The Early Years

Park Avenue Turf is a true family business. In 1986, owners Mike Strunk and his wife Chikako moved from Oregon to California in search of land on which to start a sod farm. They began with four acres in Sonoma County and now, twenty years later, Park Avenue Turf consists of two separate farms, totaling over 400 acres, servicing the entire Bay Area from Oregon to Nevada and from the Central Valley to the west coast.

Mike has fond memories of the early days of the business, when customers would come to the back door of his home and place orders at the single desk that he had placed there. In those days, they were mowing their four acres with a 21 inch push mower. They sold their first sod lawn on the very day that their first daughter was born. For Mike and Chikako, that day was especially exciting. It was a day that bore the fruits of their labor with regards to their family but also for the family’s business and future. Two years later, they welcomed another daughter. They hired their first employee, Alejandro, who is still an integral part of their business today.

Mike is an outdoorsman; an avid fisherman and hunter. He was drawn to the idea of owning his own business because he could see the potential to have a schedule that would allow him more time for his outdoor adventures. After many years of working 16-hour days, 7 days a week, he was finally going to be able to leave for the opening day of elk hunting season. Of course, his office was still in his home, and he realized that if he was going to hire somebody to run his office for him, he’d have to arrange for a more professional office environment. This led Park Avenue Turf to move from Mike and Chikako’s home into an office of its own.

Our Customers

Mike Strunk

Park Avenue Turf serves a diverse and multi-faceted group of customers. Our customers have included retailers, landscape contractors, general contractors who are building sub-divisions, golf courses who need fairway grass or putting green grass, and homeowners. From laying a single roll of sod to planting an entire sub-division, Park Avenue Turf strives to work with each and every customer to meet that customer’s needs and to find a price point that is fair and reasonable for each transaction.

Our Mission

Our number one goal, first and foremost, is complete customer satisfaction. We will provide our customer with quality product at a fair price every time, and, from our perspective, the sale is not done until the customer says so. We will always resolve any problem, no matter the circumstance.

We believe that the success of our company is a direct result of the good people who work here. It is the way in which we respond to our customers’ concerns and issues that define us as a company. This philosophy of taking care of customers to the very end has lead to our success, and will light our way for greater success in the future.