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Author: Landscape Management

Vote for one of our own in Emerging Entrepreneur contest

Here’s a chance to help one of our own receive positive national recognition. Kelly Giard, founder of Clean Air Lawn Care, is one of five finalists in the Emerging Entrepreneur contest sponsored by Entrepreneur magazine. The winner will be determined by votes on the Entrepreneur Web site. I chatted with Giard at some length this […]

Garden tours offer great ideas and nice surprises

Steve Tusen is a neighbor I didn’t know, not until this past Sunday that is. Steve’s Garden Railroad was one of 10 local gardens selected this year’s Garden Tour & Tea in our small city of Port Clinton on Lake Erie’s south shore in Northwest Ohio. My wife Vicky’s garden was one of the 10 […]

Mow higher for healthier grass and healthier environment

Why is it that people, including some professional cutters, keep mowing lawns so short? Travel through just about any neighborhood and you will see turfgrass on most properties mowed to within a half inch of its life. Yes, pros that mow by the calendar (billing so many cuts per season) are sometimes at fault, but […]

We’re doing better than most…so far anyway

For $3,300 you can buy a report from Packaged Facts telling you that the lawn and garden industry is cranking along relatively well in this sick economy, especially compared to other industries. OK, so the landscape/lawn service industry is not going gang-busters like it was in the 1990s and earlier this decade. To my knowledge, […]

Joe says get ready for the ‘blue-collar’ revival

I like the name “Joe”. Everybody that I’ve known by that name has been a regular guy, hard worker, dependable, uncomplicated. So it’s not surprising to me that a guy named Joe Lamacchia wrote a book titled “Blue Collar and Proud of It.” I’m happy to report, though not surprised, that Joe is a landscaper. […]

Mortgage companies not good neighbors make

My wife, Vicky, and I live on a brick street shaded by massive silver maples in a city of approximately 6,000 people in northern Ohio. Apart from the silver maples, which occasionally shed a huge limb and crush a car during a storm, peace and tranquility reign in our neighborhood of 70- to 90-year-old, wood-frame […]

There are wilder events than a turfgrass field day, but go anyway

There are more exciting ways to spend a summer day than to walk around under a hot summer sun and check out the differences among small rectangles of turfgrass at a research farm or university facility. A turfgrass field day is, well, basically a day devoted to looking at grass — and, of course, learning […]

Why ‘the forgotten man’ matters today

The generation of the Great Depression has faded away, and so too has the political ranker of that era. Few individuals remain of that era who came to regard Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, in all of its manifestations, as the grand mechanism that pulled the nation of out the depths of economic despair. On […]

He’s a lean, green, mobile landscaping machine

If you’re a young owner or just starting your landscaping business you might want to follow the example of Columbus, OH-area company owner Tim Chiles, the 36-year-old founder of two-year-old Structural Gardens LLC. This guy is one lean, green, mobile landscaping machine that uses the latest communication and computer technology to do business on the […]

Avoiding a tall fescue feud on a farm in North Carolina

Which is the better turftype tall fescue cultivar — Tarheel II or Wolfpack II? An innocent enough question, given that the question surfaced at a turfgrass field day. But this wasn’t just any field day; this was the Scotts Professsional Seed/Pure-Seed Testing, Inc., Field Day in Rolesville, NC, which is within easy driving distance of […]

Artificial turf offers landscapers a nice opportunity

If you’re in the landscaping business and looking for a new revenue opportunity, take a couple of minutes to investigate adding synthetic turf installations to your service mix. If you’re unfamiliar with the product, we suggest you visit the Website for the Association of Synthetic Turf Installers. It has an incredible amount of information on […]

Can this remote-control mower break into the commercial market?

