Although we are a relatively new business on Staten Island, our roots go far back. Immigrating from Germany in 2000, it was by a friends' suggestion, who had seen the backyard I transformed for my wedding in '04, that I should start digging Staten Island's soil. One thing led to another and by the simple word of mouth and the local homeowners' need for a landscaping service that goes beyond weed whacking and power blowing, I stayed busy ever since. Interestingly, without first realizing it, I stepped into a tradition that runs on both sides of my German family. On the left hand, you see my great-great-grandfather in 1925, who was married to a French and worked the gardens of the Castle of Versailles. His son became a gardener and his son, my father, became an environmental scientist. The photo below shows my grandmother as a child. Her family ran plant nurseries in the City of Berlin. Her daughter, my mother, became a master florist. My great-grandfather was specialized in the cultivation of cyclames. A color tone of a specific species was given his surname. Christoph Mayer