The Bruce Company

About The Bruce Company

Winter mornings in Middleton start long before the light does, when the wind slides in off Lake Mendota and the cold pools low over the Pheasant Branch marsh. That is the hour The Bruce Company is already moving — blades down along Century Avenue and the side streets off Parmenter, walks scraped and treated so the first car of the day backs out onto clean pavement. When the ground softens again and the springs at the conservancy run clear, the work turns to mowing, edging and feeding, until the grass holds a straight line at every drive and walkway. There is a real pleasure in a yard that reads well from the sidewalk: stripes laid even across the easy roll of a drumlin, borders cut sharp around the oaks. This is a town of trail crossings and prairie edges, and a lawn kept in good order belongs to that same idea. Whatever the sky is doing out over the marsh, the crews plan around it.