Each week, the Daily News profiles a locally owned business.

Name of business: Landscape Patterns

Location: A home-based business in Bowling Green

Type of business: Landscape designs and consulting

Opened in: 1990

Owner: Yvonne McQuitty

Number of employees: One

Specialty: Offering landscape designs with the homeowner in mind.

How did the business get started? Most designs come from landscape companies who have inventory to sell. I saw a need to design landscapes that incorporated plant material that the homeowner wanted. Here I found the need to be a landscape designer for the consumer, who wanted to shop and plant it themselves. So using my knowledge as a Kentucky certified nurseryman, I began consulting, recommending the best place to plant the desired material and, because I wasn’t trying to sell the client trees and shrubs, the focus was on the design and how it best fit the homeowners’ lifestyle.

What is your background? I loved planting flowers as a kid. We have pictures of me and the large sunflowers and zinnias that mother always planted every year. I remember planting radishes, Dad’s favorite, under the small boxwoods in the backyard and always enjoyed the aroma of the cherry tomato plants. Both grandfathers raised earthworms and Grandma taught me about saving the kitchen scrap for the garden.

When we moved to Bowling Green, we raised Arabian horses and had lots of organic fertilizer. I met a lot of interesting people who loved the manure for their gardens. I’ve been a big fan of the outdoors and lucked out when I found a job at a local garden center back in 1984. Working with great people, I really enjoyed my work and my boss was there to encourage me to continue to learn all I could about the industry. Drawing and creating things is a natural, God-given talent for me and all my family members. So with hard work and the passion to learn about every new plant that came in each spring, it was only natural to offer ideas/designs to customers overwhelmed by the varieties available.

What are your biggest challenges as a business? The idea of “what is it worth.” I often say, why build a beautiful home and put in a generic landscape? Your landscape, according to “Money Magazine,” will increase the value of your home by 15 percent. So why skimp on the one thing everyone sees when they walk to your door?

What’s your business philosophy? Offer your best.

What issues are affecting your industry? In a positive way – the need to sell a home. Curb appeal is the latest trend. Taking an existing, old landscape and giving it a fresh look with new, low maintenance varieties shrubs and color … new sidewalks, privacy fences, etc., really enhances an older home. The homebuyer is looking for a low maintenance landscape and rather not have that work ahead of them.

What are the factors that make your business successful? No pressure! Landscape Patterns offers consulting, before and after photo designs and blueprint designs (hand drawn). The customer has a choice and prices are up front.

How do you handle competition? What Landscape Patterns offers in Bowling Green is unique to this city. Landscape Patterns sells designs only; designs that are custom to the design of the home and the needs of the homeowner. We’re not selling trees and shrubs … just great ideas. As for landscape companies, every design I sell is an opportunity for them, if the client so chooses to have a professional install the plants.

What is your advice to someone thinking about opening a business? If you have an idea and the desire to make it happen, do it! Having a career doing something that you enjoy is truly a blessing.