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Author: Landscape Management

Is this the best irrigation catch can in the world?

If you do irrigation audits you can toss your tuna cans into the recycle bin. Texas AgriLife Extension Service engineers claim they have the best designed irrigation catch can in the world — The Aggie Catch Can. “This design change is significant as it greatly reduces splash-out during sprinkler testing, thereby improving the accuracy of […]

Guidelines to sustainability

The Professional Landcare Network is ready to release a major publication dealing with sustainability as it applies to the landscape industry. “Green Industry ECOnomics: Innovating toward a sustainable and profitable future,” is the title of the publication — Crystal Ball #29. It will be released soon. Get it. Read it. Meanwhile, here’s an interesting case […]

Connecting water quality, nutrients and turfgrass

An almost-forgotten acquaintance turned up again this summer. None of us were happy about it. We started seeing way too much of this old “pal” in my neighborhood. Now we’re wondering why. What I’m talking about is algae. It is seemingly everywhere in the waters of the western basin of Lake Erie. I have lived […]

Tracking the M&A activity

You might think that with the economy being in the dumper the past 18 months or so that M&A deals in the landscape/lawn service industry would be kaput — wrong. Mergers and acquisition activity has been slow but far from dead. Once the economy starts picking up steam, look for things to really get interesting. […]

From the high seas to the lawn next door

Sea captain Bernardo Jorge Herzer, who logged more than 40,000 nautical miles on the high seas, hit a home run with the development of patented, hand-held landscape maintenance equipment powered with propane canisters. His young company, Lehr Inc., is getting incredible press and earning accolades from environmental groups for his propane-powered blowers and trimmers. Check […]

Machine vs. man in evaluating turfgrass — machine more efficient

STILLWATER, OK—To measure turfgrass performance, professionals have traditionally relied on trained human evaluators who provide visual assessments of turf quality. But human evaluators require training and may be distracted by many factors that can affect accuracy and consistency of the assessments. New optical sensing technology has recently been introduced to measure the reflectance from turf […]

St. Augustine grass gets the boot, what’s next?

When it comes down to a battle between water use and turfgrass, turfgrass will lose, especially when cash-strapped cities start cutting maintenance budgets too. That’s basically the deal in Orlando, FL, the self-proclaimed “City Beautiful,” where next month workers will begin removing about 1 million sq. ft. of St. Augustine turf from city right-of-ways, reported […]

So you thought you knew water…

MENLO PARK, CA—Water is familiar to everyone—it shapes our bodies and our planet. But despite this abundance, the molecular structure of water has remained a mystery, with the substance exhibiting many strange properties that are still poorly understood. Recent work at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and several universities in Sweden and […]

Fire and water in California

California’s on fire. Not all of California. Just the mountains in and around Los Angeles. Actually, during my recent visit there the entire region seemed primed for spontaneous combustion. By noon everyday of the trip, temperatures had cracked the century mark. Smoke rising from the parched, scrubby mountains and the haze it spread over the […]

Garden or one of the most clever billboards you will ever see?

LOS ANGELES —”Harmony Floralscape,” a roadside display made up of more than 20,000 live flowers, was unveiled Aug. 18 along the Pasadena Freeway (SR-110) in downtown Los Angeles by Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, officials from Caltrans, Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., and Greenroad Media, Inc. The Floralscape is one of nine oversized floral designs […]

In spite of it all, this sod farmer is a happy man

Times have gotten tough for sod farmers. Let’s count the ways: The crash of the real estate market, stalled development, the crummy credit market and the oft-repeated (and increasingly annoying) practice by water agencies and headline writers in referring to turfgrass as “water-hogging turfgrass.” These have combined to significantly dampen demand for sod in many […]

Who’s right on this one, The Scotts Co. or the fired young smoker?

