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EP#356: Fifty Years Of Sunny Hill: Family, Faith, And Hard Work

• Skip Mauney, Steve Ward & Bruce Ballard • Episode 356

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A collapsing greenhouse, a howling blizzard, and a decision that changed everything—that’s the moment Sunny Hill turned from growing plants to building landscapes that last. We sit down with Steve Ward and Bruce Ballard to trace a 50-year family journey from a small Buncombe County greenhouse to a trusted regional landscaping team serving Western North Carolina, Upstate South Carolina, and North Georgia. The story blends grit, faith, and hands-on know-how, with Bruce drawing on two decades at the Biltmore gardens and Steve sharing what it took to shoulder a business as a teenager and keep it thriving.

We get real about landscaping myths, especially the dream of “no maintenance” lawns and groundcovers. From low-mow blends to groundcover carpets, living landscapes still need thoughtful maintenance. The guys explain how to match plant choices to site conditions, why soil prep and drainage beat quick fixes, and how to plan seasonal care that avoids costly do-overs. For homeowners, that means simple routines that protect curb appeal. For commercial properties, it’s design choices that fit maintenance budgets, foot traffic, and brand standards without sacrificing durability.

Along the way, you’ll hear how music, family, and church life shape the way Sunny Hill leads crews, cares for clients, and handles storms—literal and figurative. Practical takeaways include smarter planting strategies, honest expectations for “low maintenance” designs, and the equipment and systems that keep large accounts running smooth. If you’re rethinking your yard or looking to elevate a commercial site, this conversation offers grounded advice and a reminder that care plus craft is the winning formula. If it resonates, subscribe, share with a neighbor, and leave a review to help more folks find the show.

SPEAKER_03:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Marty.

SPEAKER_00:

Well hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So today I am super excited to have uh uh two guests with us in the studio, one who's been with us before and one who's not. So I'm excited to have both of them here and excited to learn all about their business. Uh and I'm sure you'll be just as excited as I am, especially if you're looking for landscaping services, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbors, Mr. Steve Ward and Bruce Ballard of Sunny Hill Inc. Gentlemen, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Thank you. Good to be here today.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, we're glad to have you. Like I said, all excited to learn all about uh what you guys do at Sunny Hill Inc. So if you don't mind, uh I'll let you guys pick. But uh won't you kick us off by telling us all about Sunny Hill?

SPEAKER_02:

Sunny Hill is a family-owned business uh here in uh the north end of Buncombe County, and we uh we do business um in most all of Western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina and North Georgia. And uh the business has been around now for a little over 50 years. Um and um we do both commercial and residential, um mainly commercial right now, but we do a lot of residential also hardscapes, installations, uh maintenance, uh basically any landscape needs that you have. Uh we can provide that.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. 50 years, man. That's nothing to sneeze at. You guys aren't old enough to have done this for 50 years.

SPEAKER_01:

So my family um bought the business when I was two and a half years old. Uh they moved over here. Uh originally it started as a greenhouse business, and it was going to be a hobby for my dad. And my mom originally was working in nursing, and then the it began to grow. My dad turned it into more than just a hobby. Uh, my mom ended up leaving nurse the uh nursing field to help with that. And so literally we would grow our own bedding plants, vegetables, perennials, and retail them right here. And then uh as a as I grew up through this, as I became a teenager, then my dad got sick and uh spent about a year before it uh he passed away. So during that time, my mom was with him at the hospital. And at a very young age, as a teenager, I had to step up and start running the business. And uh he passed away in 1981. My mom debated about possibly selling the nursery, and I asked her at a teenager if we could keep it going to see what I could do with it. And so I would work through high school and come here. I went and got a two-year degree uh at Haywood Technical College. I worked through college while here, and then after I graduated uh then in 1987, purchased the business myself, took over, and uh been going ever since. The blizzard, just to change a little bit, um we shifted from greenhouses to uh landscaping during the blizzard. I had got married, had kids, I threw my wife into the business as well, and doing the business and kids was tough. But then in uh in 96 when we had the blizzard, uh, we almost lost everything. And that was kind of a defining moment for us. And we switched from uh growing the greenhouse plants to the uh to the landscape. And then a note about Bruce being my brother-in-law, as my dad got sick and I was a teenager, uh, he started uh getting sweet on my sister and started hanging around and got to know him then. And uh so then I can let him tell or let you share about him how he got tied into the business from there.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, I had I had a reason to be here more than just greenhouses. It was because my eye was on his sister Melanie, and then um we got married. I started my horticulture experience at the Biltmore. I was uh in the gardens and over the gardens for several years uh there at the Biltmore estate for about 20 years. I was there. And then um I've been here, I've been back here at Sunny Hill now for going on 20 years, almost 20 years. And so uh we basically, Steve and I both basically have grown up here at at Sunny Hill, both at Biltmore and Sunny Hill for myself, but um that's that's how we got tied together in in the business.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, the Biltmore. That uh I'm sure that was a job. Uh because there's a lot of flowers at the Biltmore.

SPEAKER_02:

A lot of flowers. Working at Biltmore for me was uh that was my schooling. I don't I do not have any professional college uh schooling as far as horticulture goes, but I lived the textbook at Biltmore and uh you know just threw myself into it. And uh my hobbies when I get home is to work in my yard. That's what I like. So wow.

SPEAKER_00:

So you love your work.

