Where do you get that the reason he became non-competitive was his "lavish" lifestyle?  Per the article he lost $1.7M in contracts this year because when he tried to hire just Americans he couldn't get the work done and it was poorer quality.  A seasonal small business can only exist with repeat customers and stable contracts.
Landscape firms have an average profit margin of 5% to 7%.  As labor is the largest expense, just how much do you think he could raise wages before he would have no customers and be out of business?