The Scotts Co. says if you’re a smoker and don’t have any intentions of quitting, don’t bother to ask for a job. Apparently, the giant Green Industry company, based in Marysville, OH, means it as a young Massachusetts man by the name of Scott Rodrigues found out. He was hired in 2006 by Scotts Lawn […]

Here’s a new one on us — goldenscaping

How many ‘scapings can you name? Hmm — landscaping, interiorscaping, greenscaping, hardscaping, skyscaping (LM’s admittedly imaginative term for green roofs) and why not waterscaping? Did we miss any? How about golden landscaping, which we’ll shorten to goldenscaping. We ran across the term in a newspaper article appearing in The Northern Light, serving the communities of […]

Green walls the next big thing?

The concept of green roofs is well established in the United States, indeed internationally. Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) offered its first accreditation exams for Green Roof Professionals (GRP) in June 09 during its 7th Annual International Conference in Atlanta. Steven Peck, who founded the organization in 1999, said he expects about 250 registered […]

Snazzier new wheels for UK TruGreen franchisees

TruGreen supports a lively and growing network of franchises in the United Kingdom. The Servicemaster company recently unveiled a new look on the lawn care company’s service vans. Head of Marketing Hannah Banfield has been responsible for the new livery: “We wanted a look that instantly said what TruGreen is all about. Our franchisees spend […]

Landscape disguise worked . . . kinda

What to you get when you combine a former star athlete, a landscaper’s uniform, Craigslist, an inner tube and DNA in a single caper? . . . How about 6 years in a federal prison? That’s what Anthony J. Curcio, Lake Stevens, WA, is facing after his arrest and conviction for the September 2008 robbery […]

Pesticide-free park movement grows in the Pacific Northwest

EUGENE, OR — This past Thursday, July 23, members of the Northwest Coalition Neighbors for Alternative to Pesticides (NCAP) and other like-minded people celebrated the grand opening of Rosetta Park here, the latest pesticide-free park in the Pacific Northwest. The pesticide-free movement continues to gain strength and supporters, especially on parks and public properties in […]

A simpler type of green roof and miniature gardens

Not every green roof is an engineering marvel. Here’s a simple and quaint green roof at the Mulberry Creek Herb Farm in Huron, OH. It features too many varieties of sedum and other smallish, drought-resistant plants to mention here. The herb farm, operated by Karen and Mark Langan, specializes in certified organic herbs and offers […]

Texas couple uses only rainwater for daily needs, including landscape irrigation

If you want to learn how to catch rainwater at your home to supply your daily needs, including watering your landscape, you might want to talk to Texas resident John Kight, a retired engineer. Better yet, attend one of his seminars, starting next month. Kight is qualified to talk on the subject of rainwater catchment. […]

Chicago restaurant features first certified organic rooftop farm

Green roofs — roofs with an impermeable surface covered with a special soil mix and nurturing live plants — offer the following benefits: — add insulation to the roof, saving energy and reducing heating & air conditioning costs,— reduce stormwater runoff— reduce air pollution— mitigate glare and noise— lessen the urban heat-island effect— capture carbon […]

Flow of immigrants from Mexico down sharply

The flow of immigrants from Mexico to the United States has declined sharply since mid-decade, but there is no evidence of an increase during this period in the number of Mexican-born migrants returning home from the U.S., according to a new analysis by the Pew Hispanic Center of government data from both countries. The Mexican-born […]

Rain Gardening in the South

Written by North Carolina State University horticulturalists Helen Kraus and Anne Spafford, “Rain Gardening in the South”, provides great information on the wise use our most precious resource—water. Rain gardens maximize rainwater, enhance the landscape, and promote good environmental stewardship. Runoff contributes significantly to polluting our waterways. The rain garden, which functions as a miniature […]

Where’s the groundswell for organic lawn care?

James Young, president of Spring-Green Lawn Care Corp., based in Plainfield, IL, says the company offers “organic” lawn care service in addition to the traditional chemical service, but relatively few customers are opting for the supposedly more environmentally friendly organic service. In a July 20 interview with reporter Steve Hendershot of the Crain’s Chicago Business, […]

NOFA’s Organic Lawn & Turf Course adds NJ stop Aug. 18

One of the aims of NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association), headquartered in Stevenson, CT, is to spread the word about organic growing methods and discourage the use of synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. Its members — which include include farmers, homeowners, grounds professionals and land care professionals — stress the importance of soil health and […]

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