My name is Thomas Grunow, the founder of Great Oak. Landscaping has always been a proud part of my heritage. It started in Connecticut where my grandmother was always an avid gardener and horticulturalist. She would tend to her plants and vegetables in her greenhouse and loved sharing her expertise with the town's gardening club. She taught my father everything she knew. Her passion instilled a love for horticulture him. He went on to start his own landscaping company based in Greenwich, Connecticut where I worked in the summers in high school. I credit that time to instilling in me the love for landscaping. I became a full-time laborer at 18. By the time I turned 23 I had moved to Pennsylvania and was a crew foreman at a much larger, more commercial company where I expanded my skills. I learned to operate and move heavy machinery and led maintenance and installation projects, often involving the operation of excavators, skid steers, etc. I moved to San Diego, California at 29 in late September of 2024. I worked for a tow truck company where we would subcontract for AAA and often worked with the Hawthorne division of Caterpillar, thus furthering my knowledge of machine hauling. Being quite passionate about both, I decided to start Great Oak Landscaping and Hauling to bring my passions to fruition and keep the family tradition alive.