Mel Taylor, owner of Mel’s Lawn Maintenance in Las Cruces, New Mexico, started mowing lawns part-time in 1984. At the time, he committed to this work until he found a better job. Twenty-three years later, he hasn’t found that elusive something that will give him as much pleasure and freedom as running his own business.

After being a Wal-Mart Supercenter co-manager for 10 years, Roger Krans wanted a change. “I wanted to do something different, but I just didn’t have the guts to leave the corporate life,” he recalls. “I had good benefits and was making a good wage, and starting your own business can be risky when you have a family.”

A first glance, the 25-acre campus at San Joaquin Gardens in Fresno, California, appears more like a display garden than a retirement community. It’s actually both.

It’s a picture perfect Colorado morning in Grand Junction. The blue sky and distant mountains provide the ideal backdrop for four Walker Mowers and a John Deere wide-area mower making their way across the green expanse.

When you enter the Crystal Cathedral grounds in Garden Grove, California, the beautiful landscape setting isn’t the first thing that catches your eye. The Cathedral itself, with more than 10,000 tempered silver-colored glass windows, together with a towering spire and prayer chapel, provide plenty of visual interest.

It’s a hot morning in Rockport, Maine. The mowing crews anticipate the heat as they discuss the day’s activity with Tom Farley. Tom is the vice president of Farley & Son Landscaping, and every Wednesday he meets with his six mowing crews.