Ed Szcesniak, Owner of Georgian Landscape Design, and Jeremy Talboy, Owner of North Georgia Landscape Management, have formed a landscaping powerhouse in metro Atlanta.
By: Rachel Pillow
Georgian Landscape Design has won the prestigious “Best of Houzz” award every year since 2013 across multiple categories: customer satisfaction, service and design. Houzz is an online community of more than 40 million homeowners, home design enthusiasts and home improvement professionals across the globe. The “Best of Houzz” awards recognize top-rated home professionals that are committed to excellence and dedicated to customer service. Georgian Landscape Design is not only nationally recognized and rated, but they have also won “Best of Gwinnett” for six consecutive years as well.
So, what sets them apart? Aside from designing and creating beautiful landscape masterpieces, it truly is their unequivocal customer service that people rave about. Many landscape design companies will work with the client to create the vision then send the crew there, but never step foot on site until the final day. “One of our claims to fame is that one of us is on the job every single second, either me, Ed or our Crew Chief, Daryl….apparently that’s unusual, but it’s our standard,” explained Talboy. “If the client wants to change something on the spot then we will create a “change order” with them right then and there,” said Szcesniak. “And if we discover a way to save them money even after the contract is signed then we will be transparent and let them know,” he continued.
That level of professionalism might be due, in part, to Szcesniak’s 20-year career history as a consultant for IBM. About fifteen years ago Szcesniak inadvertently made a a huge career change after deciding to take classes at UGA in a subject he was passionate about: landscape design. Landscaping and gardening were Szcesniak’s hobbies and stress relievers. “I’d be on a business trip in Europe for two weeks, get out of a limousine when I got home, and be in cutoff jeans and a t-shirt working in the backyard an hour later,” he explained. Upon finding out that in the state of Georgia you can go back to college for free when you’re 50 years old, he decided to just take classes for fun. “But lo and behold, I was really good at it!” he said. So, what started as a part-time gig, mainly working on friends and neighbor’s yards, eventually turned into Georgian Landscape Design as we know it today.
North Georgia Landscape Management was created in a bit more calculated approach, but not without risk. Jeremy Talboy took a chance and dove headfirst into this industry, starting his company the day after he graduated college. His original plan was to be a history teacher and baseball coach, but in true entrepreneurial spirit, wanted to create a business that he could build from the bottom up. “I just didn’t want to be in an office, I wanted to be active and be outside, so I bought a truck and a bunch of equipment and started out by just cutting people’s lawns,” he said. Talboy’s business has since come a long way from its grassroots approach (pun intended). From ongoing lawn maintenance to stonework, patios, waterfalls, ponds, fire pits, fountains, pool design, fencing, gardening and even carports, there’s nothing in the outdoor landscape world that they don’t do.
Talboy and Sceszniak are both proud to call Suwanee home. “This is the 17th place that I’ve lived since college because my former job moved us around a lot, but I’ve never lived in a community that was just this easy to live in, to work in and play in. People are just friendly and really want to help make other people in Suwanee successful,” Sceszniak said. Talboy, who grew up in the area, said, “It’s really cool that I’ve been able to do a lot of work for friends and places that I’ve been driving by for 20 years and now have the contract there.”
Sceszniak and Talboy both work under the premise of “under-promising and over-delivering.” And with more reviews, globally, on Houzz.com than anybody else in their industry, that motto seems to resonate with their customers. “Most importantly,” said Sceszniak, “We have fun out there! You have to have a sense of humor to work with us!”
