We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Foster and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
There are several, but the most impactful has to be our unrelenting commitment to delivering an excellent client experience, which has resulted in referral-driven growth beyond any reasonable forecast. Miami is notorious for suboptimal service – especially when it comes to home improvement/repair and landscaping/garden maintenance. Almost every homeowner you meet has a horror story about a service provider not showing up, not being accountable, not being transparent about pricing, not knowing how to do the work, or not doing it well. The Green Standard elevates the lawn and garden care experience by delivering excellence at every stage of the journey, from super-responsive text-based communication including arrival confirmations, to online scheduling and autopayment, to our site-specific dossiers with detailed care plans, to our machine-free approach to native garden maintenance and deep respect for the plant materials. We leave our client properties pristine and the gardens thriving. It’s an unrivaled experience in this area and it has not gone unnoticed!

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The Green Standard is Miami’s premier landscaping services company, delivering elevated lawn care and garden maintenance across South Florida with client-focused conveniences including online scheduling + payment and seamless text communication. This is not a “mow and blow” operation; rather we take great care in elevating our clients’ outdoor spaces – whether it’s a fence line, interior courtyard, outdoor entertainment space or front island – designing and/or cultivating lush sub-tropical gardens rich with butterfly attractors that are carefully manicured to optimize growth and beauty. We are self-proclaimed plant nerds, dedicated to learning as much about native sub-tropical and tropical species as possible, and it shows in our work. The gardens we maintain are pristine and thriving spaces that elevate our clients’ enjoyment of their lived environment.

The fact that our clients regularly and enthusiastically refer us to friends and neighbors is our greatest point of pride – it means we’ve set and met an elevated standard – The Green Standard. To date we’ve grown almost exclusively off of organic referrals from clients who are satisfied with our work and our level of service. This is particularly noteworthy because we don’t go out of our way to compete on price. At the outset, we were nervous about setting prices that appropriately reflected the premium service we provide, and in some cases lost money because we insisted on delivering excellent service and results, even if the margin didn’t cover it! Gradually we built confidence and conviction around and the extent to which our clients value our elevated standard and learned that we could charge appropriately for it.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Beachside tacos – Taquiza (7450 Ocean Terrace) has the best tacos in town, and it’s steps away from the beach. Don’t miss out on their Totopos (a magical alternative to the standard chip).

Restorative sweat sesh – Mimi Yoga (278 NW 27th St) – a new yoga studio in the heart of Wynwood that pairs infrared heat with Power Yoga and great beats. Bring an extra towel.

Indoor plant haven – Pebble & Vine (9703 NE 2nd Ave, Miami Shores) – a locally owned plant store that has tripled in size over the past two years thanks to its diverse collection of shade-grown plants ready to thrive inside and a wide selection of instagram-worthy pots and planters.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are too many wise, wonderful and incredibly gracious people who have supported our learning and informed our approach to mention them all. We’ve been blessed. If I have to narrow down, I’ll focus on a few. First, acclaimed horticulturalist Andy Blanco, who, drawing on a wealth of experience and deep knowledge of the native ecosystem, has been so generous with his time and expertise.

Next, I have been honored, humbled and inspired by the opportunity to learn from renowned landscape architect, Raymond Jungles, whose philosophies around preserving natural ecosystems, cultivating habitats and stewardship have become a north star, and the radiant mother-daughter landscape design team of La Casona Garden, whose design principles and methods of creating generative botanic spaces have dimensionalized and energized my own approach. It is an absolute gift for which I will forever be grateful to walk a garden with these masters of their respective crafts and experience it through their minds.

Website: www.thegreenstandardmiami.com

Instagram: thegreenstandardmiami

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087151669895

Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-green-standard-miami

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutMiami is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.