John Pettyjohn, the owner of South Bay Grounds was born in Torrance California in 1954. John was born into a construction family. In 1973, the year after he graduated from high school, his wife Bonnie became pregnant with the first of their four sons. John dropped out of college and into his family’s construction firm. John worked with the construction equipment including concrete pumps and skip loaders for a few years. His career evolved and he took of the concrete construction end of the business. John established his own business in 1976. Pettyjohn Construction Company is highly regarded by local developers as a firm that performs to strict standards with quality results. John still goes to work with his construction boys everyday. John’s Mom is the dispatcher for his construction business and his Dad and oldest son are concrete pump operators. The family construction company will continue to grow into the future.

South Bay Grounds Maintenance was established in 1978 by Nick Abajian. John bought the firm from Nick in 1991. John had no back round in the field of horticulture, but his wife, Bonnie had been in school for years studying all aspects of landscaping and in fact was a Certified Nursery(wo)man. Bonnie helped John understand the technical aspects of landscaping and John made many critical adjustments to the business side. Over the past seven years we have had strong and consistent growth. South Bay Grounds Maintenance is in the top twenty landscape maintenance companies in the South Bay, and at the current rate of growth, within three years, will be one of the three largest landscape maintenance firms in the region.

Our hallmark is our Aggressive Supervision Program. Our supervisors inspect the grounds, identify areas that need work, document the situation and give the foreman detailed instructions. The supervisor also makes the ‘Report & Recommendation’ letter that is sent out monthly. In this letter you will be advised of our progress in meeting the goals established for the complex, the status of projects underway, projects upcoming and recommendations if needed.

The reason we have been so successful as a business is that we have clearly defined everybody’s jobs. The job description forms that all employees are given tells them what is expected of them, what they need to learn, who is responsible to teach them and how they can advance in their careers. Such things as social skills, grievance resolution, equipment care, shop keeping, technical skills, and teaching younger employees are covered in the description. Our employees have a clear sense of their purpose and how what they do, fits with the scheme of our business. They work as a team and are therefore better.