Charles Warner|Daily Times Even though he's hard at work spreading mulch, Gator Hudson finds being owner and sole employee of Hudson Lawn Service relaxing. Hudson, who first began working in lawn care when he was in high school, opened Hudson Lawn Service six years ago and now has a business that takes him throughout Union County and beyond.

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For Gator Hudson, being the owner, operator and sole employee of his own business isn’t work, it’s a form of relaxation.

Hudson is the owner of Hudson Lawn Service, a business he started six years ago that marked a return to doing the kind of work he has loved since he was a teenager.

“I started in high school back in the eighties,” Hudson said. “I kind of got out of it in the real world when I went to work as a truck driver. I still kept a yard or two but I never really pursued it. When I was in high school I kept 10 or 15 yards.”

Today, Hudson Lawn Service provides lawn care services for approximately 25 yards in Union County. Even though he’s the owner, Hudson does all the work himself. Though he has some help from an individual he employs on occasion, Hudson remains his business’ sole employee as well as its owner. Even though usually does all the mowing, edging, trimming and other lawn care services himself, Hudson said he loves doing it.

“I got back into keeping yards because I had a lot of free time in the evenings and on the weekends,” Hudson said. “I just love doing it. I like being outside and being my own boss. I just find it relaxing.”

Besides maintaining yards, Hudson also sells both long leaf and short leaf pine straw, a part of his business that has often taken him out of the county to deliver his customers’ orders. In some cases, the deliveries lead to even more work which Hudson said he is always happy to do.

“I delivered pine straw to Aiken and installed it,” Hudson said. “I was supposed to just deliver 250 bales and the guy asked me to install them while I was there. It took me eight hours to do it and I had to stay overnight, but he was so pleased with my work he said he was going to call me back every year.”

While he doesn’t currently have any plans to hire personnel, Hudson said the growth of his business has him looking at acquiring a new piece of equipment which would make the pine straw part of his business more efficient and cost-effective.

“I’d like to get a 20-foot-plus U-Haul or something similar to make it easier to get more on each trip,” Hudson said. “Right now, I can only carry 250 bales at a time. With that I’d be able to run 700 or more bales, and that would cut my overhead.”

That, Hudson said, would make his work even more relaxing.

Hudson Lawn Service is located at 1106 W. Main St., Union. For more information call 864-762-6301.