Up Close With Miguel Herrera: Always Getting It Right

The Weather Channel says it feels like 101 degrees, and Miguel Herrera and his crew are pruning trees and pulling weeds at South River Landing in Edgewater, Md., one of Level Green Landscaping’s top customers. The gated, waterfront community on the Chesapeake's South River features 84 custom-built luxury homes. The lush landscaping has to be perfect.

Miguel is the guy for the job.

“I love everything about this business,” Miguel says in Spanish, with translation help from Julian Tadeo, his operations manager. “Mostly, I love doing my job correctly.”

Miguel started at Level Green Landscaping in 2011 and has been a supervisor for the last three years. Before coming to Level Green, he worked for a year at another landscaping company, and he worked in the concrete construction field before that. He knows the value of hard work.

“We have customers who request Miguel,” Tadeo says. “They love what he does. He does everything perfectly. And he knows how to take instructions from property managers. The important thing to know about Miguel is that he really listens to customers.

“I always hear from clients, ‘How’s Miguel? Is he coming this week?’” Tadeo says. “There are always compliments.”

Miguel listens to his crew members, too, Tadeo says, and does a great job teaching them new skills.

“He’ll show them how to do something one time, two times, three times — as many times as it takes until they get it perfectly right,” Tadeo says.

Some days find Miguel and his crew of three or four working at a luxury homes development. Other days they’re perfecting the landscaping at a high-end hotel, or tidying up the city of Annapolis, Md.

Wherever he works, you won't find a weed or a messy patch of lawn when he packs up to leave.

His pride in his work is obvious.

“I love getting good reviews from property managers at the end of the day,” Miguel says. “When they say, ‘Thank you for doing a great job,’ that’s my favorite part of this work.”

Away from work, Miguel loves spending time with his wife, Carmen, and their kids, Brandon, 8 and Michelle, 14. You’ll often find them

relaxing together at Greenbelt National Park near their home in Lanham, Md., riding bikes or playing volleyball in their back yard.

Miguel tends a small garden in his front yard that brims with pretty roses and graceful ornamental grasses. Indoors, he loves watching boxing and soccer on TV, usually rooting for Manchester United or Barcelona, Spain.

He’s originally from the tiny town of Mixquitepec, in Puebla, Mexico. Puebla is famous for its mole sauce, a fragrant concoction made of chili peppers, spices, nuts and chocolate. But it’s not Miguel’s kitchen specialty.

“Scrambled eggs,” he says. He worked in a restaurant for a while, where he learned to perfect the breakfast staple. He serves them with fresh fruit salad.

Miguel says Level Green Landscaping is the perfect fit for his strong work ethic, and he loves how the company shares his commitment to treating people right.

“People respect each other here,” he says, “and I like that.”

Want to Join the Team?

Miguel is just one of the dedicated team members we have here at Level Green Landscaping. And we’re always looking for hard-working, talented people to join our team.

Are you ready to work for a company that values hard work and respect?