Silverfern and Pearle Hospitality dissolved their partnership amicably after three harmonious years of business. Then, Silverfern scaled back on maintenance and focused on high-end residential construction. “That is what Silverfern is,” Carla said. She and Carl credit their staff with facilitating a smooth transition out of the partnership. “There were definitely challenges,” Carl said. “To go through something like that… I don’t want to say it’s necessarily starting back over, but […] it’s picking your boots back up and going, ‘Okay, we’re taking the reins over, and we’re gonna have to point this ship in a different direction.’ We were very fortunate in terms of our staff. They rallied around us.” Keeping it personal Carl and Carla take a family-business approach to managing their team. They run Silverfern from the bottom up rather than top down. They make sure it’s easy for crews to access the owners in the office and encourage them to speak up about their own ideas. “We want to support you as an entrepreneur without the risk,” Carl said. He loves the opportunity to enter his team’s projects (most of which are private backyards) in Landscape Ontario’s Awards of Excellence program. They have been recognized with a few awards and are in awe sharing the room with companies Carl grew up idolizing, like The Beach Gardener and Oriole Landscaping. “It’s a full circle moment,” he said. Much of the company’s success reflects back on its history with hospitality. Carl and Carla have adapted the culture of the hospitality industry to residential projects — namely the constant pursuit of perfection — striving to provide clients with an honest, genuine and thoughtful experience. The landscaping itself, the physical doing of the work, is 10 per cent while the other 90 is client experience. That’s where true value is created. Each project is unique. Silverfern prides itself on its ability to pull off all styles and to read the client to produce exactly what they’re looking for. The team loves connecting with clients on a personal level. Carl said that because projects can go on for several months, “it’s like a marriage.” And, of course, a marriage is more than the honeymoon. “You have your ups and downs and in the downtimes, how do you handle those situations? Can you communicate? Can you get a resolution and are you able to push forward?” Sometimes, clients even invite crews over for dinner in the backyard after the job is complete. “Some guys joke it’s like being on MTV Cribs,” Carl said. “That might be dating me, but it really is. You can sit there some days and go, ‘holy Christopher, I’m being paid to do this.’ That part’s special.”
JULY - AUGUST 2025 | 19
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