The couple have been together ever since. As business partners, they’re the perfect balance: Carl is the expert in the field and Carla is the professional in the office. When asked what it’s like working with their spouse, they agree it’s made their marriage stronger. “It is truly awesome. I absolutely love it,” Carla said. Neither is a stranger to a family business. Carl grew up working summers for his dad’s architecture firm in Toronto and Carla worked for her family’s steel fabrication business. They said it’s sometimes hard to turn off the shop talk, but their two sons, Landon, 16, and Logan, 13, have helped them build necessary boundaries. Silverfern employs about a dozen people at peak season. The commercial and residential landscape design-build company serves Guelph, Cambridge, Kitchener-Waterloo and the surrounding area. It doesn’t do property maintenance (except for gardens) and is focused on high-end residential design. “We are super fortunate. The clientele that we get to work with — there are days that you stand there and you’re like, ‘How the hell did I ever make it here?’” Carl said. Starting with hospitality Carl has worked in the landscape trades his entire professional career. He previously owned a business in the Beach neighbourhood in Toronto, where he grew up. When he and Carla started a family, he sold the business and they moved to Guelph. There, he worked as operations manager for a large landscape company before striking out on his own once more. He founded Silverfern Landscaping in 2016, named after his mother’s Kiwi background; the silver fern is New Zealand’s national plant. Carl and Carla agree that plants are the star of any landscape design. They bring a space to life. Carla joined in 2021: “I convinced her!” Carl said. “The grass is greener over here.” At the time, Silverfern had recently entered a partnership with Pearle Hospitality, a large hospitality company in Ancaster. Carla was brought on to facilitate communications between the two offices and help support Silverfern’s sudden growth. Through this partnership, the young company cut its teeth on large-scale, high-end commercial projects. They worked on Whistle Bear Golf Club in Cambridge, The Pearle Hotel & Spa in Burlington and a trio of mills in Ancaster, Cambridge and Elora Mill, which Anso said “was a really big feather in our cap” and earned the company a nomination at the CNLA National Awards of Landscape Excellence. “We got thrust into large projects. You can call it magnetic luck,” Carl said. Here, Carla cut in: “You call it magnetic luck. I don’t think so. I call it who you are. You’re very good at your craft and people see that.” Carl laughed and said, “Well, thank you.”
Carl Anso and Carla Oskam
18 | LANDSCAPE ONTARIO
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