They’ve beautified Hilton Head since 1973, but a tight labor market is changing the landscape
This article is part of a series exploring Hilton Head’s economy through local businesses. Check out the first article highlighting home construction.
In the early 1970s, Hilton Head Island was an exciting place to be.
Arnold Palmer had just won the first-ever Heritage Classic golf tournament at Harbour Town Golf Links, putting Hilton Head on the map as a premier golf destination. Sea Pines was continuing to expand; Shipyard and Hilton Head Plantation were being developed. Wexford and Long Cove Club would come a decade later.
“Things were really moving and shaking here,” said Lee Edwards, president and CEO of The Greenery, a landscaping company that was established on Hilton Head in 1973.
Lee Edwards’ parents, Ruthie and Berry Edwards, fell in love with the island while on vacation and were determined to find a business venture that would allow them to live here. Over 50 years later, their local landscaping empire now has 12 locations in three states and employs over 800 people as of 2023.
Lee Edwards, who took over his parents’ business in 2006, has heard them recount The Greenery’s origin story many, many times.
As the story goes, they attended a cocktail party full of movers and shakers, where they met Charles Fraser, founder of Sea Pines and Hilton Head visionary.
“What kind of business should we get into?” they asked Fraser.
According to Edwards, Fraser replied, “You know, what we really need here is a landscaper.”
With all the gated communities, resorts and golf courses popping up on Hilton Head, talented people were needed to design beautiful landscapes to complement the scenery. The Edwards family set out to fill that void.
Over the years, Hilton Head has continued to expand, and the need for landscapers is higher than ever. But current pressures on Hilton Head’s labor market — a dearth of affordable housing options for workers and an uncertain future for immigration policy —are making it hard for landscaping companies to fill those jobs.
“It’s gotten really, really hard to find workers,” Edwards said. “Right now it’s even harder than ever.”
A family vacation leads to opportunity
The founders of the Greenery, Berry and Ruthie Edwards, didn’t expect their vacation on Hilton Head to last a lifetime.
Berry Edwards worked in the textile industry and frequently commuted from his hometown in North Carolina to New York. With two young children, he was looking for another industry that wouldn’t require eventually moving to the big city.
He and his wife took a vacation to Hilton Head in the early 1970s. They fell in love with the island’s beauty and saw opportunity in its booming development.
When Fraser suggested they go into landscaping, Berry Edwards realized it could be a decent business.
They found out there was a small landscaping company for sale. It had just six employees and a couple of old pickup trucks. With work needed in the growing gated communities, resorts, and condominium complexes, the Edwards family decided to take the risk.
They bought the company and moved their family down to Hilton Head. For many years, their office was an old church building that Ruthie Edwards had shipped by barge to its current location. They have since moved their headquarters, but the building still houses their garden center and gift shop.
Growing up with a shovel in hand
Berry Edward’s son Lee Edwards was four years old when they moved to Hilton Head. He grew up working for his father’s company off and on throughout high school and college.
At 14 years old, Lee Edwards was digging holes to plant oak trees at the entrance to Port Royal Plantation.
“We didn’t have augers or excavators,” the 57-year-old said. “We were digging those holes by hand with shovels.”
Those trees are now over 40 years old, providing a shaded canopy over the road.
In the fall of 1994, Lee Edwards took over The Greenery’s construction division after some stints in Central America and Aspen, Colorado. It was right when Bluffton was beginning to expand, and all the new gated communities and subdivisions needed landscaping.
When his dad retired in 2006, Edwards took over the family company. They’ve now expanded to 12 cities in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Lee Edwards says his father taught him the value of hiring high-quality workers and taking care of his clients. Rather than offering the lowest prices in town, The Greenery’s business model is offering good-quality services at a good price.
The company has also been 100% employee-owned since 2007. Employees receive stock after working for one year and receive more the longer they stay with the company. The Greenery’s continuous expansion also creates more management positions for employees to work their way up towards.
“Doing good work, building good relationships, and working for the same people over and over is a really great way to do business, in my opinion,” Edwards said.
A changing workforce
When Lee Edwards was growing up, almost all The Greenery’s employees were African Americans that commuted from Ridgeland, Estill and Hardeeville. Back then, there were virtually no Hispanic Americans living in the Lowcountry, he said.
By 1994, the Hilton Head area had a small but growing Hispanic population. Lee Edwards placed Spanish-language ads in The Island Packet, and the calls started coming in.
30 years later, Edwards says it’s gotten harder to find workers. Back in the day, he said, it wasn’t uncommon to come into work and find a couple of guys standing at the gate asking if there was any work for them that day.
“Those are days are long gone,” Edwards said. “I mean it is really hard to find anybody.”
Edwards thinks changing attitudes towards immigration is a big factor. Four in ten Hispanic adults in the United States say they are worried that they or someone close to them could be deported, regardless of legal status, according to a Pew Research Center survey.
“We’ve got a bunch of really good workers have been with us for a long time,” Edwards said. “Their kids go to school here, they pay their taxes, and they’re legitimately frightened about what’s going on.”
In September, five men at a Bluffton plant nursery were arrested during an operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division. The men worked for the Bluffton landscaping company O’Hara Outdoors and were accused of fraudulently using Social Security numbers for employment.
Under the fraudulent Social Security numbers, according to the documents, the men each worked over 500 hours and earned between $10,021.50 and $14,594.14 in taxable wages.
To help fill the gap, The Greenery uses the H-2B guest worker program to source temporary workers from outside the U.S. But that practice can be “unpredictable,” the CEO said.
“We apply to get them in early March, and then we get half of them approved, and they don’t show up till June,” Edwards said. “That is just really disruptive and makes it really hard to our job.”
Other pressures on the labor market include Hilton Head’s rising cost-of-living and increased traffic congestion. The island lacks affordable housing options for many of its workers. The Greenery owns and operates vans that transport employees from Beaufort, Jasper, and Hampton counties. They also provide housing for some workers, both on- and off-island.
About immigration, Lee Edwards said he believes in having “secure borders,” but deporting hard-working people is a “mistake.”
“I think we need to concentrate on only deporting the people who are problems,” Edwards said.
He suggested the focus should be on people who are “not employed” or “criminals.”
“There are a lot of people who I think are probably here not legally, but are good people,” Edwards said. “People with jobs. People who just want a better life.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
