RICHMOND, Va. --Gil Grattan is used to dealing in grass and weeds. Now his company has a new sort of green fueling its growth.

Virginia Green, the lawncare business Grattan founded locally 20 years ago, signed a deal last month with California-based private equity firm Golden Gate Capital to take on its first ever round of outside capital in a bid to expand both within and outside of its namesake state.

Grattan would not disclose the amount of funding Virginia Green received in the deal but said it’s enough to allow his Henrico-based company to continue an acquisition streak that’s led to nine deals in the past three years.

“I tell our associates we have a checkbook backing us now to expand our brand and expand our growth,” Grattan said in an interview this week.