The Walworthians: Kevin Heald, Red’s Landscaping

The Walworthians

A collection of telephone interviews published in the Wayne County STAR Newspaper and Wayne County MAIL Newspaper, 1994-209

by Kate Chamberlin

Kevin Heald, Red’s Landscaping

September 20, 1997

Kevin Heald is one of the people in our neighborhood. You may have noticed him driving his clean, bright red 54 Ford truck about town.

He is the owner/operator of Red’s Landscaping, Walworth-Marion Road, 986-1499.

“I started into landscaping a long time ago,” he said. “When I was about 6 years old, Mrs. Salerno used to hire me to clean coops and things, but every time she’d turn around, I’d be digging in her perennials. She gave up and taught me a lot about gardening instead.”

Kevin also said he’d learned a lot from working for a variety of farmers. What they had in common was to do things the old-fashioned way: by hand.

He spurns too many power tools and prefers to hand shear shrubs, custom design each landscape and do the work himself.

Kevin admits that during May through July, he has more work than he can handle alone. He trusts Daryl Copt to be his co-worker.

Kevin and his wife, Barb, moved to the old Bulterman homestead about 12 years ago.

“My brother-in-law, Jim Denniston, was into real estate,” Kevin chuckled. “He’d sent us there as a joke, but after we saw it, we told him we wanted it. The joke was on him!”   Kevin and Barb have two children, Tim and Jessica along with several emu and two piglets.

If you look carefully when you drive past the Heals’s, you might see Barb necking (if that is the correct term?) With one of her emus. It is definitely a sight to behold!

Kevin designed the stone walls for the Post Office, Hardware Store and, most recently, the Walworth Fire Hall.

“Each wall is like a snow flake,” he said. “I hand select each stone and fit it next to the others like a puzzle. Each is unique. Each is beautiful.”

Another unique feature in the new Fire Hall landscaping is the lilac that is grafted onto a cherry tree. The blooms will be lilac but the trunk is an interesting shaggy red bark.

Many years ago, the Walworth Garden Club planted shrubs and flowers at the base of the flag pole. They soon died because the Fire Department thought the Garden Club would water them. The Garden Club thought the Fire Department would do it.

“After I finish planting,” Kevin told me, “I recommend the client water everything every other day for several weeks.”

When Kevin isn’t working on landscaping, he likes to tinker with old cars and trucks.

“I have a 61 two-door hard top Impala that    Has been in 5 shows,” he said, “and won each time.”

Kevin plans to participate in the 1997 Marion Car Show.

The red 54Ford he drives is one of the trucks he has restored with meticulous care.

Thank you, Kevin, for helping to beautify our community one garden at a time. You are a Walworthian with the accent on worth.

2018 Up-Date: The Heald’s have developed an R-V park in Macedon along the Earie Canal.