PEOPLE

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Please tell us about yourself:

I was born and raised in Baltimore. I graduated T.A, and married Baltimore native Tari (Atara) Adler. We have B”H, a 2-year-old son, Ashie, who keeps us on our toes. I own and operate TLK Landscaping - a local landscaping company that provides residential and commercial landscape maintenance and installation services, as well as commercial snow and ice management. I joke that people probably know my company better than they know me from seeing my TLK Landscaping trucks around town. I’m a low-key person focusing on my company, doing chesed, and spearheading tzedaka initiatives. The latter two are close to my heart.

How did you get into the business?

As a kid I was always fascinated by the sound of a lawn mower. At the age of 11, the opportunity of owning a landscaping business came my way after my brother and a neighbor moved on from their lawn mowing business. That left the local neighborhood market wide open to enter. I started with an electric weed-wacker operating under the name, “The Lawn King.”. Little by little, house by house, with Hashem’s help, things took off. “The Lawn King” morphed into the more grown-up sounding initial name, TLK. What those initials stand for is one of the most common questions I get asked.

What services does your business offer?

Among other services, we offer: Landscaping maintenance packages for residential and commercial properties, that include spring clean up and mulching; grass cutting; seasonal flower rotations; landscape bed weeding; bush trimming; and, leaf removal. We also handle one-time landscape enhancement projects like bush removal, lawn renovations, new landscaping installation, privacy shrubs and trees, and hardscape work. Commercial snow and ice management is another service. This past winter, it came in handy to have a snow removal contract in place with a reputable service provider.

What do you love most about living in Baltimore?

I am mostly amazed by the achdus within the community, the Torah infrastructure in place, and the numerous chesed organizations. It’s also nice to see a growing number of service-type companies with frum owners opening up. When I started as an 11-year-old business proprietor sixteen years ago, this was uncommon. I am glad that people are starting to realize that college isn’t for everyone.

With what local organizations are you involved?

I’ve been involved with many over the years, including Ahavas Yisrael, Chaverim and Menucha. Currently I’m actively involved in Hatzalah as an EMT responder. I also enjoy spearheading charitable causes which inspire others to increase their tzedaka-giving -- I recently started a whatsapp group with like minded individuals to help micro-charitable causes for people/families suffering in silence with no place to turn for help. Additionally, another group I’m working on forming, is a chomesh group. The group would consist of people who are willing to work towards giving 20% of their profits to tzedaka instead of 10% Maaser money.

Sponsored By Sam Rosenblatt

Mortgage Planner I NMLS# 75844 (410) 375-4447

Sam@TheRosenblattGroup.com www.TheRosenblattGroup.com

State Lic: DE: MLO-75844; NJ: 75844; NC: I-109203; MD: 237; FL: LO31872; PA: 28407; VA: MLO-6487VA; DC: MLO75844 | Corp Lic: DE: 010825; NJ: 3113; NC: L-143680; MD: 12423; FL: MLD241; PA: 22177; VA: MC-5196; DC: MLB3113; www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org l Equal Housing Lender l Corp NMLS #3113

Tzvi (Jonathan) Pensak

What makes your business unique?

I am a hands-on business owner of a company that is small enough to give you personal attention, yet large enough to handle whatever landscape projects come our way. Our service is unmatched. The fact that a majority of our residential and commercial work is within close proximity, is to everyone’s benefit. We have the trucks, equipment and workforce to take care of your commercial property needs without relying on subcontractors, as do much of the industry.

Anything else you’d like to share with our 10,000+ cover to cover readers?

It’s really an honor to live in a community with so many wonderful people. I am grateful for and inspired by the opportunity of seeing the chesed that takes place in it, first-hand.

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