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Author: Landscape Management

Says Brandy: "The check is in the mail"

I’ don’t who the singer Brandy is or why she is famous. Anyway, I thought some recent publicity involving Brandy was kind of funny, at least the responses to the story about her and a landscaper appearing on a Web site. A couple of days ago it was reported that Raymond Soriano Landscape filed a […]

It’s a gas, gas, gas

We’re finally reaching that tipping point when it comes to fuel prices, that point where we finally change our driving and vehicle-buying habits. I’m seeing it at the park & ride where I catch the express bus into downtown Cleveland. There used to lots of extra parking spaces at the Westlake Park & Ride, even […]

King of the backhoe operators

I’ve always been in awe of these guys who can operate big, powerful construction equipment likes it’s easiest thing in the world. It could be a big Cat’ dozer or crane or bucket loader, but they jockey these big, powerful units like nothing could be simpler. And for them (wind- and sun-creased, hardhard at a […]

Ahhh, spring…when lawn care rules

Grasscycling “new” again What is old is suddenly new again. Remember the “Grasscycling” push put on by the Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA) in the late 1980s and early 1990s? The point of the initiative was to convince homeowners and lawn maintenance pros not to bag their grassclippings and not to truck the […]

One tough "Mole"

I don’t often write about products in this blog. In fact, I don’t think I ever have — until now. What I want to tell you about is a product so simple (and potentially so useful) that it blew me away at the recent California Landscape Contractors Association Trade Show and Conference in LA. The […]

Physically fittest lawn business owners ever?

Robert Johnson and his wife, Cia, started up their own lawn mowing business this year in Columbia, MO. The name of the company is “The Green Team”. They advertise an “environmentally friendly” brand of lawn service. I’ll say. They transport their mowing equipment to job sites via a bicycle pulling an 8-t. cargo trailer. They […]

"The Tea Leaf", one of my favorite enewsletters

Check out Jeff Thredgold’s enewsletter on his Web site http://www.thredgold.com/index.html. Jeff is an economist and also one of the most entertaining speakers you’ll ever get a chance to hear. (I’ve heard him speak on two occasions.) He also produces a fun enewsletter entitled “The Tea Leaf” (it’s free) that provides a weekly look at the […]

While cruising YouTube I found Ruppert clips

Under the category of “No Good Deed Should Go Unpunished . . .oops, make that Unappreciated”, I inform you of some good work being done by folks many of us know, or know of — Craig Ruppert and longtime associate Chris Davitt, both of Maryland-based Ruppert Nurseries. I found out about these deeds while cruising […]

Is this any way to treat a granny?

Bizarre (but real) news from the whacky world of lawns. This past Monday, Feb. 12, grandmother Betty Perry agreed to a last-minute deal with the City of Orem, UT, resulting from her arrest in July 2007. It seems the city was unhappy with Grandma Perry because she hadn’t kept her lawn up to its standards. […]

The Cabaret candidate of Super Tuesday

While I’m sure there’s many of you out there who are interested in the upcoming presidential election, I realize many of you weren’t able to stay up late last night to watch returns coming in from the Super Tuesday Republican and Democratic primaries. Since I have no life and did, I figured I’d give you […]

Rattin’ out your neighbors

If you’re going to put down some weed & feed on your front yard in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, you better do it in the dead of the night. Make it a moonless night. You better be quiet, too. Otherwise, somebody (a neighbor perhaps?) might turn you in to the dreaded pesticide police and you’ll get […]

Don’t get stuck holding the bag for work done

Things aren’t so hot for property developers right now. In fact, they look pretty scary. It seems a big developer in Indianapolis has run into some tough times, which is probably an understatement seeing as how it reportedly owes contractors a lot of money for the work they’ve done. One of those contractors is The […]

We bring you good tidings

Here’s some nice things I ran across over the holidays. I hope they make you smile. FIRST OF THE YEARChristopher and Crystal Childers got a nice present but it was a little late for Christmas. Their 9-lb. baby boy, David Matthew, who was supposed to have arrived a week or so earlier, showed up Jan. […]

What now? Smart Strategies to Survive and Perhaps Even Prosper in Spite of the Delay or Loss of H-2B Workers

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Strategies to survive and perhaps even prosper in spite of the delay or loss of H-2B workers

What no circus this year because of H-2B stalemate?

Wow, this is weird. Because Congress has failed to act on extending the exemption to H-2B, circuses say they’ll be unable to bring in immigrant acrobats and other performers for their U.S. tours. At least one circus is not taking to the road this summer, because of this, reports the Paris (TX) News. I take […]

A Christmas dinner of tamales and beans

I don’t how many of you got out of bed Christmas morning thankful to get a free meal of tamales, rice and beans, but apparently there were more than a few in Bakersfield, CA. I’m guessing most of the folks that turned out for the free food were down on their luck, perhaps even homeless. […]

Sane solution to immigration mess?

I don’t know Michael Lesser and have never met him. But he wrote an article in the Portsmouth Herald, which I accessed via Seacoast Online, and I was struck by his thoughts concerning our nation’s immigration mess. His suggestions would (it seems to me anyway) provide a starting point in the contentious debate separating business […]

Throw the rascals out

To say that I’ve become increasingly cynical of the ability of our federal government, or any of its various bureaucracies, to deliver efficient and sane service to the citizens of this nation is to grossly underestimate my growing dismay. From the screw-ups in Iraq to Katrina and including the ongoing blatant partisanship, posturing and petty […]

Just more political posturing

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney fired his landscape company after reporters from the Boston Globe discovered that the company continued to maintain his property with the help of illegal immigrants. The same issue arose just over one year ago. At the time, Romney had a discussion with the company, Community Lawn Service of Chelsea, MA, […]

Another take on the Congo furor

A narrow alley separated our two houses, and for years our neighbors kept a dog in their back yard. It was a cross between a beagle and a rottweiler, a 70-lb., black-and-white spotted creature that rushed to the chain link fence and barked and snarled whenever anybody in our family went into our backyard, our […]

"Set Congo free! Set Congo free!"

Kelly Heyboer on blog.nj shows just how strongly people feel about Congo, probably the most famous German Shepherd since Rin Tin Tin. Congo remains in death-row limbo after chewing up a landscape worker last summer. A lot of people are blogging that it’s time to free Congo. Viva Congo! If you want to see a […]

Outsmarting some very clever squirrels

There are a lot of big red squirrels in my neighborhood. I don’t know how many because they all look alike to me. Actually, there could just be a couple of very active squirrels. How would I know? Like I said, one big red squirrel looks pretty much like another to me.Generally, I don’t mind […]

Murder in Monterrey

There’s a right way to do things and a wrong way. Or, in the case of immigrant workers, there’s the legal way and the illegal way. Santiago Cruz, who spent three years working in North Carolina, was working for the legal way. It’s believed it cost him his life. He was brutally murdered. Colleagues are […]

Formula 1 mower

While landscapers now have some pretty cool-looking zero-turn mowers to zip around lawns on, when it comes time for some of the detailed work, the trusty old push mower is still pretty boring. Until now. Here’s a concept mower that will have you mowing like an F1 racer. Check out the whole story from this […]

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