This is an article which appeared in the Home Improvement & Remodeling Magazine, May 2010.


If you listed all the ingredients that make a company successful, customer service is usually No. 1. Add to that carefully selected merchandise, expert, experienced personnel, attention to every detail and repeat customers and you have a recipe for success. Toss in community service and that puts the company over the top.

Because of their focus on all those key details, Don and Julie DeVorss have seen Green Valley Nursery & Landscape blossom into a successful business. They credit that growth to personally ensuring that their customers’ experiences with their company are both rewarding and satisfying.

The DeVorss’ mission is to exceed expectations of customers and go the extra mile whether customers are looking for the freshest, most vibrant plant materials or they are working with Green Valley’s experienced landscape design staff.

“We are unusual in that we are landscapers who have a nursery,” said Julie. They not only help homeowners with design, consultations and installations, they also offer a wide selection of plants and plant materials that do well in the area. That knowledge is a plus when assisting homeowners with landscaping design plans and selecting the right plants for their homes. While national magazines feature beautiful gardens, bursting with colorful blooms, those plants may not do well in the very hot, dry summers and frosty winters that are typical of this area. Green Valley offers a wide selection of in-season trees, shrubs and flowers that are ready to take home and plant now or tag and have installed later by their landscape crew.

Julie describes their combination nursery/landscaping operation as an “all encompassing business” that provides full landscape installations and spruce ups, irrigation installation and repair, and landscape design and consultations. They also offer weekly maintenance and landscape staging to improve a home’s curb appeal as well as help design court- yards and front entryways. In addition, Green Valley advises and refers homeowners in selecting custom concrete, landscape lighting, concrete overlay and coating, masonry including walls, firepits and barbecues, outdoor kitchens, overhead structures and trellises, waterfalls and ponds – just about everything that goes into creating beautiful landscapes.

Many products are displayed in the Green Valley Nursery and Landscape Design Center, which is a showplace of ideas and projects. Throughout the nursery grounds, shoppers can view a fabulous selection of plants, trees and shrubs and more pottery, fountains, wrought iron, and decorative trellises and other structures.

Green Valley’s back-story began a few years ago. Don DeVorss, a landscape contractor who has operated his own company for 15-plus years, always wanted to own a nursery. He and Julie built their nursery from the ground up in 2004 and have seen it blossom into a successful operation.

Julie, who was a paralegal for several years, takes care of the business side of Green Valley. She runs the office and serves as marketing director and community liaison. Both Julie and Don grew up in the area – Julie in El Dorado Hills and Don in Granite Bay and Folsom.

They believe in giving back to the community as well as helping youngsters develop an appreciation for gardening. They have an ongoing commitment to assist local schools with beautification projects. This year they donated several varieties of plants to Marina Village Middle School in El Dorado Hills. Student and adult volunteers planted the outdoor classroom last month on the school’s Beautification Day. Two years ago, the DeVorss’ donated plants to Jackson School, also in El Dorado Hills, to improve and enhance the grounds there.

Their commitment to help youngsters also is ongoing. In April, Green Valley sponsored the “Burst Into Spring Sweepstakes,” where $1 of every transaction was donated to Young Life of El Dorado Hills. Young Life is a worldwide, non-denominational Christian ministry committed to making a difference in the lives of middle school, high school and college students through the friendship and influence of caring adults.

In still another program, Don and Julie offer hands-on planting projects for youngsters. They invite schools and parents to bring children to the nursery and help them select and pot vegetables to later plant in the garden at home. Not only do kids have fun getting their hands dirty, it’s said that youngsters who care for and grow their own veggies will eat them.

Julie noted that Green Valley is proud of its fine services and refers to repeat clients as proof they are focusing on customer service. She listed several examples, including homeowners who liked the work on their front yards so much that they called on Green Valley to do their back yards. Another homeowner, with a large amount of acreage by a lake, had Green Valley landscape the property in several stages. Still another called on Green Valley to do the landscaping at one home, then after selling it, had them landscape their new home. Other homeowners ask Green Valley to update colors in their gardens by replacing plants when the seasons change. “We have maintained long-term relationships with these people. They are so happy with the work, they want us to do a second project,” Julie said.