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Author: Landscape Management

Interested in propane power? Hurry, catch this Webcast

If you are curious or interested in propane-powered commercial lawn equipment or service vehicles click here and register for the Propane Engine Fuel Summit. Don’t mess around, the Summit takes place Wednesday and Thursday, March 3-4, near Washington D.C., but you don’t have to travel there to find out what’s going on. The event is […]

Synthetic turf lawns could get a boost

(Image courtesy easyturf.org) Synthetic turf as a replacement for natural grass is gaining momentum in water-scarce regions of the United States, and could get a big boost if a bill proposed by Assemblywoman Lori Saldaña finds a favorable audience in the California legislature. Saldaña’s proposal that would require HOAs to allow installation of artificial turf. […]

Round one on proposed NH lawn care pesticide bill

It’s not clear when the House Environment and Agriculture Committee in the New Hampshire legislature will make a recommendation regarding whether or not to proceed with a lawn care pesticide bill there. HB 1456, sponsored by Rep. Suzanne Smith, would establish a legislative committee to study the use of pesticides in residential neighborhoods, schools and […]

Regional team of researchers continue studying miscanthus as possible source of biofuels

Turfgrass researcher David Williams in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture is part of a regional team of university researchers studying the feasibility of growing miscanthus for biomass and biofuels. Miscanthus x giganteus is a warm-season hybrid grass native to China that can produce large yields. Unlike Miscanthus sinensis that is found in landscapes […]

Is a lawn care pesticide ban in New Hampshire’s future?

Will little New Hampshire become the crack in the dike that anti-pesticide activist groups are seeking in their efforts to curtail chemical lawn care in the United States? Remember, it was the tiny city of Hudson in Quebec Province and favorable court rulings in the 1990s that started the avalanche of bans on lawn care […]

Can you add to this list of sustainable landscape info?

The body of knowledge focusing on environmental and landscape practices that preserve and enhance our urban environments is growing at an astonishing rate, reflecting the recognition by our society that we can’t continue to waste and misuse our resources — our water, our fossil fuels, our soils, etc. Those of us in the Green Industry […]

Don’t let a bumper sticker kill a sale

Bill Phagan, a former Tampa-area landscaper and long-time industry business consultant (Green Industry Consulting, Inc.) offered up what we feel is valuable sales advice in his latest quarterly “Your MoneyTree News” enewsletter. Phagan opines that it’s not a good idea — at least from a sales perspective — in being too out front with clients […]

Builders and landscapers have allied conservation goals

Energy efficiency and water conservation — the building trades and the Green Industry are starting to think alike. We’re encouraged. Atlanta-based Ashton Woods Homes recently announced that it completed a sustainable landscaping and irrigation implementation at The Enclave at Riverwalk in East Cobb near Atlanta. The company builds high-performance new homes in growth communities in […]

Grazing as a weed control option?

Several years ago while attending a business conference in San Jose, CA, we saw a herd of goats munching contentedly on the vegetation in what appeared to be a city park there. Since then we’ve learned that the city, through its Environmental Services Department, used several hundred goats and sheep to keep thistle and other […]

Landscaper offers aid to Haiti on "Eagle Wings"

Scott Lewis, 52, and his wife Carol run 35-year-old Scott Lewis’ Garden & Trimming, Inc., in West Palm Beach, FL. His name was mentioned in a short article in a south Florida newspaper concerning volunteer aid to Haiti. Curious we investigated further and discovered a person with a remarkable desire to help his fellow man. […]

Feral hogs as landscape pests — big and bad

OVERTON, TX — Most of us have figured out how to get rid of white grubs, mole crickets, billbugs, fire ants and their likes . . . but feral hogs? Yes, we’re talking wild hogs, and they’re apparently a big problem for property owners in many areas of the United States. Well, if they’re a […]

Bringing the dead (ornamentals) back to life

Frosty lawns in south Florida Us Yankees flee to Florida in January anticipating balmy temperatures and blue skies, a respite from snow and ice. Imagine our surprise when we flew into the Ft. Myers airport earlier this month and the temperature is just above freezing. What followed was a string of mornings featuring heavy frosts […]

