An Easy A
The first seed planted on Richard Ansley’s path to becoming a mentor and professor at Columbus State Community College was in the greenhouse nursery where he worked through high school.
Although originally on the path to law school at The Ohio State University, Richard Ansley’s interest took a sharp turn after enrolling in a horticulture class he expected to be an easy A. That spark ignited his decision to pursue a degree in horticulture and landscape architecture, ultimately setting him on a journey to help shape the future of the hardscaping industry.
“Everybody in my family is in another trade. It’s HVAC. My dad, my uncle, and now my brother, are all in HVAC. But I really liked the landscape profession,” Ansley said. “I grew up in a family where you learned a lot of trade skills because of that HVAC background. Electrical, plumbing – that all comes together. I wanted to build everything that I would design as a landscape architect.”
A System for Skilled Labor
Ansley worked as a contractor for high-end residential clients, gaining first-hand experience in the field. Yet he noticed a persistent issue.
“I realized the problem with the industry in the ‘80s is the same problem we have today. I can’t get enough employees,” Ansley said. “There’s plenty of labor force, but they’re not skilled labor force. So many are unskilled. And I realized we didn’t have a system here.”
Ansley was the president of the Columbus Landscape Association in 1987 and he proposed a two-year design build program to Columbus State Community College to help address this workforce development issue. His vision was for a program that combined horticulture, landscape contracting, maintenance, and construction to create skilled professionals ready to excel in the industry.
The college loved the idea. By 1990, the program was a reality.
“We grew fast and they needed somebody that was a landscape architect,” Ansley said. “It comes back to haunt me that I put in a requirement that if we had a design class, we’d have a landscape architect teach them.”
Ansley first looked for other teachers, but took on the role part-time to start out. By 1992, he was teaching full-time.
“The problem is, when you teach in the classroom, you catch the bug,” he said.
Becoming a Lifelong Learner
His classes are designed to immerse students in the entire process of landscape design and build—from construction and hardscaping to irrigation and lighting, giving them a comprehensive portfolio to present to future employers.
“We don’t have students that are full-time students. Most of them are part-time. They’re all employed. They’re all working in the field. Now they’ve decided to go to the community college and learn how to do this not only the right way, but the professional way. They want to not only know proper procedures, but learn how to do it as a business,” Ansley said.
“If you come to the community college. You find out that we’re all in the middle of lifelong learning. We’re all trying to be better professionals. We need professionalism in the industry. We need them to make a living at it so that they grow companies and have more employees.”
From ability to shape the future of the industry to the students themselves, there is so much Ansley loves about his role in the classroom.
“At the end of the day, not only do I have grandkids, but I have graduates and their children and their wives,” Ansley said.
The Competitive Spirit
Another special aspect of Ansley’s work – getting to see his students thrive in competition.
Ansley has been involved with the National Collegiate Landscape Competition since its inception. Though he has never competed himself, as a senior in college he volunteered to help with the event because he believed in it so strongly.
“We filled up a bus between Ohio State landscape students in horticulture and Michigan State students, and we traveled all the way to Mississippi State, and that’s what we did for spring break week. We had a tug of war. We bought burlap, some trees. We did a little tiny patio piece, but it wasn’t like a competition. It was just to compare skills of each school,” Ansley remembered. “The tug of war was the only thing that there was a prize for at the end.”
Now the event is billed as the largest career fair in the industry and the annual landscaping and hardscaping competition is fierce. He has taken students now for almost 35 years and his students have won seven times.
“I laughed the first time we went to a paving competition. My students are installing the pavers ‘the wrong way,’ according to another school. She comes walking over and she says, ‘Oh, I see those who do those who can’t do, teach,’” he said.
“…But they did their base so well. This was on a roadbed that was on an incline…They did an L-shaped edger for only one side of the edging, and then they laid their herringbone all the way up the hill. I said, ‘Guys, if I can roll a silver dollar across that, I’ll give you the silver dollar.’ I paid out silver dollars that year and I didn’t know at that at closing ceremony they’d be on the stage as the winning paving team.”
Ansley is also involved with the Ohio High School Landscape Olympics, trying to get even younger students interested in landscaping and hardscaping, and has brought teams of college students to compete at Hardscape North America.
“These events cost sponsorship money. But what it tells young people is that the industry, the associations, value them,” he said.
Understanding the Business Side
As the need for skilled, professional landscapers and hardscapers continues to grow, Ansley’s work at Columbus State Community College is a testament to the value of investing in people. Through his mentorship, students enter the workforce not only with technical proficiency but with the professionalism and dedication to quality that make them stand out in the industry.
He also wants them to learn from his decades of experience and observation.
“I wish I would have known people want a landscape, whether it’s residential or commercial. They want curb appeal. But they don’t always appreciate the quality of good pavers versus inexpensive pavers at the bricks and mortar stores. They don’t appreciate the need for professionalism the health, safety, and welfare that trained landscape architects push,” Ansley said. “Paving contractors hardscape contractors are selling a product and service people don’t understand.”
Ansley tries to stress to students that you need to understand marketing, networking, and the business side of things to be successful.
“It’s hard for landscape professionals, hardscape contractors, concrete and masonry experts to be business professionals at the end of the day. They’re too tired when they get out of their truck to think about billables, to think about receivables, to think about accounting software,” Ansley said.
“You can be a great horticulturist or you can be a great landscape architect. But if you’re not a good business person, you will not be either one of those other items because you still have to make a living at this.”
That’s really what he loves about teaching.
“I want to pass it on to the next guy,” he said. “It’s a passionate thing I do.”
