Weston Landscape and Design Get Fierce on Your Lawn
Addison Herron-Wheeler is OUT FRONT's co-publisher and editor-in-chief and friend…
According to Queer Eye and many prevailing LGBTQ stereotypes, gay men are the very best at home decor and makeovers. Whether there is any truth to this or it is just a lame stereotype, one thing is for certain: the men behind Weston Landscape and Design, Inc. know how to give your yard a serious makeover.
“Having a space that is an extension of your home, where you can spend hours out in the Colorado climate, spend late nights, or entertain, whether with a kitchen, fire feature, water feature, or all of the above, is really important to people,” Ryan Weston, one of the brothers behind Weston Landscape, told OUT FRONT. “But we do all kinds of stuff; we cover everything under the landscaping umbrella.”
Ryan runs the company with his brother, Tyler Weston. Both men identify as gay, and their mother, Leanna Weston, is not only supportive, but both a contributor to their business, taking phone calls and holding down the fort when the brothers are out working, and an active member of PFLAG and avid LGBTQ activist.
“Mom has been there to support us all along the way, really serving as that person who is taking care of the payroll and books, and got really active in PFLAG when we came out over 10 years ago,” Ryan explained. “She made a lot of connections in the community and linked them back to the business.”
A Personal Touch
The charming family dynamic of Weston may attract interested customers from the queer camp, but it’s the dedication to detail and good work that really wins them over.
“I’m gay, but I’ve never selected a business just because of that in the past,” explained Scott Halford, one of Weston’s satisfied customers. “But certainly when I met Ryan and Tyler, that was a positive for me, because there is not a neighborhood that gay people go into that they don’t make better. I figured why not have him in my front and backyard?”
Like many of Weston’s clients, Halford had a huge yard in need of a makeover. The space and the means to transform the space into something beautiful were there, but when it came to execution, he needed to bring in professionals that could make his vision a reality. In Colorado’s challenging climate, it’s necessary to find someone who can not only do the work well, but who also knows their stuff.
“Their plant people really know plants, and that’s huge for Colorado because you can’t grow anything you want to grow,” Halford explained. “My backyard has a lot of micro-climates, and they were able to dissuade me from using certain plants I wanted to plant because they would die, or wouldn’t thrive where I wanted to put them. That sounds simple, but I found a lot of landscaping people are really not people who know plant science very well, and these people do. They know where to plant, when to plant, how far, all about the watering; I can’t say enough good about them. I’ve done a lot of renovations on my home and it’s typically fraught with all kinds of issues, and that was not the case.”
Thinking Outside the Box
In many cases, people call a landscaper because they have a special project in mind that can only come to fruition with the help of a professional. Marci Hart called Weston because she inherited statues from her family and wanted to find a way to put them on display.
“Not only did we take something so near and dear and personal to her, these sculptures of her father, but we were able to embed them in a landscape that was boring and turn them into this phenomenal landscape with a pool, spa, outdoor living space, and garden,” Ryan explained.
Working sculptures into a lavish yard with a pool and cooking area could easily be done in an overstated manner, but instead of creating a pompous display, Weston found a way to work the art into the yard in various spaces, along with some really unique looking vegetation that gives the yard an almost magical feel.
“They had the job from the moment they came out because the vision they had was exactly what I wanted,” explained Hart. “Everyone told me I couldn’t do the pool where I did the pool; I didn’t want the rest of the yard taken up; I wanted it landscaped. They were able to take my vision and make it happen. The other company was trying to talk me into another idea that they thought would be better. [Ryan and Tyler] created exactly what I had envisioned.”
Realizing Your Landscape Dreams
Those who have the means to transform their yards into landscaped paradises are lucky; they can create their perfect outdoor living spaces to mirror their inside sanctuaries. And the process of creating the perfect yard should be fun and exciting, not painful. As a gay-owned company, Weston knows that it is important to make clients feel at home, accepted, and safe.
“I think that our ability to want to make our customers feel comfortable with us and our products and services has always been important,” Ryan confirmed. “We’ve been big on building relationships with anybody regardless of budget, where you live, who you know, who you love, and I think that we threw ourselves hard into this business while we were struggling with coming out and built this brand. It’s really kind of a butch industry; you don’t hear about a lot of gay landscapers. It’s kind of a good-old-boy network. But we we are out and proud and respected in the community.”
Editors note: This draft originally said that the two brothers founded the company together. Tyler Weston founded the company, and Ryan Weston joined the company five years later.
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Addison Herron-Wheeler is OUT FRONT's co-publisher and editor-in-chief and friend to dogs everywhere. She enjoys long walks in the darkness away from any sources of sunlight, rainy days, and painfully dry comedy. She also covers cannabis and heavy metal, and is author of Wicked Woman: Women in Metal from the 1960s to Now and Respirator, a short story collection.