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Author: Landscape Management

The LM 100 — Tell us what you really think

We get so many phone calls and e-mails about our annual LM 100 list. Some are good, some are bad and some are downright ugly. Seems there are some sharp opinions out there about the benchmarks that make a company a “good” company. We’re not taking sides. Trust us, we know first hand that revenue […]

Landscaper says "yabba dabba do"

Carey Dix, owner of Dix Landscaping, Jupiter, FL, was reunited with his 10-foot statue of Yogi Bear this past week. It seems that someone “borrowed” Yogi for a beer party on a nearby sandbar over the July 4th holiday weekend. Yogi, who had standing outside Dix’s business with a “Welcome to Jupiter” sign in one […]

Some good press for David J. Frank

David J. Frank jumped into the Green Industry as a 10-year-old with a gardening service on the east side of Milwaukee. In 1973 he moved his operation a short drive west to Germantown where property was less expensive. Good move David Frank. Thirty three years later he’s running a $25 million landscape company and developing […]

Post 4th exciting news

The fireworks are over, the barbeque grill is getting a much needed rest and the recycle container is filled with beer bottles (empty of course). Here’s some news that will keep the July 4th weekend excitement going. (OK, maybe that’s a bit over the top. But maybe you can use this next bit of information […]

Hey, what’s up with Mikulski’s amendment?

Please, somebody speak up and let us know what’s going on with the 3-year extension to the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act. U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) introduced the extension to Congress this past February and everybody got excited. In fact, many of us drafted letters and sent emails to Washington D.C., as […]

GIE-OPEI Trade Show merger a done deal

This year’s Green Industry Expo, the landscape trade show founded in 1990, will be the last GIE. At least as we’ve come to know it over the past 16 years. The GIE started as a collaborative effort among three, and then two associations – the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS), the Professional Lawn Care Network […]

Talk about a hot foot

Some of the methods that Mark Hecker used to kill weeds at the pesticide-free park in Lawrence, KS, have included a machine known as a Flamer that burns weeds in the cracks of sidewalks and a horticultural vinegar. The Flamer discolored the concrete, which stayed hot for another 15 or so minutes. The vinegar killed […]

Big Box mishandles pesticides; pays big fine

The Home Depot will pay a $425,000 fine and is changing the way it handles pesticides and fertilizers after being cited by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection, reported the Hartford Courant newspaper. The penalty includes a civil penalty of $99,000 and $326,000 that will go to a fund to educate other retailers in Connecticut […]

A really nice gesture

The Airforce Times magazine carried a recent article about Project Evergreen’s “GreenCare for Troops — Serving You While You Serve Us” program, which began May 22. In the program, lawn care companies provide free services to families of service members who deploy to the Middle East. Katherine Brandenburg of Swanson Russell in Lincoln, NB, has […]

O.J. and seed field days

Can it be 12 years and a day since the bodies of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found in the courtyard of Nicole’s condo in Brentwood. The murders initiated one of the most bizarre chapters in U.S. legal history, the O.J. Simpson trial. It doesn’t seem that long ago (6/17/94 to be exact) […]

Wow, this is brazen

Even with security at maximum level because of a visit by President Bush earlier this week, someone drove off with landscaper Lee Helmberger’s pickup and trailer, which contained three mowers and other maintenance equipment. And they did it in broad daylight, reports the the Omaha, NB, NBC affiliate, Channel 6. Helmberger told Channel 6 that […]

Florida city ‘certifying’ lawn service companies

Environmental stewardship is becoming a huge issue in the landscape industry. It will grow. All of us are going to have to realize this. Yes, I know that what we do enhances the urban environments that receive our services. But we live within a bigger world than just the lawns we treat or the properties […]

It’s been dry in merry old England

One government agency in England recently said that, per head, there is more water in some parts of Sudan than there is in London. Parts of England are suffering through their driest 18 months in a 70-year spell. Water restrictions have popped up all over the country, with many gardeners forbidden from turning on their […]

Just how many would show up?

Some big numbers are being thrown around about how many legal immigrants might be coming to the United States and becoming red-blooded Americans (just like the rest of us) if the Senate’s immigration bill (S. 2611) becomes law. Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, says that if the bill became law […]

Vicious baby groundhog attacks landscaper

An English springer spaniel named Wanda saved a female landscaper from a painful ordeal the last week of May. According to a report in the Weston Forum (CT) newspaper, the landscaper (unnamed in the article) was working in the backyard of a client’s property when she felt scratching on the back of one of her […]

Got a job you wouldn’t do?

In a refreshingly lighthearted look at the current comprehensive immigration reform debate, Santa Monica Mirror writer Steve Stajich writes a column this week on “Jobs This American Won’t Do.” It’s funny, not political, and it’ll make you mentally create your own list of “thanks, but no thanks” jobs. Mashed potato scooper? Thanks, but uh … […]

Tragedy shows even long-timers need safety reminders

Two recent incidents involving landscape workers underscore the continuing need for safety reminders. This is true even among veteran landscapers. Jesus Samaguey, 55, died when the mower he was operating in Dublin, CA, started sliding on wet grass on a steep incline and turned over on him just before noon May 17. The incident is […]

We’re not there yet but . . .

We have the means to reduce illegal immigration using technology. Already some folks are talking about bio-metric identification cards. There are even more sophisticated ways to track things, including people. Radio-frequency identification (RFID) is here. Most of us don’t know much about it. As we learn more about it we will be astonished and, perhaps, […]

Why all the crime?

You’ve heard me mention Google alerts before: The system at google.com where you can set up news alerts on specific topics to be delivered to your e-mail inbox every day. One of my key words is “landscaper” and in the last few weeks, every Google alert for that topic has returned a list of headlines […]

Goofy journalism — you be the judge

This morning’s Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper carried a front page article with these “facts” (among others) regarding lawn care. 7 million — approximate number of birds that die each year as a result of lawn-care pesticides 17 million — gallons of gasoline spilled by Americans every summer in the process of refueling their lawn mowers, […]

TruGreen invades the UK

TruGreen is now in UK in a big way with 60 lawn care franchises and many more on the way. There are an estimated 20 million gardens in the UK, but lawns there are much smaller than lawns in the United States. The TG franchise owners use small vans to deliver their lawn care services. […]

Stupid mower tricks

About 80,000 people suffer lawn mower-related injuries annually in the United States. The most common types are objects being flung out by the blades and stiking somebody, serious cuts, sliced off toes, etc. A buddy of mine, back about 15 years ago, while maintaining an apartment complex, backed a riding mower over his two-year-old son. […]

Medical researchers: 80,000 injuries a year attributed to moweraccidents

, and

Between 1996 and 2004, more than 660,000 people went to the ER withlawn mower injuries

We didn’t make this up

The folks in London, Ontario, Canada, have been in a furious debate concening the use of lawn care chemicals. Some people want to ban their use and many people do not. Caught in the middle is the city council. This same scenario has played ou all over Canada these past few years and just when […]

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