vacation, it remains solid.
The Home & Garden Show provided ample evidence of this, said Campedelli, adding that most visitors to the Pioneer booth were driven and ready to move forward with projects.
“They were saying, ‘I want a fence,’ or ‘I want irrigation,’ or ‘I want a backyard makeover’ … there was a lot of that,” he said, adding that, while there is some uncertainty with the economy and concern over recent events globally, many consumers still have the requisite confidence to move forward with what can be a big-ticket item.
Roberts agreed, but said there is certainly some lingering angst concerning inflation and tensions overseas.
As for the businesses handling this work, the hard winter of 2025-26 was the best in years when it came to plowing, generating solid cash flow, and creating momentum for the seasons to follow.
“We’re rolling right now, and I hope it just keeps on going,” Campedelli said, adding that he expects it will, given all those factors he listed earlier.
Mow of the Same
These include that trend toward letting someone else mow the lawn and trim the hedges, he told BusinessWest, adding that, in addition to their backyards, people also value the time they spend in them.
And this has translated into growing interest in the company’s maintenance programs, which range in price from $130 to $995 a month, such as the ‘carefree weekend package,’ which includes mowing and trimming around beds, fences, and walkways, and blowing off driveways, sidewalks, and patios; the ‘outdoor living protection package,’ which includes a fertilization plan and mosquito and tick control services; and the ‘complete outdoor care and seasonal maintenance bundle,’ which includes spring and fall cleanups, aeration and overseeding, irrigation maintenance, and much more.
“These programs are becoming more popular,” he explained. “We just started offering the packages, and so far, they’re a hit.”
This trend helps explain the fast, steady growth of Caesar’s Lawn & Landscape, a company that, like many in this sector, started with a young person mowing lawns for family, friends, and neighbors, and eventually turning it into a business.
And like most entrepreneurs, Hall has been involved in all aspects of this endeavor, from naming it — Caesar is his middle name, and “I thought it had a nice ring to it” — to taking calls and giving estimates; from mowing lawns himself to doing the legwork on forming an LLC.
He started in 2024 with a small portfolio of 10 to 12 lawns and has since worked with partners Trevor Plante and Jonathon Knight to grow the venture and its list of services to include hardscape work such as patios and retaining walls, tree trimming, brush removal and land clearing, lawn maintenance, and, starting a few months ago, snow removal, using snow throwers and a salter on his truck.
“Those two big storms really helped us get that side of the business going, and we’re going to get more into that next year,” said Hall, a junior at Minnechaug, who works after school and on weekends, with his Ford F-250 serving as his workhorse vehicle and office.
Long-term, he and his partners plan to continue growing the venture, build on the momentum they’ve generated, and, for the short term, at least, find ways to balance school and work.
“It’s definitely fun, but also challenging to have your own business,” he said, noting that most high-schoolers work for someone else. “It’s rewarding to work hard and build something like this.”
The same can be said of homeowners and their gardens, said Ziomek, adding that gardening has always been a release for people, and he expects this will continue amid the economic uncertainty and global tensions of the moment.
“We’re hopeful that gardening remains an outlet for people to get away from all the noise happening the world,” he said. “And they’ll garden more because of that.”
Elaborating, he said that, in tough or uncertain times, people will grow more of their own vegetables and fruits as a hedge against higher prices, and he expects to see more of that this year.
“The other thing we notice is people just wanting to build a small oasis, if that’s the right word, to escape from all the stuff that’s going on in the world,” he went on. “It might just be a small perennial garden, or a few flowers in a spot where they see them all the time — just something to make them smile as they go in or out of the house.”
If these trends and the others mentioned above continue into 2026 and beyond, it will be all those in the broad landscape sector who will be smiling.
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