About Yates Harrison

Yates Harrison grew up in the landscaping world and over the years picked up website making skills which he then combined to create PruningCuts.com

My Work Story

It all started from a “My Life List” when I was 11 years old…

The older guys around where I lived all had dirt bikes and to be cool like them, I really wanted one as well.   But you know what happens when you ask your parents about something that they think is dangerous…the answer is always “no” at first.

As you all know, when a kid wants something, they tend to wear down the parents over days.  So, my mother in all her wisdom decided to make me a deal that I couldn’t possibly accomplish.

If or when I managed to save up the money ($800) I could purchase the dirt bike.  Minimum wage at that time was $2.25 per hour so she thought I would be 16 before I would save up the money and by then I would be onto the next “big” thing like girls or a car.

Much to my mother’s dismay, I started working that summer at a nursery taking care of plants and helping out with any kind of task.  Plus, I started cutting grass on the weekends.  Whatever it would take to make the $800 for that motorcycle.

By July, my parents and I were standing at the motorcycle dealership picking out my new dirt bike!

I continued to work summers at Carl Giebel Landscaping for 5 years, helping the crews that gather all materials for the day and taking care of the nursery stock.  Sometimes I would even go out on jobs with guys.

Once I had my driver’s license, I ramped up my grass cutting into a business and quit the nursery job.  Then in sophomore year of college I sold the business to pay for my college expenses since I was moving away to go to a 4-year college.

Meanwhile, my father who also worked at Giebel’s started his own landscaping business, Tree Trails Farm. 

I worked for my father in the summers during college in the landscaping business.  Common jobs were pruning, planting, making planting beds, installing patios, retaining walls, building water features, Etc.   All the normal landscaping tasks.

While in college I took several horticulture classes but ultimately received a degree in accounting.  My father suggested this because he could teach me everything, I needed to know about horticulture so I should major in something he didn’t know which was more of the business side of things.

Once I finished up my degree from Southwest Missouri State (now known as Missouri State University) I went to work full time for Tree Trails Farm as a crew foreman.  During that time, I learned all the skills and techniques needed to make the customers happy.

So, you could say I grew up in the business of landscaping.

Fast forward 40 years, I now just help friends and family as well as tinker in my own yard with plants and landscaping, so I thought I would share with the world, what I’ve learned over the last 40 years …

My Personal Story

I live in a very small town of Dutzow, Missouri with my wife, Diana.  We have 4 daughters, currently we have 2 still in school and living with us.

I met my wife in 8^th grade and knew someday I would marry her – even back then!  After college for both of us we did get married and started off on our “planned” lives.  I was working for my parents’ business in landscaping and she became a school teacher.

The funny thing about life is that it is always making plans for you and if you live long enough you will get to experience things you never in a million years would have seen yourself doing.

In the early 2000s, I took the leap into becoming a buy, fix, and sell real estate investor which went pretty good until the collapse of the real estate market in 2007-2009.  But during that time, I had picked up a few tricks for marketing my properties by building websites and making YouTube videos.

Little did I know that because of the market crash that is what I would reinvent myself into becoming – an online marketing person.

Today I work full-time for a real estate investing company doing marketing / educational material by helping to create content and developing & maintaining all the websites.

I work out of my home most days but I do commute a few days a week about an hour to work.  During those trips I listen to podcasts.

Well, really anytime I can while doing yard work, walking or cutting firewood, I listen to podcasts!  I am kind of a podcast junkie.  I am always learning things, from keeping up with online marketing techniques to health-related topics to just personal interest type subjects.

So, I decided to help others by creating educational material based on what I grew up with… landscaping and plants.

My Life List