Being the owner and originator of Helm Gardeners and Landscaping, has been an awesome journey and adventure. The company was born out of my necessity to simply make a living and provide for my family, as well as my love for gardening. I grew up in a family where my parents loved their yard. They had one of the most amazing vegetable gardens I have ever seen, still to this day. They instilled that love for it in me. In 1982, the year my wife and I Yvonne were married, I was employed at the A & W Rootbeer Restaurant, that my parents owned in Arvada Colorado. In fact, it is were Yvonne and I met. She worked there too as a car-hop until we were married. My parents sold the restaurant, and the new owner fired me abruptly. I was pretty devastated. It would turn out to be one of those events in my life where I couldn’t see God’s hand on it then, but turned out to be one of the best things ever! I thank Him often that I didn’t end up getting stuck in the restaurant life as my career.
I knew I couldn’t sit around long, I needed to have an income. I thought of what I was good at and what I would enjoy doing. I placed a very small ad in the Arvada Sentinel Newspaper, offering my services for landscaping and yard clean ups. I started to get a few calls, and before long I was making a decent but small amount of income. I didn’t have many tools then, and my first company vehicle was my 1976 Ford Pinto! I hauled everything in that car, sometimes to the point I could not even see out the windows!
I soon figured out that I liked working hard and seeing the result of my labor. There was a sense of accomplishment and pride by bringing order and design to clients yards, and providing for my family. Some of the clients I had from the beginning of the business, remain clients today! I had a few regular jobs along with my new-found landscaping business. By 1984 I was hired at the U.S Postal Service. I was excited to have a good paying and steady job, and especially the benefits. I ended up staying with the USPS for 22 years, mostly as a mail carrier. The job never felt like a fit for me, in the sense of the government/labor union mentality.