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Author: Landscape Management

Hillary our next Prez?

Just got back from an event in Washington D.C. sponsored by BASF The Chemical Company. A nice affair that featured Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of “The Cook Political Report” as a dinner speaker. Charlie’s as quick as a whip and he gets a devilish delight in reporting on the whispers in the corridors and […]

Those pesky pesky pesticides

Here’s a news flash that both stuns and enlightens — Chemists at the Colorado School of Mines recently announced that they discovered pesticides in tobacco smoke. Apparently the pesticides got there because farmers use them to grow tobacco. The big news, at least from the chemists’ point of view is that this is the first […]

This book means ‘business’

“Business Principles of Landscape Contracting” is a practical book on the “business” of running a landscape company. It’s a “must have” for young managers or owners that are relatively new to running their own show since its focus is on business and systems and not on the technical details of how to install or maintain […]

Unionized guest workers? You betcha!

Global Horizons, a big labor recruiter based in Los Angeles, signed an agreement with the United Farm Workers of America to improve wages, benefits and working conditions for the H-2A seasonal ag guest workers it brings into the United States. This is believed to be the first agreement of its kind involving a guest worker […]

Fake grass has fascinating history

Remember AstroTurf? Of course, you do. In fact, the trade name became so well known that an entire generation used it to describe synthetic turf in general. Well AstroTurf is back. In fact, it probably never went away but you don’t hear it mentioned often because of the more aggressive marketing by other synthetic turf […]

I wonder what would happen if . . .

I wonder what would happen if I sneaked into, say, southern France (I’ve heard that’s a swell place to live) and I started marching around the streets, waving an American flag and demanding that the government there not only allow me to stay, but provide me with health care and other social services but in […]

U.S., Mexico, Canada — one big country?

Ultra-conservative Joseph Farah, founder and editor WorldNetDaily, claims there are 20 to 30 million “illegals” in the United States and that the Council on Foreign Relations has a plan to merge the United States, Mexico and Canada within the decade. He says President Bush’s efforts to get a Guest Worker program in place are steps […]

OK, here’s the deal with immigration reform

How did things get so out of control with this immigration mess? It didn’t happen overnight that’s for sure. It didn’t happen by accident either. It happened for a reason. Or maybe many reasons, most of them being political and economic. So, what do do? Actually, the better question is what CAN we do? Realistically […]

Immigration not just a landscapers’ issue

If you haven’t seen it yet, this week’s edition of the satirical news Web site The Onion had its own take on the national immigration debate taking place. — Mike Seuffert

Home gardening interest falling

The National Gardening Association has been tracking the lawn and garden market for more than 25 years, and is not happy with the trends it’s seen lately. The garden business has essentially stalled over the last two years. The NGA says that three of four households in the United States (80 million households) have participated […]

Control the border, pay more?

“People have dual interests,” says Jared Bernstein, an economist speaking about the immigration reform debate now before Congress. “Ask them, do you want your lawn to be mowed as cheaply as possible? They’ll say yes. Ask if they want to control the border. They’ll say yes. Ask them if controlling the borders means they’re willing […]

So it’s not your job. So what!

The other day as I’m getting on the bus at the Park & Ride and hoping like all get out that nobody gets on the back seat so that I can take a nap on the way to the office (more room back there) I look over at the nice motels across the way from […]

Fuel costs squeezing us real bad

There’s only one law that can never be broken, other than by silly government intervention that is. And that law is the law of supply and demand. It’s so simple to understand, so vital to our capitalistic system and now so painful as gasoline prices bumped up over $2.75 a gallon today. Friends, can $3-a-gallon […]

Hey Mr. Lawn Historian, lighten’ up

A friend forwarded me a news release announcing the publication of a new book by Ted Steinberg, an historian at Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH. The name of the book is “American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn.” Mr. Steinberg is not a big fan of lawn care. Let me repeat that. […]

Quit your peeing and moaning

Spent a couple of days in Monterrey, Mexico, a week ago and you won’t hear any whining about work from this corner, not as long as the memories of what I saw there remain strong. And what I saw were hundreds of Mexican workers lining up at the U.S. consulate there, waiting and hoping to […]

Pesticides in streams all the rage

The U.S. Geological Survey released a study this past Friday saying that pesticides have been found in almost all the nation’s rivers and streams, and newspapers from coast to coast have been reporting like it’s a big deal. It’s not. But you wouldn’t know it from the headlines. Here’s a couple. “Pesticides permeate U.S. waters” […]

Here’s more powerful ammo for you

We all know that well-designed, well-maintained landscapes provide incredible paybacks to property owners in lots of different ways. Or we think we know that. Or we give the impression that we know that. Or, at least that’s what we tell ourselves and our customers. . . . But do we really know that? A sharp […]

Want a great turf talking point? Go here!

If you’re in the lawn care business, you gotta check out the following URL. It is DYE-NO-MITE information! http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/Lawn/printall.php You can thank me later. — Ron Hall

Fee, Fi, Foe . . . Dumb

Here’s a doozie. Tell me what you think. The city of Lake Forest, IL, recently came up with the idea of charging fees to all landscapers that work in the city — $600 for a Class 3 license, $300 for a Class 2 license and $200 for a Class 1 license. Apparently the weight of […]

. . .and while we’re in Florida

I saw the following scenario play out years earlier in Southern California. A lot of the people that work there, especially people working in low-paying service industry jobs, can’t afford to live there. Many employers, including landscape company owners, count on their south-of-the-border workers to serve their customers. These workers (yes, they’re legal) leave their […]

Tall grass means big, big fine

A guy in the south Florida village of Wellington got hammered with a $6,500 fine for letting the grass in a lot he owns grow too tall. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper reports that the stay-at-home dad had hired a contractor to cut the grass once a month, but the contractor didn’t show up in […]

Turf war lines lawyers’ pockets

You’ve got to wonder how things get to such a sorry state. What I’m referring to is a lawsuit and a resulting countersuit involving a homeowners association in Tampa, FL, and one of the resident homeowners. It seems the homeowner wasn’t maintaining his lawn. Or at least not to the satisfaction of the HOA board, […]

Silverdome, site of MSU turf triumph, closing

, and

When the facility closes for football on Feb. 25, its new synthetic turf field, installed for Super Bowl practices, will be donated to a Pontiac high school

Time to do it again

Hey friends, it’s that time again — time to let your U.S. representatives and senators know what you think about the H-2B Seasonal Guest Worker program. On Tuesday, Feb. 14, Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) and Judd Gregg (R-NH) and other senators introduced legislation to extend the Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act through 2009. […]

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