gmhTODAY 25 gmhTODAY April May 2019 | Page 54

P Greenstreak Landscaping: From Black Belt to Green Belt Written and Photographed By Craig Lore 54 GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN ete Gluhaich, president and founder of Greenstreak Landscaping, is tall, broad-shouldered, and lanky, with close-cropped grayish hair and a friendly smile. He is friendly and easygoing by nature. And when he’s not creating award-winning landscapes, he’s perfecting his technique as a 4th-Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo. In 1989, Pete took the skills he learned from working on his family’s farm and turned them into Greenstreak Landscaping. In the beginning, his company focused on planting and irrigation installations, but he said people soon began asking whether he could build arbors, patios, and walkways. So, Pete went out and earned the contractor’s licenses that allowed him to be a full-service landscape design and contracting company; including his B-1 Contractor’s, C-8 Concrete, and C-27 Landscape Construction licenses. Today, Greenstreak provides hardscaping such as patios, walkways, and retaining walls; as well as garden fixtures like ponds, waterfalls, streams, arbors, pergolas, bocce ball courts, out- door BBQ and entertainment setups, fire pits, gazebos, and raised beds. Of course, they still plant plants and install irrigation and lighting. From plants to paving to garden fixtures, Greenstreak creates your dream yard and garden. When people buy a home with a yard they naturally want to enjoy their leisure time outdoors, so they turn to companies like Greenstreak to enrich their homes by planting a lawn, putting up a picket fence, and building flower beds. “What’s most important to me,” Pete said, “is to find out exactly what they want. Some people want a calming, peaceful setting, while others prefer a space to eat and play, a venue for entertaining, a place to fire up the BBQ, and, sometimes a little bit of everything.” “We are a lifestyle company,” Pete said. Greenstreak wants to transform clients’ ideas into landscapes they’ll truly enjoy. “We ask questions to refine their ideas and then make suggestions. Once we know their basic idea, we take it and tweak it.” For example, Pete explained he might suggest that a client consider a separate play area for the kids, or locate the BBQ setup for the most efficient workflow, or add a shade cover to block the afternoon sun. In addition, the softscaping—trees, shrubs, flowers, and other greenery—needs careful planning. At each project site, Pete and his crew note the soil types, drainage flow, and areas of full sun, shade, and partial shade; knowing that different microclimates will support different types of plants. “When adding plants, we suggest a five-layer system that includes trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, and ground covers,” Pete said. “And a drip-irrigation and timer system insures that everything stays green.” He added that outdoor lighting is another great touch to create a soothing nighttime ambience. A beautifully landscaped yard brings nature into view and makes a house into a home, creating a place of recreation, refuge, relaxation, and contemplation. Pete Gluhaich and Greenstreak Landscaping can turn your dreamscape into a landscape that will bring pleasure for years to come. april/may 2019 gmhtoday.com