GRAND MEADOW – Wayne Gehling couldn’t be prouder this Father’s Day.

Saturday, June 17, 2000

GRAND MEADOW – Wayne Gehling couldn’t be prouder this Father’s Day. His wife, Carol, too.

Their oldest sons, Tyler and Ryan, are doing well in their career choices. Tyler is a shop manager in Milwaukee, Wis. and Ryan works for Cenex-Harvest States in Grand Meadow.

Now, their youngest sons, identical twins Jered and Jacob, are off to a good start, too.

A very good start.

No sooner had they flipped their mortarboard tassels, received their high school diplomas and greeted relatives and friends at their open house graduation party, then the pair went to work.

The twins, both GMHS class of 2000 Honor students, went into business for themselves as landscapers.

Each spring for every high school senior, there is always the question, "What are you going to do after graduation?"

Jered and Jacob had that answer ready in the form of a business card announcing Gehling Landscaping was for real.

"When we told our friends in high school that was what we were going to do right after graduation, they would say things like ‘Yeah, right’ and now we’re doing just what we said we were going to do," said Jacob.

Both teenagers say growing up on the farm was the best experience for them at the time.

They still live at home and operate their landscaping business there. "Mom is our secretary," joked Jered.

The combination of a strong work ethic, appreciation of Mother Nature and examples set by other family members may have been the inspiration to go immediately into business after high school graduation.

It runs in the family

The Wayne Gehling family raises hogs and grain on a picturesque farm along Highway 16 west of Grand Meadow.

The farm was ravaged by a severe windstorm in 1978. Today, only aerial pictures of the farm tell what it was like after Wayne and Carol replanted many of the trees lost in the storm.

The Gehling family respects the environment and works to protect natural resources.

Down the road live Wayne’s parents, Clarence and Florence Gehling.

"Grandma" Florence has been a masterful gardener forever it seems. Her colorful flowers are the envy of all who see them blossom and bloom in her yard.

So, the roots were figuratively and literally planted in the twins’ family history to respect the environment and to cultivate it.

Thus, it should be no surprise, Jacob and Jered are counting on it to provide them with a career.

"We got interested about three years ago, when we were taking vocational-ag courses taught by Mr. (Rick) Jacobsen," said Jered. "We were sophomores at the time."

"They offered classes in horticulture and natural resources and we liked them. They were a semester-long, and it was just something we were interested in," said Jacob.

When they became upper classmen at Grand Meadow High School, the twins enrolled in post-secondary options courses at Rochester Technical College, where they studied landscaping and golf course management.

They will continue their studies at RTC en route to earning their degrees, but that will take two more years. In the meantime, they are working for a living and enjoying it.

"I’ve always liked being outdoors and working with growing things," said Jered.

"I can’t imagine being stuck behind a desk doing something I didn’t like," said Jacob.

At this point of explaining their decision to go straight from high school into business for themselves, their father offers an observation.

"These boys, like Tyler and Ryan, have been working on the farm since they were in the sixth grade and they were paid for what they did," said Wayne. "They’ve earned the money and they’re entitled to use it as they see fit."

That meant landscaping and the young men started this spring as their senior year of high school was winding down.

Ready for business

Deb Johnson, GMHS school secretary, was their first client. She hired the twins to landscape her home located along Mower County No. 8 north of Grand Meadow.

"She told us what she wanted and how much she could spend," Jered said. "We went to her place and came up with a design plan."

"It’s a low-maintenance project which focuses on a flowering crabapple tree. She had plants for us to use, too, and when we were done she was pleased with our work, and we were pleased with it too," said Jacob.

With their first project-for-pay under their belts, the boys embarked on a project for their mother.

The youths turned a problem area for rooftop drainage into an impressive twin-pond, multi-stone, brick and rock, shrubs and flowers area that attracted "oooohs" and "aaaahs" when relatives and friends visited for their open house graduation party after commencement May 26.

"I love it," said Carol, the boys’ mother. "They did a great job. It’s just what I wanted."

Then came Ann Whalen and their biggest challenge yet: a 1,500 square foot area behind her condominium in Rochester.

The project was just finished a week ago and judging by the video shot by the twins, it is impressive to behold; particularly, the white flagstone that accents the area in the form of a circle bisected by an "X."

Now, the twins are back to work on their latest projects. St. Finbarr’s Catholic Church in Grand Meadow has retained them to do landscaping with the help of church volunteers. Also, the new Grand Meadow Emergency Services building will be landscaped – hopefully before the coming MeadowFest celebration – by the Gehling brothers. Mayor Dave Baudoin retained the boys to decorate his residence with trees and shrubs, too.

By word-of-mouth, Gehling Landscaping’s business is growing.

Their mother, Carol, also credits Heather Voigt and her new Garden Gate flower and nursery business at Grand Meadow with helping her sons with encouragement and her expertise.

Also, a former Grand Meadow resident and now an RTC teacher, Robin Fruth-Dugstad, was an influence and a fountain of knowledge with her knowledge and expertise at teaching herbaceous ornamental plants, a favorite course of the twins.

Are the teenagers surprised with the early success of their business?

"Yes. It’s been good so far. Mostly, we have gotten jobs by word-of-mouth, and if people are saying good things about you, that helps a lot," said Jered.