SPEAKER_02:

I do.

SPEAKER_00:

Well wow, what a journey for both of you guys. Uh unbelievable. Well, if um if you could think of any myths or misconceptions in the landscaping business, what would what would that be?

SPEAKER_02:

You know, it horticulture is or maintenance, working in your yard, whatever you want, it's what you make of it. Uh if you enjoy it, you know, you're gonna you're gonna you're it's something to do all the time. A landscape is a living organism, it doesn't just take care of itself. It can, the woodland does, you know, and all that. But as far as around your yard and in in your landscape, you you you've got to take time with it. It's something that you have to work at. And I think there is a misconception, you know, we we use a product that a lot of people call NOMO uh turf, and uh they think, oh, you I'm never gonna have to do anything to it, or oh, I'm gonna plant a ground cover here and I'll never have to do anything else to it. There's always some kind of maintenance. There is no such thing as no maintenance launch landscape unless you choose to live in that type of a landscape, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

What uh astroturf?

SPEAKER_02:

Astroturf or uh non-stop weeds.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, there you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02:

For sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, well, outside of work, you mentioned you like to work in your yard uh in your spare time. Anything else you guys like to do for fun?

SPEAKER_02:

Um in your you know, Steve and I spent Steve and I spent about 15 years uh outside of work um uh singing together in a in a gospel group. And so, you know, music is a big part of of my life and my family's life and Steve's also, and uh, you know, and do working at our church and being um very involved in our church work and Steve, of course, in his man cave ministries. Um, but uh, you know, that and and family time, spending time with our grandkids, both Steve and myself have grandkids, and and our kids and our grandkids is just uh you know, that's the love of our life. Work is great, work provides for us to be able to do other things, but um our main focus is is our families and our and our and our working for the Lord.

SPEAKER_00:

Awesome. Great answer, especially if you're if your spouse has watched the podcast. Time with family. I'm kidding. Time with family always is the best answer, always the best answer. Exactly. Well, so um let's switch gears for just a second. Can either of you describe uh a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger when you came out the other side? You can come.

SPEAKER_01:

I think for me, I mentioned earlier the blizzard of 93. Uh, we talk about trusting the Lord, and I can remember uh both of our wives were expecting that time. We lost power. We lost all power up at the greenhouse. I had a furnace that went out. Uh we we hooked the generator and only half the lines would work. So we would have to physically take a small generator and a space heater from greenhouse to greenhouse all throughout the night, trying to just keep everything above freezing. During the process of this, the snow was coming down so hard. We literally would take a, I remember getting a push broom, duct taping it to pole pruners, and trying to push the snow off the building. The problem was that the snow had accumulated so much on the side there was nowhere else for it to go. And I can remember getting in the uh in the greenhouse just outside of where we were at right here and watching the building just slowly collapsing. And I looked at Bruce. Bruce had already as exhausted, he had thrown up just from pure exhaustion, working so hard. And as that building was coming down, I remember looking at Bruce and just shrugging my shoulders and said, I give up. There's nothing else I can do. God, if I'm gonna lose this, I'm gonna lose it trusting you. But there is absolutely nothing else I can do. And just like I just let it all go. And when I did that, at that moment, is when God stepped up and reminded me, hey, you've got some old timbers. You're supposed to take the landfill right outside. Won't you get those timbers and scotch up the building? I'm like, oh yeah. So we went and got the timbers. We brought them in, we scotched up the building, and literally the entire time we never lost anything. Finally, the sun came out, began to warm things up so we could uh so that we could uh get some rest. And I'll never forget the message that exactly that very next Sunday. Our pastor preached a message talking about when you can do all you can do, the Lord can go a little farther. We experienced that that time. And from that, kind of made our decision at that time of hey, we, you know, it was life-changing for Sunny Hill because that was our last year's uh selling plants, and then we began to pick up uh lawn maintenance, landscaping, and uh and we we've worked for a grocery store chain here, Ingalls Markets, we worked for them almost 30 years. Um it's just we we got excavators, hydro seeders, bobcats, tractors, anything that we can do almost everything. But that was for me was a for sure defining time. I think so too.

SPEAKER_02:

We didn't lose one plant, not one, not one plant.

SPEAKER_00:

And if uh any of our listeners, viewers are interested uh in uh uh getting some work done, uh they they're like me and don't have time to do anything in their yard and they need help with landscaping, how can they learn more?

SPEAKER_01:

Um they can actually call our office 828-645-3364 and uh either leave a message, contact here. Our website is Sunnyhill Nursery Inc.com. Uh, they're welcome to go to there to see a little more a little bit more about us. Uh, you can email me at Sunnyhill Inc at Hotmail.com. I'm one of the older ones. I still have a hotmail address. Sunnyhillinc at hotmail.com.

SPEAKER_00:

Very good. Awesome. Well, guys, again, can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your your uh schedules uh to uh spend some time with us. And uh uh Steve, it was good seeing you again and uh uh Bruce, very nice to meet you and glad you were here. And uh want to wish you guys and Sunny Hill, your family, your customers, uh, and uh your business all the best.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you. Thank you so much. It's been an honor.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Maybe we can have you guys back sometime again.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds good.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, all right, we'll see you then.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNP Try Dash Cities dot com. That's GNP Try Dash Cities dot com or call four two three seven one nine five eight seven three.