In 2009, when Walker Talk visited Anderson Lawn Care in Wyanet, Illinois, owner, Ralph Anderson, was 76 years old, and his four Walker Mowers and five employees maintained 75 accounts. Anderson turns 85 this year and slowing down is not part of his DNA. His five employees and four Walker Mowers maintain at least 60 accounts, divided nearly in half between residential and commercial/institutional accounts.

Top Notch Services in Granville, Illinois, still uses Walker Mowers. At 78 years old, company founder, Burdette Mills, is going strong, although son, Jeff, runs the business now. And the company has many of the same customers it had.

Some companies find a niche and stick with it. That’s what the Bash family did in Arlington, Ohio. Owners, Tim and Laura Bash, and son, Ben, provide virtually the same services to many of the same homeowner customers they did six years ago when they appeared in Walker Talk, Volume 38.
Bash Lawn & Services mows, fertilizes, applies mulch, prunes, installs seasonal color, shapes beds, aerates and rolls lawns, and the list goes on.

Bob Vickery, owner of the The Planter’s Touch in Easley, South Carolina, had just left behind a 21-year career as a banker when he and wife, Cile, appeared in Walker Talk, Volume 27. He was 44 back then. At age 62 now, Vickery has no regrets. The owner/operator, with Cile managing the business end of their company, has plenty of work. With two full-time employees, The Planter’s Touch mows 46 accounts a week with two Walker Mowers, provides turf care for nearly 100 properties, and offers landscape design and installation services to another 25 customers.

In 2008, Sposato Landscape employed 150 people and operated 30 Walker Mowers. Since then, the Milton, Delaware, company more than doubled in size, now employing more than 300 people and operating 72 Walker Mowers. When former high school teacher and company president, Tony Sposato, was asked what contributed to the rapid growth, he said simply, “the area.”

Winston Collins, owner of Collins Landscaping & Lawn Maintenance, was 67 years old when Walker Talk visited him in Newport News, Virginia, nine years ago. Today, he’s 76 and, in his words, still having fun.