Four Italian-American landscaping companies have shaped Newton's yards for generations — and all four now face a squeeze that could end that legacy for good: labor costs up 40% in five years, tighter city rules, and no clear next generation to take over.

Roots that go back nearly a century.

Lamacchia Landscape Construction, Ieraci Landscaping, Peter DiClemente Gardening, and D&S Landscaping each employ about 20 workers across Newton, according to a Newton Beacon profile by BU plant ecology professor Richard B. Primack. All four current owners grew up in Newton's schools, and their companies trace back to Italian immigrants who arrived in the 1930s — Pierno DiClemente walked daily from his self-built home carrying a wheelbarrow and tools after emigrating from Italy's Abruzzo region; Antonio Ieraci arrived from Calabria around 1935 unable to speak English, which limited what work he could even take.

The workforce squeeze hitting every crew.

Today's biggest challenge is finding and keeping workers, now hired primarily from Guatemala and other parts of Central America. "In recent years, we have had to take extra care vetting these workers to make sure that they can be legally hired … and then we have to offer higher wages to keep them," owner Joe Lamacchia said — a combination that's driven labor costs up 40% over five years. Owner Peter DiClemente said his company leans on training and better pay to hold onto crews rather than lose them to competitors.

New rules add hours to every job.

Newton's leaf blower ordinance bans gas-powered blowers entirely from Memorial Day through Labor Day, limiting crews to one electric or battery blower per lot during that stretch, with anything louder than 65 decibels banned year-round. Electric blowers run quieter, but take longer to finish the same job — adding hours to crews already stretched thin. Newton's tree preservation rules add another layer of permitting for private tree removal, with the City Council weighing further changes this year. Owner John Capello also pointed to a quieter, less obvious problem: fewer places nearby to dump yard waste or buy wholesale soil and supplies.

A trade with no guaranteed next generation.

None of the current owners' children are expected to take over the family business, and all four now compete against smaller newcomers and larger national landscaping firms moving into the area. One possible path forward is already taking shape at Peter DiClemente Gardening, where Henry Morales, a Guatemalan immigrant and new U.S. citizen, has become a partner in the company — a new chapter for a business built by immigrants in the first place.

Businesses that never stopped giving back.

These four companies remain deeply woven into Newton's civic life. D&S Landscaping has served Lasell University for 40 years and funds an annual criminal justice scholarship there. Lamacchia contributes to Nonantum's St. Mary of Carmen Festival and provides free landscaping to the Boys & Girls Club. And DiClemente still tends some of the very same properties — sometimes the same families — his grandfather Pierno served decades ago, a thread connecting a wheelbarrow in the 1930s to the lawns of Newton today.