We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Peter Berkey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Peter , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

The landscape industry is a very saturated market. A typical home in Santa Barbara county has a weekly landscape/gardener service. Home owners have come to understand these services as “mow and blow”. This means the general idea of a “gardening service” is misunderstood.

Goodland Gardens is a gardening service but with a twist. We transition underutilized and traditionally landscaped spaces into a client’s very own health and wellness amenity. What does that mean? It means when a client walks into their backyard, they are now surrounded by an abundance of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers. We have now transformed their yard into an edible landscape, that not only provides for health benefits but also is a beautiful space to live.

Our gardening approach is unique to each client’s goals but most importantly we focus on how to allow the space to thrive through biomimicry, attracting pollinators, enriching the soil microbes, companion planting, etc. The typical gardening/landscaping services may not be focused on the importance of investing in these practices. They maybe using synthetic fertilizers, weed killer (Roundup) and commercial grade Home Depot soil. When a client partners with Goodland Gardens, they value how we foster nature to thrive.

Peter , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

As a young boy I grew up on an organic farm in Goleta, California (the Goodland) and with my green thumb of a mother. On my early morning bike rides to school, I curiously watched the farmers tending the fields and the large piles of compost. I honestly never thought anything of it until 25 years later…

For many years, I worked as a Fleet Safety Coordinator traveling all around the country while based in Mary Esther, Florida. I specialized in working with Fortune 500 companies to reduce the accident rates of their drivers. I was living out of hotels and always dining out.

Being from California, I was shocked and frustrated by the lack of fresh produce in Florida and throughout my work travels. Something in me clicked. I decided, quite literally, to take things into my own hands. I started growing my own food but there was an immediate problem.

Mary Esther is very sandy, which inhibited plants from growing. This meant I needed to start from the ground up. I started driving around my neighborhood to pick up everyone’s green waste. At the time, Starbucks had a program called, “Grounds for Gardens”. I’d stop by all the local Starbucks and fill up the back of my 1995 Honda Accord station wagon with their coffee grounds.

Slowly, after many months, the sandy ground transformed into a beautifully rich growing medium. I was finally able to enjoy fresh, healthy produce! Sharing my home grown produce with my friends and neighbors was so fulfilling. I was now like those farmers I saw riding my bike as a kid!

During covid all air travel was grounded. The company I worked for had shut down due to travel restrictions. There were food scarcity issues and empty shelfs at the stores. I saw this as an opportunity to create a business around a childhood memory growing up on the farm. I thought, let’s create a service around growing an abundance of produce at home. If you’re going to pay for a landscape service why not get something in return. To generate our first clients, I provided our garden services for free. The next thing I know the pro bono work paid off. Without any knowledge a client I worked with recommend Goodland Gardens on Nextdoor and overnight I had two paying clients and we were in business.

A lot has changed in the last 5 years of being in business. One thing we are proud of is our ability to operate as a decentralized food network. We quickly realized that not everyone is growing the same foods. As a value added service within our client based network, we aggregate abundance and redistribute it through a weekly harvest basket. It helps to minimize waste and it provides variation in the things people receive which they appreciate. In other words, if you have a lemon tree your not stuck eating just lemons.

Now 25 years later and back in California, having found my roots. I founded Goodland Gardens. “The Goodland” is synonyms with the town of Goleta, California where I grew up. It was only fitting that it was incorporated into our name. Owning and operating the business is a culmination of all of life’s experiences. It’s been a good reminder of what shaped me as a kid and to never lose track of what makes you happy. Remembering the importance that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence, it’s only green where you water it.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing our clientele has been a combination of word-of-mouth referrals and showcasing our work visually—especially through social media and our website. Happy clients tend to share their experiences, and having strong before-and-after photos or project highlights helps build trust with new prospects. We’ve also found that being responsive, clear, and consistent with communication makes a big difference. People appreciate follow-through and reliability—it turns one-time clients into repeat customers.

Thinking bigger picture has been productive for us. Building a network of businesses such as local nurseries and professionals like real estate agents that interact with the same clientele to promote our services has also been helpful. All you need is one or two people to create tipping point.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.goodlandgardens.com
• Instagram: @goodlandgardens

Image Credits

Goodland Gardens