Labor is the single largest expense for landscape companies. In these economically challenged times when everybody is looking for every efficiency, a remote-control mower that would reduce labor costs would be very attractive to some owners. To this point, in spite of some interesting tries, nobody’s been able to come up with a unit that […]

This physician makes house calls . . . . but with a mower

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Emergency room doctor Nathan Arnold makes house calls. But he won’t be bringing a little black satchel of pills and ointments. He’ll be showing up in a pickup truck sporting a solar panel on its cab and a trailer carrying a battery-powered lawn mower. Arnold is a franchisee of Clean Air […]

The Bahamas starts its own landscape association

NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS — The Bahamas Landscape Association (BLA) launched this spring. As of the end of May more than 50 individual and company members had signed up. The BLA has partnered with the Florida Nursery Growers Landscape Association and is in discussions with The Bahamas Ministry of Education to acquire funding to provide professional […]

Mississippi landscaper gives away a house

Not all the news you read in the newspapers or see on television makes you want to jump off a tall building. Every once in you see something in the news that makes you appreciate the goodness in people. Here’s one of those stories. Richard Drummond, who runs Landscaping Logistics, in Biloxi, MS, knows what […]

Anti-pesticide documentary gets premiere

Paul Tukey’s film, Hudson: A Chemical Reaction, premiered in Hudson, Monday night. Hudson is the small town in Quebec Province that set off the chain reaction that has resulted in the banning of lawn care chemicals in Quebec and Ontario provinces. The film chronicles how Hudson, rallying behind a determined local dermatologist, battled the lawn […]

A must-see movie for lawn care business owners

You won’t be seeing this movie in the local cinemax, but you might get to see it at a regional or state conference. Or maybe even on PBS, who knows? I’m talking about a 1-hour documentary entitled “Hudson: A Chemical Reaction.” We haven’t seen it yet, but we understand that it chronicles how Hudson, the […]

Electric mowing maybe; push-mowing probably not

I recently read with interest an article in the Aurora Beacon (IL) newspaper about Kevin Franz and his Go Green Mowing Company. Apparently, Frantz has been offering mowing services for the past 10 years, but this year decided to mow only electric and hand-pushed mowers. In the article he describes his concerns about carbon emissions […]

Our Memorial Days must always be green

Years ago, a good friend was in charge of the cemetery maintenance in our small town. For some reason he didn’t get the cemetery in the proper condition for Memorial Day. Perhaps the weather didn’t cooperate, or he had staffing issues or maybe he just dropped the ball. I don’t recall the details. It doesn’t […]

ASIC gets briefing on the amazing Masdar City project

Abu Dhabi is one of the seven emirates and the second largest city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on the Persian Gulf. Although it averages just 4.2 inches of rain annually, it’s in full blossom thanks to its robust oil production and progressive leaders. Its skyline bristles with new skyscrapers, its streets with retail […]

Neat, quick guide to sustainable landscape design

We’re in awe of how fast this sustainability movement is taking off. It appears that it’s no longer just a word, but a movement, real. We’re just beginning to see it emerge in the landscape industry. We feel that once it gets rolling full blast it’s going to change the industry in a big hurry […]

New water meters pose mowing risk for the unaware

If you’re in the mowing business be aware of the new ‘green” water meters that are being installed in some cities. The meters, which are installed flush into the ground, have a plastic transmitter that sticks up about an inch. It allows water department employees to get properties’ readings electronically. The meter guy or gal […]

Green claims alone just won’t cut it

Do you want to sell green? Well, green by itself won’t cut it with the great majority of consumers, says Honey Rand, Ph.D., APR, an engaging ball of energy with a smiling, here’s-the-real-deal way of making a point. Rand runs a Florida-based consulting, pr and issues management firm that specializes in environmental issues and was […]

Cocoa (mulch) a no-no for Fido

Apparently, cocoa mulch and dogs don’t go together very well. We just ran across an article in a local newspaper about a man’s dog gulping down an indeterminate amount of cocoa mulch and getting extremely sick as a result. While it would seem that cocoa mulch provides an inordinate amount of roughage for any system, […]

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