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Sarah what's your background. So I've always enjoyed nature always enjoyed being outside. I decided that it was time for me to get out of the entire retail setting and so I went back to school for my sEcond associate degree and I got that Western technical college in the landscape horticulture program. I graduated ti 2016 and then by 2017 I was asked to come back and teach in the program.
So you were able to take your love for being outside your skills that you learned teaching and then wrap that up into your own your own business with Eco Gardens.
My Washburn Yeah actually right after I graduated I started Eco garden by Washburn and I thought oh boy what am I doing. Ok so I had a very good business background and a pretty good knowledge for horticulture. Every day I learn something different and I tell you bouncing ideas off people and trying to make sure that you stand by all the needs of everybody. I know you can't do it but trying it is challenging but it's fun when you actually have a lot of success at it.
What are some of the service organizations that you belong to the American Legion.
I'm involved with them. In fact we've been discussing some tree replacement options up at the Onalaska Legion post and though I belong to a referral group we are a group of small business owners and leaders and we get together about three times a month. We discuss what our business is doing kind of like the current trends in our business and what type of referrals that we're looking for is.

So why the name Eco Gardens by Washburn
I wanted to include my name because I feel that a lot of people knew me if I'd been in this area ever since I was 4 years old. So that's kind of why I wanted to include my last name. But the Eco Gardens carpet the Eco friendly like the native plants the edible landscaping the rain garden that we associate with sustainable landscaping sustainable being encountered nothing but you leave it better than you found it really sustainable to me meaning locally sourced that we're not putting a whole lot of wasted energy into creating something just to have it Eco involving wildlife and the Gardens parks Gardens is you know the sustainable landscape and garden design. So I want to be planting something more along the lines of where you're going to go outside and you're going to say oh look at that beautiful you know and it cuts around in your garden. Those are the parts of what I thought was important to me and important for me to give back to the community. And that's how I put my theme of my business together. So what do you what do you want people to know about you that I do what I say I'm going to do to help people get outside to actually enjoy where they exist.
I think that I can help you very creative in getting what you want within your budget to create outdoor landscape.
I think a lot of people when they think of landscaping they think of putting edging around the house throwing some rocks in there and calling it good maybe some bark in the back or on the tree. What does landscaping mean to you sir.
Landscaping can mean so many different things. And to me it means getting out into your yard or at your business area beautification. OK. We have trees which I'm a big proponent of planting trees but always you have to have the right plant in the right place. You don't want to planted sugar maple in a real pay corridor because you know that they're not going to fit the heightened with restrictions that you have in a tight corridor. What I like to make sure to do is to plant something native because then we have an easier time with the establishment and maintenance of the tree and then we go down to our next level perhaps shrub.
So hardy shrub woody shrub this area providing a lot of another habitat area for wildlife that we have are our perennials. We can certainly plant things in the landscape that give us a really nice show all year long to.

Dean McHugh excavating joining us on the McHugh excavating podcast. Do you belong to any professional organizations?
We do. We belong to the Wisconsin Underground Contractors Association. It's a statewide organization of companies that do water and sewer and other underground type work. I'm not sure how many members are in it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's around 100 or so but we've won their safety award seven times in the last. So that's one of the organizations we belong to and we're active in our safety director has been on the safety insurance committee. There are a number of years. We also belong to the Wisconsin Transportation Builders Association. There are some people generically called the road builders. They're an organization of a lot of companies that are larger than asserting that. But a lot of contractors that work on department transportation projects and interstates and on some of the highways since we do some of that work. We also belong to that organization we belong to La Crosse Chamber Commerce cluster development corporation and a few other smaller civic organizations like we're right on the edge of home and here so we belong to the Holmen Business too.
I also know that water is a passion of yours and you help other countries with their water problems.
Yes I'm involved with Rotary International through the Holmen Rotary Club and because of my experience with McHugh excavating you know water treatment which is what septic systems are and you know larger wastewater treatment plants to cities municipalities use you know all involved involved cleaning the water before it goes either into the groundwater or goes out into the river. Unfortunately there's areas in our world where the only water available to drink is of the quality of what our sewers are. So I've been involved with a number of projects mainly around Lima but some other areas in Peru also where we hope loopers nonprofit organizations and come up with some solutions whether it be individual filtration at the home level or at the village level. We've done a few and some smaller two to 3000 person villages were put in a central treatment so that the water that is available to them can be made safe to drink.
How does somebody reach McHugh excavating Dean?
The office number is out the summer is 608-783-1404 and my cell number is 608-769-4803. And all of our e-mail addresses are on our website which is MchughExcavating.com.
You go to the About Us tab on our website. McHughExcavating.com and there's a link with right by each person's picture to email them.

McHugh Excavating has been in business since 1976 how has business changed since then?
Good question. From our standpoint he's gotten a little bit bigger.
1976 it was my dad and one guy but like with most businesses that have been around for decades.
They're not the same size they were when we started our company currently has about 40 employees. We've been as high as 60, years ago that we were covering or covering a larger geographic area at that time. So we've pulled that back a little bit. Not that we don't go out of town. We still do. But that's probably the biggest change is the the change in the size of our business.
Really you know some of the technology changes in the equipment and the trucks and of course if you get into septic systems I hate to talk about septic systems too much because it's a relatively small part of our business but it's something an owner faces needing a new septic for 20 or 30 year old house. There are newer technologies available now that weren't 30 or 40 years ago. So there are ways to make septic systems or replacement systems fit on lots where maybe they want to put the patch. We're different and different ways of attacking the problem that didn't exist before.
You mentioned in 1976 as your dad and another guy with your business growing. Are you in need of people to work for you.
We're always in need of good skilled people. We run into the same problem a lot of folks do in the trades. Most of our positions are skilled. So we're looking for skilled people yet. How do you become skilled. If no one can give you a chance to start with. We do have an apprenticeship program through the Laborers Union and the African Union. So there are some opportunities just you know a couple every year where a person can get in all the way on the ground floor. But you know to have apprentices you need to have skill Jurney workers that can help guide them and teach them and mentor them. So there is only a certain amount of the spots we can fill each year. We're always looking for people that want to work outdoors on their hands who want to learn a skill. Folks that even grew up on a farm are good candidates for us because they want to fix things they want to run smaller pieces of equipment in their use. You know they're used to the work. It's not easy work to work construction. It's a very financially rewarding work and I always tell people your job is never going to get shipped to China if you are construction it's always going to be here. But yes we're we're always looking for people to come in and apply and see what we have. And we have dump truck drivers to a number of different positions that people can try to fill mechanics in the shop.
How does somebody reach McHugh excavating Dean?
The office number is out the summer is 608-783-1404 and my cell number is 608-769-4803. And all of our e-mail addresses are on our website which is MchughExcavating.com.
You go to the About Us tab on our website. McHughExcavating.com and there's a link with right by each person's picture to email them.