At Drake's Landscaping, was built through hard work, strong relationships and a commitment to doing what we say we’ll do. As we’ve grown, we’ve added clearer systems and stronger standards without losing the personal connection behind our work.
Here's a little about who we are, where we came from, and what we stand for.
Who We Are
Drake's Landscaping is led by Neil and Danielle Mandigo; two people who bring very different strengths to the same shared standard.
Together, they’ve built a company where strong relationships and strong structure work hand in hand to create a better experience for everyone they work with.
How We Started
Drake's Landscaping started in 2008 as a side hustle — a small residential property care company serving homeowners throughout the Kingston area.
In the early years, the work was straightforward: landscape maintenance, snow removal, and the seasonal jobs that come with taking care of a property in our part of the world. Neil worked alongside younger family members and friends, gradually taking on more clients as one recommendation led to another.
There wasn't a grand plan to build a large landscaping company. The business grew because people kept calling, the work kept coming, and Neil genuinely enjoyed doing it.
Eventually, what started as something on the side became something worth building a future around.
How We've Grown
Growing With Intention
Growth has a funny way of showing you where you're strong - and where you're not.
As Drake's grew, there were more clients relying on us, more people relying on the company for their livelihood, larger investments being trusted to us, and a lot more moving pieces to get right.
We learned that working hard and caring about people could get us pretty far, but it couldn't carry a growing company on its own.
We needed better systems. Better communication. Clearer expectations. We had to get more comfortable having difficult conversations, admitting when something wasn't working, and changing things that might have been easier to leave alone.
We haven't always gotten it right, and we don't expect that we always will.
What has changed is our ability to recognize problems sooner, take responsibility for them, and build something better because of what we learned.
For us, that's what growing with intention actually means.
The Standard Today
Today, Drake's is built on two strengths:
We don't believe being a good contractor means telling people we're the best.
There are talented companies of every size in our industry, and we know we're not going to be the right fit for everyone. We understand that because we're consumers too. When we're hiring someone ourselves, we're often drawn to the people we know, trust, and believe will answer the phone if something goes sideways.
Because eventually, something usually does.
Weather changes. Materials get delayed. Equipment breaks. People make mistakes. Plans that look great on paper sometimes need to change once the work begins.
We've come to believe that you learn much more about a contractor when something goes wrong than when everything goes right.
That's where our standard matters most: communicate honestly, own our part, find a solution, and keep moving forward.
Of course the finished work matters. But so does how our team treats your property, how we communicate while we're there, and how we handle the moments that weren't part of the plan.
Our Mission
Built on Referrals. Sustained by Trust. Structured for Consistency.
Built on Referrals
Referrals have been part of Drake's from the beginning. We never take one lightly because when someone recommends us to a friend, neighbour, family member, or colleague, they're putting a little bit of their own reputation on the line too.
We want them to feel good about having made the introduction.
Sustained by Trust
Trust isn't built by everything going perfectly. It's built over time - by doing what we say we'll do, being honest when something changes, having conversations that aren't always easy, and being willing to say when we don't have the answer yet.
Whether someone is trusting us with their home, their business, or a referral to someone they care about, we understand there's responsibility attached to that.
Structured for Consistency
As we've grown, we've learned that good people and good intentions aren't enough on their own. They need structure behind them.
The systems we've built aren't there to make Drake's feel more corporate. They're there so things are less likely to get missed, our team knows what's expected, our clients know what to expect, and the experience doesn't depend entirely on which person happens to answer the phone that day.
And we're never really finished building them. Continuous growth is one of our core values, which means we're always looking at what worked, what didn't, and what we can do better next time. As our company, our team, and our clients' needs change, we expect our processes to keep evolving with them.
