Today we’d like to introduce you to John Mariani.
John, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Growing up working in both the landscape contracting and nursery business for my grandfather and in the maintenance field with my father earned me valuable practical experience. I later, brought my design and marketing skills garnered at the University of Illinois to the table: instituting the professional image that launched Mariani Landscape from very modest beginnings, as a lawn mowing service in 1958 to the top 100 powerhouse company it is today.
As the company’s first Landscape Architect and creator of the design department, I recruited and developed its award winning design staff and set the tone for excellence in design, construction, and the special management demands of traditional gardens and varied land projects throughout the Chicago area, the Midwest and also internationally. I have received recognition from the public and private sector and have been the recipient of awards for my own projects and those produced under my guidance and direction. I have hosted multiple speaking engagements and have formally addressed groups at the Chicago Botanic Garden, Morton Arboretum and many other significant public and private nature and garden organizations throughout Illinois and Wisconsin. I have authored numerous articles on landscape design for both traditional and native landscapes and am presently writing an instructional book on sustainable landscape practices, restoring my own small farm in southeastern Wisconsin back to “pre-settlement” prairie/savannah condition.
While my landscape design has been strongly influenced by the traditional architecture prevalent on the North Shore of Chicago, and of which any good landscape architecture is meant to compliment. I have always been especially passionate about the natural world. Promoting a healthy environment and richer outdoor experience by including plants that attract wildlife such as song birds, butterflies and pollinating insects, etc. back into the landscape has always been part of the “program”. Recognizing that we are presently experiencing the most critical decline in native wildlife populations ever recorded, primarily due to habitat loss-and my potential for championing positive change-has prompted me to leave my family business and found my new company: LandServe, LLC – “Landscapes for Life”. Through ‘LandServe’, I have the opportunity to promote a unique “hybrid” design approach for “true”, long-term sustainability: landscapes with “widely accepted visual appeal”, while also utilizing native plants and other locally resourced materials. By creating landscapes, which meet the client’s needs for function and aesthetics, I’m able to make my case for including native plant species in literally all landscapes and land developments, of any scale or style! As such, both the needs of my client and creature are served!
I brought my own special skill sets to bear in helping create the largest privately-held residential landscape company in the country. I understand the enduring legacies that will stand the test of time are not only the many landscape designs that I’ve created in the past, but more importantly, the healthier, environmentally responsible landscapes I am providing now as I lead my new company – LandServe, LLC – into the future.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Time has been on my side. I am now blessed with a reputation for offering very fine landscapes of every kind. I’m most noted for my traditional works, due to the building style of our area that I’m most often relating to with my work. My Mission is to promote the use of native plants over non-native plants as “the norm” in all landscape gardening. I believe this to be the best, most expeditious, and possibly the only way to create enough plant habitat to save our critically declining wildlife populations.
While I believe that most people appreciate nature and have concern for the environment, trying to sell them on using locally native plants in their landscapes-particularly when a project calls for a traditional approach – is a great challenge. Fortunately, my experience with traditional design, coupled with native plant knowledge, has allowed me to develop an exclusive planting technique-utilizing native plants in a familiar, traditional manner and any other manner of style, as needed!
Please tell us about LandServe, LLC ‘Landscape for Life’ Landscape Architecture and Consulting.
Landscape Architecture (definition: The landscape planting design of a site, including – gardens, foundation planting, courtyards, borders, etc. and including the architectural design of all outdoor elements, which may include – steps leading out of a structure, walks that lead to the pool, spa, terraces, decks, walls, pavilions, fences, driveway, motor courts, irrigation, lighting, etc. Consulting – Project Observation is a very important part of our service. We lay-out and oversee every project.
When possible, we can provide “written” proposals in lieu of drawings to expedite projects. Traditional/Conventional/Contemporary/Native (Naturalistic) Landscape Design/Management
Those closest to me and have known me the longest understand my lifelong love of and concern for nature. Aesthetically speaking, naturalistic landscape design is very difficult to “pull-off” successfully. My “life experiences” and native plant knowledge allow me to perform this quite well, whenever the opportunity presents itself. The key is-my approach to naturalistic design is more “arranged” than chaotic; perhaps to the delight of those less thrilled by the “weed-patch” effect most often associated with other poorly designed examples of this style.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Like a lot of people, I’m sure, I have many “favorite” memories. I will say that most involve nature in some way. My earliest memories would be far and away my favorite: formed in a time and place that was very rural. Natural scenery and wildlife was abundant. At twelve years of age, I would walk out my door and down our street with a hunting rifle in one hand and a fishing rod in the other… and not one neighbor would say a word, except perhaps ask what I was “going after” that day.
Coming home after school to my mother anxiously holding her apron together until I was close enough for her to to show off the dozen baby rabbits she had gathered from our pens would be a good memory. Or there was the time the fishing pond at the end of our road started to dry up. I recruited every kid on the street-with their buckets and bikes-to scoop up as many stranded fish, frog and turtle as possible and carry them back to my house where we put them all in our above ground swimming pool! By the way, did I mention that I lived on the North Shore of Chicago?
Housing and commercial development exploded in the late sixties and changed the entire environment-physically and culturally-practically overnight. No one understood anything about what was there, or how wonderful and important it was. I suppose that’s when I decided I was going to try to make a living some day “restoring nature”.
Contact Info:
- Address: 2056 Knob Road, Burlington, WI 53105
- Phone: 262.661.3606
- Email: johnlmariani@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Kathleen Marie Vacek
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