About Ross NW Watergardens
Ben Bowen
Ben, our landscape designer, is usually your first contact with Ross NW Watergardens. He will meet you for an initial consultation, work up any proposal needed, and remains your primary contact through the whole design and installation process.
Ben is a third generation landscaper and has been working in the family business since 2003.
Ben writes our "Portland Landscaping Blog" and has written articles featured in Lawn&Landscape.com, Total Landscape Care, Angie's List and others.
As a kid Ben spent his summers installing irrigation timers in the Phoenix heat. He spent 5 years in Brooklyn and Rye, NY working in food service and as a stonemason. He returned to Portland in 2003 and now has a wife of over 18 years and 4 (yep) sons.
Ross "Joe" Bowen
Ross "Joe" Bowen, landscape contractor, started Ross NW Watergardens in 1999. He began his landscaping career in 1975 in Phoenix, AZ working for the family commercial and residential landscape business, Bowen's Inc.
Joe has a deep working knowledge of landscape design and construction- which is great because he oversees most of our installations. His approach is practical and his style natural. Joe has developed the ability to work well with all sorts of clients, designers, architects, and contractors.
Joe is a husband of over 45 years, has 5 children (maybe this is how he became such a team player...) and still plays racquetball every week.
Jose Ortega
Jose Ortega is our Field Manager. That means he delivers material (or has it delivered), hauls away material (or has it hauled away), and helps out on projects where needed. He also collects feedback from clients and team members. He is our 'eyes in the field' when we can't be there ourselves.
Jose is Joe's son-in-law and Ben's brother-in-law. He has over a decade of landscape construction experience, all of it in the Portland area.
The Ross NW Watergardens Team
We currently have 9 full-time employees. They have worked with us anywhere from 5-18 years.
We pride ourselves on having amazing craftsmen (and women) and treating them well. We are not the only ones who think so!
Key Team Members:
Efrain Gutierrez is our stone mason, crew leader, longest tenured employee (since 2002), too-large stone moving wizard, engineer specializing in rain shielding tarp erecting, and so much more. He and his helper, Josephina, have been crafting amazing landscapes with us for almost a decade. Efrain did all the stone work on this Lake Oswego project, including the water feature.
Josephina Guzman is Ephrain's helper and friend of his family as well. They have worked as a team for Ross NW Watergardens since 2006.
Jose Gutierrez is our second landscape installation crew leader. He is also Ephrain's younger brother and a great stone mason in his own right. Just don't ask him to smile. One of his best projects is this Camas modern garden.
Consuelo Gutierrez is Jose's spouse and crew mate. The two of them commute from Woodburn every day and have 2 children.
We are a team with a family at its core. Our family works with yours to create a landscape that will truly work, from day one, and only improve with time.
Our family-first focus doesn't just sound good, it is good.
Good for your family. You can trust the people we bring to your home, because we know and trust them.
Good for our families. Ross NW Watergardens only expands as the needs of our families do.
Good for our employees, who are given a very high level of schedule flexibility so they can be good parents, husbands, and wives.
Good for your landscape project. No other landscaper in Portland has a team more experienced. We have all worked together long enough to develop a "design language". When the designer specifies a boulder grouping he has a picture in his mind. Our landscape supervisor, the crew leader, the guy picking your boulder at the stone yard, and the crew member who places it all see the same thing.