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At the School Yard

Picture of Laura Lee Laura Lee : Jun 19, 2023 8:00:00 AM

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My Landscape Academy Offers Online Lessons for Landscaping Neophytes

Bruce Allentuck Bruce Allentuck knows a thing or two about the landscaping industry. He was just a junior at North Carolina State when he founded Allentuck Landscaping, where he has served as president for more than 37 years. Based in Maryland with more than 30 employees on staff, his company serves residential clients with their landscape design, build and maintenance needs. But instead of resting on his laurels, Bruce continues to innovate and make the industry better. He’s recently built two tech companies to help professional landscapers across the country.

His most recent project is My Landscape Academy, an online training program that highlights safety, equipment and various landscape processes.

“My Landscape Academy was actually started for our own landscape company because we needed a way to train our staff better and faster,” says Bruce. “I looked around the marketplace and didn’t see anything that really fit our needs.”

Already having experience running RightPlantz.com, an online plant guide and directory, Bruce decided to create his own online training program. After using it internally, he shared the program with a few peers in the industry, and they loved it.

“They encouraged me to bring it to market and, with their help, we laid out what the program should look like,” Bruce says.

My Landscape Academy Web

Nine months ago, they launched My Landscape Academy, which is specifically designed for employees who are new to the industry with no prior landscape experience.

So far, more than 40 training lessons are offered in both English and Spanish and can be viewed online and even from a cellphone. Topics range from how to wear personal safety equipment to using a core aerator, planting ground cover, applying mulch, installing gravel beds and identifying poison ivy—just to name a few. Employees get rewarded for each level they complete, before taking on more complicated issues as they progress through the program.

"It’s important to give employees
recognition for a job well done."

Many training modules can be accessed for free, but for the full program, landscape companies pay a fee based on the number of users at their firm. Bruce says another perk to using My Landscape Academy is that it puts everyone on the same page.

“I like things done a particular way in my company, and that’s what we’re teaching,” he says.

Allentuck Landscaping’s top way of recruiting is through word of mouth from their own employees, who many times bring in personnel with no experience.

Allentuck Landscaping

“We have our own recruiting funnel, employees with husbands and wives, fathers and sons, who come work for us and they know from the beginning what to expect,” Bruce says.

So far, feedback from other users has been positive and most of the lessons translate to other regions of the country, although Bruce admits all material might not translate to everyone.

He continues to work on developing content and is currently launching level three, with plans to do two or three more after that. He says he’s grateful for peers in the industry who continue to use and trial the program for him.

“I love getting feedback, both the good and the ugly,” Bruce says. “I want users to tell me what they think and what needs to happen. And if business owners ask to see a module on a certain topic, we’ll add it if it sounds like a good idea.”

While creating something new can be frustrating, Bruce says all the extra effort has been worth it.

Bruce - Washington Monument “The giant companies have their own training platforms and it works for them, but I think there’s still an unlimited market,” he says. “We’ve invested quite a bit.”

In the end, Bruce says My Landscape Academy is about trying to help companies grow their businesses better and faster, and the key to that success is through educating and developing the workforce.

“There are so many companies that need help and so many owners trying to figure out how to make their lives easier,” says Bruce.

"The only way to make your life easier is by training your people. We hope that My Landscape Academy can eliminate a lot of headaches."