Our Team
Minnehaha Falls Landscaping has accomplished so much because of the amazing power, passion, and positive energy of our crew.
Meet Our Team
Our team members are top tier professionals! Our company president & owner Russ Henry is our first contact with each new client. He runs day to day business while planning for a growing future and leading our landscape design team. Our kind, trustworthy, and reliable office manager Mary is the glue of our company. She keeps our clients and crew happy with her supportive, professional approach. Our support team offers top notch customer service and scheduling support.
Our landscape design assistant, Thanh produces high quality designs guided by Russ who oversees landscape designs.
Our construction foreman Paulino works with our team to precisely form vision into reality in our clients landscapes. His work is enchantingly beautiful and long lasting. Brian is our project manager, he is friendly and professional while guiding projects to completion on time. They are leaders that our crew members admire and respect.
Our dedicated installation and garden teams are comprised of the smartest and hardest working people in the business. Their top priority is to create beautiful, quality lasting landscapes, gardens, and hardscapes to delight our clients.
The lawn maintenance team is headed by two of the best gentlemen you’ll ever meet, Oscar and Uriel. They’re dedicated, punctual, and high-quality craftsmen who care for our clients’ landscapes as though they were working at their own grandmas’ homes.
The whole crew takes part in snow removal each winter to ensure our clients timely and safe passage. Their dedication to client well-being during the snow season is among our team’s most impressive attributes. It takes a lot of love to work through a blizzard.
At Minnehaha Falls Landscaping our team motto is “let’s make things good by making good things”.
Russ Henry
President & Owner
Russ Henry is a landscaper, naturalist, gardener, soil health specialist, and educator. As a Certified Soil Life Consultant, he scientifically explores and supports soil health, the foundation for beauty and productivity in all landscapes. Russ has a passionate commitment to protecting and growing ecosystems across Minnesota.
As the owner of Minnehaha Falls Landscaping & Giving Tree Gardens, Russ leads a team of landscaping experts who install, manage, and restore yards, school grounds, and gardens throughout the Twin Cities, without the use of pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. He also advises individuals and organizations who want to grow healthy ecosystems.
As a community organizer, and justice advocate, Russ is devoted to pollinator protection, urban farming, local food system development, and restorative justice. He is also the founder of Bee Safe Minneapolis, a community initiative, rooted in Minnehaha Falls Landscaping and Giving Tree Gardens that creates safe places for pollinators.
Russ served as the Chair of the Pesticide Advisory Committee for the Minneapolis Park Board. In this role, he brought advocacy for public and environmental health through pesticide elimination and ecosystem regeneration.
Russ Henry created Giving Tree Gardens in the fall of 2004, a company that now serves over 1000 clients throughout the Twin Cities with organic lawn care, natural garden installation and maintenance, and patio installation. In 2017, Russ Henry and Chesney Engquist purchased Minnehaha Falls Landscaping, a company that has served Minneapolis residents for six decades, with a tradition of service, quality and community.
Russ Henry is taking a lead in empowering the Twin Cities to eat organic, healthy, home grown food, whilst providing habitat to the natural world of wonders that should be surrounding us at all times.
Ask Russ about his patent for the creation of a compost tea brewer.
Mary Pascoe
Office Manager
Mary Pascoe says she walks through the door at Minnehaha Falls Landscaping every day, with a goal of “Exceeding Expectations with Everyone I Encounter” – She calls it her “4 E’s of Customer Service.” Mary wants you to know that she is at her desk, waiting to talk to you and that she will be friendly, understanding, and you will be heard.
With over twenty years as a geriatric caregiver, and trainer of more than 1,000 certified nursing assistants, Mary decided to transition from health care to earth care. She says, “It’s just another way of caring for people.” She also feels compelled to educate customers and the community on the danger of pesticides, after watching a close family member deteriorate from their impact for over three decades. Mary is passionate about removing pesticides from community parks, municipalities, and schools.
Do you know why Mary loves her job? “I’m a Libra, so I’m all about aesthetics. That’s my jam. I love beautiful things,” she says. “I wouldn’t say I have a green thumb, but that’s why I hire a landscaping company. I’m good at keeping humans alive, not plants. I love it when people take pride in the land they own and how it presents itself to the world.”
In addition to her Minnehaha Falls Landscaping family, Mary has been married to her high school sweetheart for over 30-years and they have two sons.
Ask Mary what she does to “get the silly’s out” of her two boys.
Don Stacy
Carpenter
Don is a licensed contractor and carpenter with the skill of a craftsman. He is known for his building skills, custom-made doors, beautiful finished woodwork and intricate detail that comes from his background as a cabinet maker. Don is sure to bring high-quality woodworking into your home, as well as to your backyard.
