Back to Nature connects landscape craft with an open-book workplace

At Back to Nature Landscaping & Construction, the numbers behind the business are part of the conversation with its team. The Blacksburg company describes an open-book management approach that shares financial information and profits with employees, linking the work outside to how the company operates inside.

Founded in 2012, Back to Nature serves the New River and Roanoke valleys. James Ulmer is its founder and president, and Mckenzie Ulmer is an owner. Its work covers landscape design, construction and maintenance, bringing the initial plan and the continuing care of an outdoor space into the same business.

The construction side includes patios, retaining walls and outdoor kitchens, along with planting. Grading and drainage work address the less decorative parts of a project, where the shape of the ground and the movement of water affect how a landscape functions.

Maintenance then gives the company a role after the installation crews have finished. A planted space continues to change, and the business’s range allows it to remain involved as that landscape grows and is used.

Back to Nature expresses its workplace values through the acronym DIRT: dependability, integrity, respect and teamwork. The phrase fits a company whose jobs depend on people coordinating physical work, but its open-book approach gives that emphasis a specific organizational form. Employees are meant to understand more of the business than their individual assignments.

A group photograph of the crew, gathered beside equipment and vehicles, makes the scale of that team visible. It is a reminder that finished landscapes are the product of many roles, from planning to fieldwork and ongoing care.

Back to Nature’s Thomas Lane base in Blacksburg anchors its regional operation. Homeowners and other property clients can contact the company about design, construction or maintenance needs.