James Dyslin has fond memories being a young boy and helping his grandfather, Jim Jahnke, with his landscaping business. Now, Dyslin has his own landscaping operation and his grandfather gets to help him, although Dyslin says his grandfather still runs things.

A person could say that James Dyslin’s Lawncare and Junk Removal business is a rather new entity. And they would be right. On the other hand, a person could say that Dyslin’s business has been around a long time. And they would also be right.

“My grandfather, Jim Jahnke operated Jim’s Landscape since the spring of 1981,” Dyslin says. “His business kind of morphed into my business.”

Currently James, his brother Aaron Henke and his grandfather are the main workers for Dyslin’s operation.

“Grandpa still runs the show,” Dyslin comments. “If we can’t figure something out and Grandpa shows up and says he can’t figure it out, then it can’t be done. With his experience, he knows how to do so many things.”

Dyslin credits hanging out with his grandfather for developing his interest in the lawn care and landscaping business.

“I have fond memories of Grandpa picking me up after school in his black F350 dump truck,” Dyslin recalls. “We would go up to the Cities and get trees and shrubs from a wholesale nursery.”

Dyslin says the business has changed over the years.

“We mow lawns, trim shrubs, do yard cleanup, clean eave troughs, put landscape rock around houses and edgers and other small landscape projects,” he notes. “We do not do the big landscape projects and we don’t really sell trees anymore but we will still plant them for people.”

Those are just the things they do during the months when the weather is nice in Minnesota. When winter comes around, Dyslin and his crew are prepared to do snow removal.

Dyslin has walk-behind snowblowers but his favorite machine for cleaning up snow is a snowblower mounted on the front of one of his lawn mowers – a machine that has a cab and a heater so that he can stay warm.

“With the winter we had this past season, we didn’t blow a lot of snow,” Dyslin admits. “And to be honest, that did not break my heart.”

To operate his business, Dyslin maintains a fleet of lawnmowers and other equipment.

And that is another thing he learned from his grandfather, it pays to have quality equipment.

In an article in the May 4, 2009 edition of the Register, Jim Jahnke said when he began his business he bought his first mowers from Menards and J.C. Penny.

“The cost was right,” Jahnke said at the time. “But the mowers didn’t last.”

Dyslin operates a fleet of commercial zero-turn mowers manufactured by companies like John Deere and Hustler and a front mounted mower/snowblower from Kubota. He also has an ATV with a mounted blade he will use to push snow.

“We also have chainsaws, weed whips and power blowers we use,” Dyslin says. “We have hedge clippers that my grandpa discovered that were made in West-Germany and sold by a company in Georgia which are amazing.”

Most of their customers are in the southern Minnesota area as far west as Jackson and north to Mankato. They also cross the border to do work in Iowa in places like Algona.

And now Dyslin has also gotten into providing junk removal services.

“We remove furniture and junk from houses and apartments,” he explains. “Some of the stuff we find is hauled to landfills and some is taken to junkyards.”

As if he isn’t busy enough, Dyslin also has a sideline job of providing part-time help in hog barns.

“Sometimes it is chores or helping give shots,” he explains. “And sometimes people need help when it is time to sell their hogs.”

But most of the time he stays busy with lawn care.

“Most of the yards we take care of are in the city. We have residential and commercial customers,” Dyslin remarks. “Once in awhile we get a call from someone who lives in the country who needs their lawn mowed.”

One service he does not provide is spraying.

“Nope, I do not do spraying,” Dyslin states. “I currently have no interest in that. Let others handle that.”

The 2018 Granada- Huntley graduate is thankful he has been able to learn so much from his grandfather.

“I guess I have always liked the lawn care and landscaping business and getting to work alongside my grandpa is a bonus,” Dyslin concludes. “I actually had work clothes on under my high school graduation gown because I had a job in Fairmont to take care of later that day.”

Dyslin says anyone in need of his company’s services can contact him on his cell phone at 507-525-3357 or by calling his office at 507-526-3128.