Brie Sievert studied to become an interior designer with the idea of making private homes beautiful.
But when she re-located to Lantau and saw how so much of the island is neglected she decided to use her design talents to landscape both gardens and countryside.
Her company, Asian Earth, is one of the few that concentrates on gardens for private homes. Its customer base extends to Discovery Bay and Hong Kong. 'The big money, of course, is in landscaping for major developments,' she says, 'but I felt there was a need to create beautiful small gardens.'
The influence of her company has been pervasive in the village of Shan Shek Wan. After the company bought a house there and landscaped the area around, the villagers all began to take a keener interest in improving the area and last year the village took third place in the Living Village contest organised in association with the South China Morning Post.
With low overheads, the company went into profitability the first year. Asian Earth was started with only $50,000 capital in 2002. Ms Sievert and her husband, Cory, a Cathay pilot, had already bought the house in Lantau where they live with their five-year-old son.
'Major costs were labour and transportation,' she says. 'We now employ two men full-time and take on casual labour when needed. I also do a lot of the work of planting and my husband helps out when he is not flying, so it is quite cost-efficient. All our plants come from China, and we import garden ornaments from Bali. Because we have such low overheads we can keep our charges down. We had a website created for us, which was a major expense at $25,000, but we have never needed to advertise.'