Jack Brem, Grandfather of Landscaping
© 2000 Wendy Dager
Part II of Our Series on the Landscape Pioneers Who Paved the Way
Photo of Jack Brem Courtesy of CLCATo hear his friends and family talk about him, you get the idea that Jack Brem was in the business mostly because of his great love for it. From 1941 until his retirement in 1978, Brem Landscaping was the reigning landscape contractor in San Diego, California.
Great Beginnings
Brem was honored by the California Landscape Contractors Association for his many inventions.
Although Jack passed away more than ten years ago at the age of 85, his son Dave, 61, remembers his father fondly.
"He was the leader here in San Diego," said Dave. "Most of his work was bigger contracts, like with the American Housing Guild that made tract houses in San Diego for years."
Dave briefly worked for Brem Landscaping, but eventually began a career in the electronics industry. He thinks his penchant for electronic design may have been inherited.
"One of my dad's strong areas was coming up with different attachments to tractors to save labor," said Dave.
Inventor Extraordinaire
Former employee Mick Reed, now 79, also has memories of Jack Brem the inventor, especially his use of the 3-point hitch for the Ford Ferguson tractor.
"He designed that and had them in use on his own tractors but he never patented it and never developed it," said Mick.
Mick worked for Brem Landscaping from 1960 until it closed in 1978, but recalled that the hitch was developed by Jack in the early 40s. Jack had commissioned a local blacksmith to make it based on his own design.
"He realized he should've patented it because there was a lot of money in it, but later on, Ford and Ferguson combined and they patented it," said Mick.
While Jack would draw a design of each of his inventions and then send it to himself in a registered letter, he knew that this method wasn't legal enough to prove ownership of the invention to the United States Patent Office. Still, Jack wasn't much concerned about patents. He was more interested in creating new tools to help landscape contractors. One invention was the now widely used interlocking block.
He developed a lot of ideas that he never patented. "He was a tinkerer, said Mick. He also was one of the first in the industry to use Pearlite, a material used to make soil more water-absorbent."
"Jack would test its effectiveness by putting plants in plastic bags along with the Pearlite, then," Mick said, "Jack would kick it around the yard for days to determine how well it would work if shipped to the east coast, where he sometimes had jobs."
"He knew his plant material and his plant names and how to grow stuff," said Mick. "We were the first to do hydro-mulching on the freeways in San Diego County."
Mick says it's firsts like this that earned Jack the moniker The Grandfather of Landscaping.
"He was an intelligent man when it came to horticulture and agriculture and he was a hardworking landscape contractor," said Mick. "Jack was one of the most wonderful people I ever knew."
Husband and Horticulturist
In agreement with this observation is Jack's wife, Helen, who was married to him for more than fifty years. 92-year-old Helen is proud that her husband went to universities in Davis and Berkeley, where he studied horticulture. This, combined with his natural ability as an inventor is what inspired him to adapt equipment for landscape use.
"He had a friend who had a machine shop and he would go there and spend time with his friend," said Helen. "He had the ideas and he would get someone else to do the work!"
"Jack was also one of the founding fathers of the California Landscape Contractors Association. Their first state convention,"says Helen, "took place on Catalina Island in 1943."
" It was my first airplane ride," said Helen.
The CLCA was so small at that time that that first meeting consisted of only six people: Bailey Justice, Henry Soto, Jack Brem and their wives.
These were the men who became the first three presidents of the CLCA. Justice even worked for the Brems for a time.
" He was very much a gentleman," said Helen of Justice. "He didn't seem like a landscaper—he was more of a businessman."
Helen began working as bookkeeper for Brem Landscaping in 1965.
"Sometimes we had 8 or 10 employees, sometimes 30 or 40," she said. "When the government put out bids for navy housing, Jack bid and got the Linda Vista job, a big area in San Diego."
When they relocated to San Diego in 1941, Helen and Jack didn't know that the date of their move would become known as Pearl Harbor Day.
As their family grew to include three children, the Brems moved several times within San Diego County. Jack worked all over the country, however, adding equipment and employees as needed.
"He had one tractor when he went to work on (the Linda Vista) project and by the time he got through, he had thirteen little Ford Ferguson tractors," said Helen. "Each time he got a new tractor, he would get in touch with some farmers from Missouri to come out to operate the tractor. Thats how the Missouri population got to California!"
Her husband, said Helen, was never without work, and never without ideas. Eventually, Jack was honored by the CLCA because of the inventions that became indispensible to other landscape contractors. This Grandfather of Landscaping was most certainly a pioneer to be admired.
"I considered him a legend, said Helen, and I know the old-time landscapers appreciated all the things he did, too."
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