Member Spotlight on
CREATION
APPRECIATION W
ith many businesses suffering during the spread of COVID-19—furloughing employees, reducing hours, closing doors temporarily, or sometimes for good—the workplace at Creation Appreciation Landscaping almost seems like an alternate reality. “I don’t think we’ve ever been so busy,” says owner Jeremy Parker. “We can’t keep up. If we kept to ourselves and our work, we wouldn’t even know there was such a thing as a global pandemic and quarantine.” It’s taken 18 years to get here. In 2002, Parker, a Virginia Tech horticulture grad, ran a landscaping business on evenings and weekends while he managed production at a large-scale grower in Orange County. He called his new company Creation Appreciation. One year later, he and his wife and the business moved back to his hometown of Afton, west of Charlottesville in the Rockfish Valley. The company enlarged the next year to a fulltime venture, with its first four employees hired.
Since then, it’s been slow but steady growth for Creation Appreciation, which mainly serves residential homes and associations in Wintergreen Resort and the Stoney Creek village. The biggest leap forward occurred at the end of 2018, when the business moved from the Parkers’ backyard to its new headquarters one mile away, a sizable shop and warehouse with four acres of outbuildings, equipment, and a materials yard. About the same time, Creation Appreciation’s staff expanded. Parker now leans on the support of a small but powerful management team: Chris Kell, head of sales and development; Adam Ellinger, operations manager and head of maintenance; and Carol Harrison, vice president and accounting manager. Heidi Layton, former office manager, is now out in the field, overseeing a new plant and flower division. The spring of 2020 got off to a slow start, with a nationwide quarantine and a record-breaking late spring freeze. There were days when the team didn’t know where to send certain crews or they resorted to splitting firewood.
T I M E L I N E
2002
Creation Appreciation moves to Afton, Virginia.
Jeremy Parker starts his part-time landscaping business.
2003
16 • VNLA News • Fall 2020
2004
Parker purchases Sunshine LawnCare, and launches the lawn maintenance division.
2009
The first four employees are hired.
2005
The company converts to an LLC.
