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Author: Landscape Management

Leaves raked onto curbs adds to phosphorus loading

Below is some timely information that appeared in a recent enewsletter from the Cornell University turfgrass team. In light of the actions by some communities to ban the use of fertilizers containing phosphorus, regardless of what soil tests reveal, we thought it was interesting. Phosphorus runoff, of course, promotes algae and plant growth in streams, […]

Maybe we should ban deer

Here’s a quote for you. It came from the Edmonton, Canada, Journal newspaper. The object of the article is weed & feed, you know that combination of fertilizer and weed killer that many of us have been using on our home lawns for decades. See if you think this sentence in the article is a […]

Having won the lawn care fight, is foresty & ag next?

In spite of rigorous pesticide testing procedures by the Canadian government (among the most rigorous in the world), Ontario Province will almost certainly pass a province-wide ban on the use of almost all commercially available chemical lawn care pest controls this coming spring. Jeffrey Lowes, Director of Government & Industrial Relations, M-REP Communications, says a […]

North Georgia: more menacing, but it gets less mention

You can’t help wondering about life’s ironic twists, even the small ones. For example Anaheim, CA, averages a mere 14 inches of rainfall annually. Anaheim was the site of the Irrigation Association Conference and Exhibition this past Nov. 2-4. To everyone’s surprise, two of the three mornings of the event, it rained at the Convention […]

Long arm of the law nabs long-ago lawn offender

If you don’t mow your lawn, the long arm of the law will track you down and put you in jail, which begs the question: Is there a statute of limitations for not mowing your lawn? MyFox Atlanta reports Amy Parker, a resident of Gainesville, GA, was arrested this past Friday because of a complaint […]

Huge new source of fresh water discovered in Oregon mountains

While the U.S. Southwest looks to a future of continued population growth and development but no substantial increase in fresh water supplies — indeed projections are for a reduced supply of fresh water due to climate change — a huge underground reservoir of fresh water has been discovered in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. The stockpile stores […]

Plant breeder Crystal Rose-Fricker gets props from the Crop Science Society of America

If you plant turfgrass, renovate it, fertilize it or mow it, you owe the small fraternity of U.S. turfgrass breeders a big thanks. These are the folks that love working and improving the most valuable landscape plant in the United States. Without them, you’d be out of a job. Mitch Lies, a reporter who often […]

How do you steal 120 tons of road salt?

Tovar Snow Professionals, headquartered in the west Chicago suburb of Elgin, IL, recently discovered that somebody made off with 120 tons of road salt from its Aurora storage facility, according to the Chicago Tribune. That’s enough salt to fill six semi-trucks. The salt, as any snow management professional will tell you, has become an expensive […]

Florida landscaper decides to grow his own fuel

Tired of those high prices at the pump? Brian Shank, president of Clermont Scapes, a landscape company based in Groveland, FL, was. He says he’s planting a 22-acre crop of a desert-native plant known as jatropha to make biofuel for his equipment. According to an article posted at gas2.org, he figures he can get about […]

The unexpected kindness of strangers

Just about the time you’re thinking that everybody is out for themselves and don’t give a crap about anybody else, something happens to recharge your faith in people’s kindness and generosity. An article on tampabay.com by talented reporter Erin Sullivan brightened our day recently. Briefly: Joseph Prudente, a 66-year-old grandfather, was jailed without bail on […]

Cry for universal lawn care raised again during campaign

Columnist and University of North Carolina professor Mike Adams says that in spite of candidates’ promises, preventative lawn care remains out of reach for most American families. Will the winner of the approaching presidential election finally initiate a plan to make lawn care universally available? he asks. In part he writes: “Well we can’t afford […]

Bird feed could be spreading noxious weeds

Lots of Americas like to put out bird feed to attract song birds. What they probably don’t realize is that they could be helping to spread noxious weeds. No kidding. The Weed Science Society of America issued the news release below. In studies at Oregon State University, scientists examined 10 brands of wild bird feed […]

Americans entitled to government-funded lawn care?

