About Us
Mark is a life-long Chester County resident who grew up with an innate appreciation for Mother Nature's beauty. Mark grew up working at his family farms Marsh Creek Tree Farm in Elverson, PA and Tricolor Tree Farm in West Chester, PA. Throughout the years of tending to the farms on the weekends, running the Christmas tree sales during the holidays, and installing large trees throughout the rest of the year. Mark's passion for Pennsylvania native landscapes flourished.
From childhood to young adulthood, the experience of helping to operate his family farms allowed Mark to naturally learn the ins and outs of best practices for installation, growing, and maintenance of hundreds of PA flora species. He also enjoyed the customer service side of the business, getting to meet people from all over Southeastern, PA and learning how to best accommodate their personalized requests.
In addition, the family's large-scale tree transplanting business gave Mark the opportunities to become an expert in an array of skills like Plant ID, Plant pathology, soil testing, tree pruning, and operating a variety of heavy machinery. This part-time job of helping his family's businesses turned into a passion so he decided to pursue a career in Landscape Architecture, earning his accredited degree from Delaware Valley University.
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After graduation, Mark hit the ground running in the landscape design world, learning the ropes at a few different landscape design companies that specialized in both residential and commercial design, build, and maintenance. During this time, Mark honed his design skills and began to mold a personalized design experience for all his customers. Thanks to his decades of exposure in growing and maintaining various tree and plant varieties at the family farms, Mark became an expert at all things Pennsylvania horticulture and felt a calling to explore his strengths even further. His horticulture expertise coupled with his skillful design capabilities and understanding of the horticulture business, Mark decided to build a new entity, Marsh Creek Outdoor Design was formed.
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"I have always felt the most at peace being outside, surrounded by beautiful landscapes that are thriving. Pennsylvania has such a robust and diverse flora and fauna ecosystem, but most people don't get a glimpse of its beauty. Most times, people only see the plant varieties offered at places like Lowes and think those are their only options. I enjoy the challenge of making small spaces more functional and livable, but also appreciate the creativity freedom that larger spaces give me - all while utilizing PA's environment to the fullest. I truly love meeting with customers, getting to know their family's outdoor vision, and then turning it into reality. It never gets old to see the faces of each member of the family when their project is complete and their outdoor space is transformed. I hope you and your family will be one of these happy customers!" - Mark
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