Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.
Jackson Jones didn’t waste time moving on after playing baseball for several years at Martin High School in Arlington and in college, where he graduated in 2025 with a degree in business from East Texas Baptist University. Jones tried selling roofs and dabbled in property management before he started his own company in July, selling and installing turf into the residential and commercial markets. Jones, a newlywed, lives in Keller with his wife, Taylor, a fifth grade teacher in Keller ISD. Last week, he sat down for a Q&A with the Fort Worth Report over fried chicken at a Chick-fil-A in north Fort Worth.
Silverleaf Turf Co.
Founder: Jackson Jones
Founded: 2026
Business: Seller and installer of turf for residential and commercial uses, including lawn, pet, pool, putting green and sports
Headquarters: Fort Worth
Web: silverleafturf.com
Instagram: instagram.com/silverleafturfco
Editor’s note: Made in Tarrant is an occasional Q&A series on small businesses started in Tarrant County. Submit your business here.
Nishimura: So, what was your baseball dream?
Jones: My uncle went to Notre Dame out of Martin High School. He pitched and actually got drafted (out of high school), but decided to go to Notre Dame to get a degree. Pitched there four years. My dad also played at Arlington Martin High School and went to Texas Wesleyan, and then played independent professional baseball.
So my goal was always to one-up them and make it to the majors. But I ended up having Tommy John (surgery) on my elbow in my sophomore summer going into junior year (of college). It was a long road my junior year, and then senior year, I was like let’s just pitch for fun and get on with life. But yeah, that was a dream. MLB, little boy’s dream.
Nishimura: So you were looking for the next thing to do as you closed out your college career. Tell me how this idea — the turf business — evolved. How did you break away from baseball? I know that’s tough.
Jones: It’s been a long process. My uncle has a roofing business, and I just hopped into that. I tried to get into roofing sales. Kind of hated it a lot, actually. I did that for two or three months while I tried to start up a cleaning company, and then I got into real estate and that happened for about eight or nine months, and then I got presented an opportunity to work as a property manager, three days a week. I managed 80 units.
And then something crazy happened. The guy that owns all 80 rentals is a very distant family member. But he came into the office and said, “I’m taking back over.” I had no job (any longer), and I figured I’d just go full time with (the turf business).
Nishimura: How did the turf idea come up?
Jones: I met this guy on my bachelor trip. He runs a big (turf) operation out of McKinney. We talked for three or four weeks, and I just kind of like the idea of getting people back into their backyard, not having to deal with stickers and everything like that. I grew up with a backyard with a bunch of stickers, so I know how painful that can be. I’m big on community. I want everybody to have a space, a safe space to gather. That was really attractive to me, playing sports my whole life.
Nishimura: So you’re bootstrapping this? This doesn’t require a lot of capital investment up front?
Jones: Not really. That’s why I was attracted to it. I don’t have to buy a lot of product. I kind of buy the product per project. It’s not like a Chick-fil-A where you’ve got to build the building and then buy all the chicken and fries and then have the customer come to you. You do all the marketing up front, and you have the customer come to you, buy the material that way. It’s good for bootstrapping it with no investors’ money or anything.
Nishimura: So what do you need to have in place up front to do this?
Jones: Honestly, it’s not a lot. I would say all you really need to have is good subcontracting crews you can rely on. I’ve got three or four of those that I can send work and schedule a day to go work on it. And then your manufacturers, your wholesale turf suppliers. If I call them and say, “look, hey, I need 200 square foot of turf, or I need 1,500 square feet of turf,” they’re gonna cut that turf. They’re gonna give me everything that I need. They’re gonna put it on a truck and deliver it to the job site for me. So it’s nothing really out of pocket that I need, other than LLC, domain, the website. And I’m about to purchase what’s called a Moasure. It’s about $1,000. It’s like a GPS measuring tool. It’ll pop up 3D renderings of the area after I’m done. And then marketing, you know, you’ve got to put money into marketing.
Nishimura: How do you come up with the crews?
Jones: My suppliers.
A section of turf from Keller resident Jackson Jones’ landscape company, Sept. 2, 2026, in Southlake. (Elvis Martinez-Cartagena | Fort Worth Report)
Nishimura: So how’s business going so far?
Jones: I actually gave a quote a couple weeks ago to a guy that wanted a backyard and a putting green. That kind of fell through. I’ve got one (for an area around) an AC unit. We’re gonna get that going here in a couple weeks. And then this other one is for my cousin. He’s got a dog run that doesn’t grow grass.
Nishimura: How do people find you?
Jones: A lot of it’s through social media. I made an Instagram. My wife kind of inspires the ideas on there. I just signed up with an SEO company to get my website running and going, and that’s been good. They’re helping me a lot with my Google Business Profile and my website and getting leads coming in that way. But I’ve had a lot of people reach out. I know that it’ll come. I’m not too worried about that.
Nishimura: So your wife teaches?
Jones: She is an elementary teacher. Fifth grade reading language arts. I don’t know how she does it. Teachers are godsends. She loves it. That’s what she wants. She grew up teaching little puppets in her room. That’s her dream job.
Nishimura: There are a lot of competitors around here that have scaled up to do what you want to do. What is your place in the market?
Jones: Silverleaf Turf is a faith-based company built on two things: communication and trust. Trust comes from being upfront and honest about the work we’re doing in your backyard. I’m going to be really relational with you. You’re not just another project for me. You are my startup. If I can’t gain customers at the start of my business, then I have no business. These guys that have a bunch of business, no knock to them, I want to be them someday. I want to be that big company that is doing 50 to 100 jobs a month. But for right now, my competitive advantage is that relationship aspect with a customer to get it started. I’m an athlete, you know. That’s what I do. I grew up my entire life competing. I want to compete with these big dogs.
Nishimura: Long-term, what’s your vision for this enterprise?
Jones: Long-term, I’d like to bring that same standard to sports fields — baseball, football, softball complexes — since that’s where I grew up playing. Turf gave me a lot of good memories there, and I want to help build that for the next generation of DFW athletes too.
Scott Nishimura is senior editor for local government accountability and a Fort Worth city hall reporter at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.
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