Jon Delaney of Springfield, VA, in a recent letter to the Culpeper Star Exponent newspaper asked our national leaders in this election season to do something about the disgraceful situation of Americans being forced to provide their own lawn care. In part he wrote: “It is my belief that everyone who must perform lawn care […]

Spring-Green reaching clients with podcasts

Spring-Green, the Illinois-based, lawn care franchisor, is now offering podcasts containing information about seasonal landscape care — watering, mowing, raking leaves, shrub care, you name it. The most recent “Lawn Talk” podcast (click on the headline), features Harold Enger, the company’s director of training and support, offering autumn tree and lawn care advice. Enger has […]

What are neighbors for. . . .?

More than two years have passed since the city of London, in Canada’s Ontario Province, passed a bylaw to outlaw lawn pesticides. Several local professional lawn care service providers vigorously defended their right to use chemical products in this city of about 350,000 people that is located midway between Detroit and Toronto. In the end […]

NOXFOX tees up its mower emissions fix

The recently announced U.S. EPA rules to reduce emissions from small gasoline engines (under 25-hp) don’t go into effect until 2011 for lawn and garden equipment, but at least one company has already stepped forward to address the problem. Mempro Ceramics Corporation, based in Akron, OH, says its “revolutionary brand of catalytic filters” destroys pollutants […]

Stricter emission standards will raise costs of mowers

Expect to pay 18% more for your mowers once the new U.S. EPA emission rule for mowers with gasoline-powered engines under 25-hp takes effect in 2011, predicts the California Air Resources Board. That’s in addition to inflation, of course.The EPA announced earlier this month that all lawn and garden equipment of less than 25 hp […]

For sale: The White House Lawn on eBay

Want to buy a piece of the White House lawn? You can on eBay. A 1′-1′ parcel costs $10. You can buy larger parcels, up to and including a 10’x 10′ square. That will set you back $1,000. Not that FedEx or UPS is going to showi up at your front door with a box […]

Brickman Group, others fix up Ohio VFW landscape

The following article appeared in the Elyria (OH) Chronicle-Telegram on Aug. 31. The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1079 received an overdue landscape upgrade from the Brickman Groups’ Cleveland West office in Avon, a project employees completed as the company’s annual Founders Day Project. Post Commander Gene O’Quinn reached out to Brickman, and employees responded […]

Mosquitoes unfazed by non-treatments

If you’re a business owner and you see an attractive, confident young lady dressed in business attire purposefully striding your way with tv cameraman in tow, that’s probably not good news. That’s what the management of a New York lawn and tree company discovered when television reporter Tappy Phillips showed up. It seems the owner […]

Neat blog in Spanish by a Puerto Rican pro

Raul Feliciano,CLM, is a landscape pro in Puerto Rico that knows his stuff. A college graduate, he has a certificate in Commercial Horticulture/Landscape Management from the NY Botanical Garden. He’s also the author of the only blog on his lovely island that’s devoted to horticulture. (At least the only one we’re aware of, that is.) […]

Cacti rustlers target Palm Desert, CA

Cactus rustling isn’t new to the arid Southwest. Folks have been lifting beautiful specimen plants from public lands for a long, long time, and it’s very difficult to control. Recently it’s been making news in upscale Palm Desert, CA. Thieves are targeting cacti planted on city properties, in resorts, on golf courses and just about […]

Murray’s blog tells how he built the Olympic baseball fields

Murray Cook has one of the most interesting jobs in the world. He travels the globe installing baseball fields and teaching other people how to install and maintain baseball fields. This year he’s been spending a lot of his time in Beijing. When you watch the Olympic baseball competition you will be seeing Cook’s handiwork […]

Thievery is always a concern in this business

The Kitsap (WA) Sun newspaper reported on a strange theft the other day. A landscaper there reported that the 50 two-gallon barberry plants he installed on a property on Aug. 4 were dug up and stolen by the next day. Shortly after replanting them he discovered that 40 of that second batch of shrubs had […]

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