The Lothers Case Study

When Brent Lother and his wife, Julie, bought 10 acres of woods stretching along the banks of the St. Croix River just outside Hudson, Wisconsin, they wanted the land for their dream home.

For six years, they studied architectural plans and designs to make sure everything was perfect. And when it came to picking a landscape professional to entrust with designing the estate around their home, they knew exactly who to call for that same dedication to excellence — Pondering Gardens.

Years earlier, the Lothers had watched Pondering Gardens’ owner, Chadd Novak, work on a neighbor’s house and were impressed with the company’s results and insistence on doing work correctly and professionally.

“I had a 12-year established lawn and his lawn looked better in two weeks than mine did,” Brent Lother said. “So I was like, I gotta talk to him.”

As the Lothers built their dream home, they initially hired Pondering Gardens to install a retention wall.

The only specific directions they gave Chadd was that they wanted it to be made out of limestone that wouldn’t deteriorate quickly. Chadd soon scoured the country looking for the right limestone to fit the Lothers’ requirements and found some in neighboring Illinois, having it trucked up special to northwestern Wisconsin.

After that, they soon realized more landscape work would be needed and asked Chadd for his thoughts.

“Other than water features and a fire pit and those types of things,” the Lothers said they didn’t have a lot of specific ideas and asked Chadd for his input.

In the winter of 2017, Brent Lother asked Chadd to “draw us up a plan…just put it together and do it comprehensively and that’s what he did.”

Chadd came up with a massive plan, the biggest he had devised up to that point. It included water features both in the front and the back of the home, as well as lighting. He also took care to find a unique and bold mix of plants, trees and shrubs that were picked specifically to match the Lothers’ natural habitat as well as with an eye toward ensuring they wouldn’t attract unwanted wildlife.

“I loved it right when we saw it. It was phenomenal, liked the mix of what he did with different things and different materials, and the lighting. That was the other piece of it. He brought a water feature out front and a water feature out back, something I never would have thought about.”

And picking out plants that wouldn’t attract critters?

“That’s probably something I wouldn’t have even thought of,” Brent said. “If I was doing it myself, it wouldn’t have even dawned on me.”

The Lothers were confident as soon as they hired Chadd that the work would be done and they’d be fully satisfied.

“I knew once that we said yes that we’d be looking at what we’re looking at now. I didn’t have any doubt in my mind that once it was done it was going to be stunning. And it truly is,” Brent said.

They can now see the vision that Chadd had taking shape and are beyond grateful.

“You can see it now, and it’s pretty cool.”

Added Julie: “Chadd was really good about asking us what plants we want and incorporating things and he was always very good, a pleasant experience.”

The Lothers said the process of working with Pondering Gardens was pretty simple and easy. Chadd took all the documentation the family had, including the house plans, and “he listened to what we liked and he went and did all that work and so when he came back it was hard to say no to the design,” Brent said.

“He gave us a complete picture and allowed us” to pick options of what we wanted to do and what we didn’t without any pressure, Brent said.

The Lothers said the time frame for the work was great from start to finish.

Chadd was able to work around their schedule, and the schedule of other contractors working on the site.

“He was flexible to get out here. He was juggling multiple jobs himself,” Brent said.

While the job was being done, Chadd took time to show the Lothers what he was installing and explain to them how it worked.

One item they came up with together was talking about trying to limit bugs during the summertime. Chadd proposed installing a specialized mosquito repellent system that the Lothers had never owned before.

“He’s really good at taking the time to teach us how to use things,” Julie said.

The couple is more than satisfied with the work Pondering Gardens did. They are proud of their home and know the importance of having great landscaping around it.

“It’s the very first thing that you see when you drive in,” Brent said. “It really sets itself off.”

“I like to keep things local and with smaller outfits. And that’s what Chadd is. He’s local and he’s a smaller outfit that he takes pride in what he’s doing and you can see that in how he handles himself. His equipment. The guys he has working for him. And he has an expectation, for sure. I’ve heard it. And that’s great. From a guy that’s hiring somebody to do work like that I want to be able to know that hey you’re on top of your guys, your team and, again, I feel like it’s just like his place.”