Video of Eric Hansen’s neat propane-powered lawn service truck

(Jack Roush, Roush Performanc, hands the keys to a new propane-powered Ford F350 to lawn care business owner Eric Hansen.) Erie Hansen’s been researching and testing the feasibility of changing his 28-year-old company from gasoline to propane power. It looks like his Competitive Lawn Service, Inc., Downers Grove, IL, is on its way to becoming […]

2010 the ‘test’ year

It’s New Year’s Eve here in the frozen sticks and mud of north central Ohio. Our economy, hard hit by the decline of the U.S. steel industry in the late 20th Century, more recently took a massive bodyshot because of the downsizing of U.S. auto manufacturing. There hasn’t been much sunshine here recently, either from […]

Gardens that heal the spirit if not the body

There’s no need to convince me of the mind-soothing, perhaps even healing benefits of gardens. So, it’s a delight to learn of an organization that is promoting exactly that. Beyond that, I’m hopeful that as more of you learn of this organization, you might consider helping spread the word.Hope in Bloom is a non-profit 501©3 […]

Massey Services deal attracts favorable ink

ORLANDO, FL — Massey Services Inc.’s recent acquisition of competitor Middleton Lawn & Pest Control (the company with a consumer brand characterized by grinning green frog) caught the attention of the Orlando Sentinel newspaper. An article appearing in the Dec. 22 issue of the Sentinel gives a revealing and positive account of 68-year-old Harvey Massey’s […]

4th grader wows scientists with her artificial vs. natural turf research study

Which is more environmentally friend, artificial grass or living grass? Schools and communities across the United States are debating the issue because of the growing popularity of synthetic turf on sports fields, home lawns and other areas formerly covered by turfgrass. Proponents of both point to the many “green” benefits of their respective type of […]

Links to two articles showing the international character of water issues

The most precious natural resource in the world isn’t oil or gold; it’s water. Life cannot be sustained without water. But, in spite of 75% of the earth being covered by water, the amount of fresh water available for human use is incredibly small. And even that minuscule amount is not distributed evenly around the […]

Great pesticide safety info that’s practically free

I’m not sure I’m getting this blogging thing right. I’m not particularly witty, the issues I feel strongly enough to launch into a full-force Category 5 rant generally don’t have anything to do with the landscape industry and I’m not good looking enough to charm anybody with my smiling mug. That said, I know we […]

Congratulations to Kelly Giard of Clean Air Lawn Care

Kelly Giard, the founder and CEO of Clean Air Lawn Care was voted as Entrepreneur Magazine’s “Emerging Entrepreneur of 2009.” Clean Air Lawn Care offers customers organic lawn care, and uses quiet electric mowers and other equipment for turf and landscape care. In 2006, Giard started Clean Air Lawn Care, Inc. out of his garage. […]

Who should regulate fertilizer use on lawns, states or local governments?

When most of us think of preemption in terms of turfgrass care, we think of lawn care pesticides. In the United States, preemption means that the states, and not municipalities, regulate the sale and use of pesticides. Few of us think of preemption in regards to fertilizers. But that’s becoming a bigger issue across the […]

Using language that focuses on the customer

Apart from different colored trucks, many customers – property owners and property managers – don’t see much difference among the landscape/lawn service providers. Similarly, customers tend to hear the same selling proposition from landscapers: “We can do it cheaper, better and/or faster.” Instead of emphasizing the “we” part of the selling proposition, put the focus […]

White House party crashers finally forced to pay their lawn care bill

It turns out the couple that crashed the White House State Dinner tried to stiff a service provider out of a $925 lawn mowing bill, but a judge in Warren County, VA, was not about to let that happen. According to Fox News, a judge there forced Tareq Salahi to hand over his expensive Patek […]

National school IPM law proposed

WASHINGTON, D.C. — We don’t know how likely this legislation is to be passed, and it’s not clear what impact it would have on pest control, landscape and grounds maintenance operations. But it bears watching. U.S. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) and 14 of his colleagues put forward School Environment Protection Act of 2009 (SEPA), H.R. […]

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