Hi blogosphere, my name is Ted Carter and I am Pinehurst's newest family member. Well, I guess I've always been family (growing up alongside the trees, plants, and people that make Pinehurst what it is today) but I recently decided to return to learn more about the company that has been such a big part of my life.
Last September, I made the decision to move back to Baltimore after several years living/working in Washington, DC to work at Pinehurst, my family’s landscape company. In the short period of time since my return to my hometown, it’s been quite a whirlwind professionally and personally. If starting a new job doesn’t already provide a sufficient challenge, doing so with a small business in the middle of the Great Recession of 2009 proved to be a quick lesson in humility.
And of course, how else do people nowadays handle personal and professional challenges, but to write a blog! It is my intention with this blog to record both the challenges and achievements of Pinehurst and myself. These are interesting times for small businesses, the Green/Sustainability Movement, and landscape architecture and contracting, in particular.
But first, to provide a little context for those unfamiliar with Pinehurst, a little history:
My father, Robert Carter (middle), founded Pinehurst Landscape Company in 1964. Few realize the name derives from Pinehurst Road in Towson, Maryland, which is where my father lived as a child (Take a look on Google Maps). Growing up, my father mowed lawns and dug holes to make some extra money in the greater Towson area. After graduating from the University of Maryland with a business degree, he moved back to Baltimore to start his own company. Shortly thereafter, Rob was joined by fellow UMD alumnus Wink Rupprecht and Wink’s roommate, Corey Branch. It would be these three men who would form the foundation of the company and a friendship that has lasted more than 40 years.
In the early 1970’s, Rob and my mother Cathy (Hi Mom!) purchased a farm in Northeast Baltimore County in the town of Long Green, MD and established a small nursery where Pinehurst remains to this day. For the sake of brevity, I won’t go into great detail of the next 30 years, but with hard work, loyal customers and employees, luck, and more hard work, Rob, Wink, and Corey grew the nursery and the landscape company into one of the premier landscape companies in Maryland.
In future posts, I hope family and friends will learn more about landscaping in Maryland from design to installation, the challenges of a small, family business, the environmental challenges facing the Mid-Atlantic region, and perhaps pickup a few anecdotes about the plants and trees we work with on a daily basis. I’m excited and I hope you are too!
