MOTT’S LANDSCAPING
Landscaping
By Tamara S. Wolfe | Photography by Dung Hoang
“I COULDN’T WORK,” JORDAN MOTT SHARES. “I couldn’t face my son’s death. I would go into the lot behind our shop and clean up random stuff just to pull myself away from it all.”
Six years ago, Theo Mott died of a heart defect.
“I kept asking, gosh dang it, why is my brother and his family going through this? It wasn’t fair,” Jeff says. “Seeing Jordan grieve was very difficult.”
Mott’s Landscaping was just a small group at the time. Without Jordan, the load grew heavy. But Jeff and the crew would not let the business fold. Pulling together, and pulling for each other, they stayed steady for Jordan, for his family, and for Mott’s. Customers felt it too, and Mott’s grew.
“Jordan and I have been partners in the yard business since we were kids,” Jeff says. “I was twelve, he was eight. We have always had each other’s backs. We knew we could figure things out, no matter what.”
Back then, it was an electric mower and a cord headed for trouble.
In Grandma’s yard.
“Jordan was in charge of the cord, making sure we didn’t run it over,” Jeff explains. “I would go one direction, and he thought I was going a different way. Every single time, I would run it over.”
They’d rummage up a spare.
And go at it again.
Battling it out. Bickering. Running over cords.
Never giving up.
They trimmed the matted juniper shrubs. Bagged bushels of walnuts from the old tree out back. And hauled them out before the rats showed up.
They earned $7.50 for the front and $7.50 for the back. And a root beer.
“We would all sit on the porch, sip our soda, look out at the yard, and talk about how nice it looked,” Jeff says.
Grandma spread the word. “She was our best advertiser,” Jordan says.
One yard turned to ten. Her street became their first customer base. Their stomping ground. The place where they grew up.
And fell in love with yards.
At 15, Jeff was ready to take on more.
Grandma’s next-door neighbor ran a business built on xeriscaping, a new way of turning thirsty yards into water-wise habitats with native plants, little upkeep, and no chemicals.
She needed extra hands.
“The science was so cool,” Jeff says. “I called her up, got the job, and started studying Utah’s plants.”
Not long after, Jordan joined too.
The two pooled their savings to open Mott’s in Salt Lake City in 2007. They founded the business knowing xeriscaping could better lives.
“Even though Jordan and I saw the road ahead, we still couldn’t agree on which street to take to get there,” Jeff recalls.
But they worked it out.
Jeff handled the customer consults and maintenance. Jordan oversaw the installs and builds. And both had a say in the designs.
Then Theo was suddenly gone.
The grief was relentless.
A church mentor asked Jordan to hold onto a goal, something he could aim for.
Jordan wrote down that he needed to create a yard for a family who had lost a child.
The call came. From a mom whose teenage son had died by suicide in the family’s backyard. She asked if Mott’s could landscape the area to honor him.
“I didn’t know if I was prepared to do this,” Jordan says.
Still, he met with her.
“We talked about the colors her son loved, his favorite flowers,” Jordan says. “I found so much joy in seeing that family’s yard come to life.”
His crew filled the garden with orange blossoms. They trailed vines of coral-pink and yellow honeysuckle across a pergola. And blanketed the ground with greens.
The space became tender and hopeful.
“We planted twice as many flowers as the bid called for,” Jordan says. “We tried to landscape the yard so it felt complete, in the place their son chose to rest. Instead of being a hole in their life, it could now begin to fill in the voids.”
“The guys who did that yard are still with us,” Jeff says.
“They are genuine, loving, great people,” Jordan adds. “They came to Theo’s funeral. They were struggling too. We all learned to love more.”
That love helped life return.
Even in the smallest places.
“We had a customer whose yard was as tiny as a postage stamp,” Jordan recalls. “A year after we finished the landscape, she invited us over to see it.”
Just like they had done as kids, they sat on the porch. Looking out.
“I counted at least 15 types of birds,” Jordan says. “She had a family of quail living there. The ducks and bees had made their way in. There was a fountain and feeder. But it was the plants that provided this ecosystem. And a sense of peace.”
And in every yard, there is gratitude for the people who believed in Mott’s: Their grandma. Her neighbors. Families who were healing. A devoted crew. And a Salt Lake community who chose to go native.
In 2026, Mott’s received a Best of Houzz award, which honors the most highly rated home design and landscape professionals. “It felt so good to win the Houzz because it was given by the people we serve and our peers,” Jeff says.
Today, Jeff, Jordan, and their crew tend to whatever a yard may need. They plan and plant xeriscapes, craft patios, gazebos, and fences, install sprinklers and water features, and keep landscapes in top shape.
And in service they found a way to move in the same direction, bringing life to others through their love of yards.