Roscoe and Brook Klausing, the subjects of the Landscape Management March 2014 cover story, met Jim Paluch in the late 1990s, around the time they became involved in the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET, it was ALCA at the time). He had just started his consulting business, J.P. Horizons.

 

Paluch recalls their meeting: “Roscoe was this tall, very formal, slow-paced kind of guy and Brook had this ‘watch out, world’ attitude,” he says. “They were about as different personality-wise as you could get. I think that’s what stood out the most about them.”

 

The brothers certainly made a mark on Paluch, who based the characters in his 2001 novel, Growing Dreams, on them.

 

“Those guys inspired it, but probably every landscape contractor that’s read it says that I must have followed him around and wrote it about him,” Paluch says.

The fictional book, first written one chapter at a time as a series for a trade magazine, is about two brothers (Oscar and Curtis) in pursuit of success in the landscape industry.

 

Paluch, who has never consulted for either Klausing brother directly but has kept in touch with them somewhat, is impressed—and encouraged—by where they are today.

 

“It’s just inspiring to me,” he says. “When I heard Brook was running a design business in New York City, that he just put his mind to it and he’s doing it, and Roscoe’s running a solid business in Kentucky, that just gave me hope for a lot of other contractors.”

Want to win your own copy of Growing Dreams? Like us on Facebook and stay tuned to our page in the next few weeks for a book giveaway, courtesy of J.P. Horizons!

Image: Amazon