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Author: Marisa Palmieri

Marisa Palmieri

Marisa Palmieri

Marisa Palmieri is an experienced Green Industry editor who's won numerous awards for her coverage of the landscape and golf course markets from the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA), the Press Club of Cleveland and the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE). In 2007, ASBPE named her a Young Leader. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, cum laude, from Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism.

Uber for the Green Industry

“Do you know what Uber is?” I’ve found myself asking people that question often over the last few months as I’ve worked on the cover story for this issue of LM. No, not uber, the German word for “over.” Uber, with a capital U. If you’re not in the know: Uber is a smartphone app […]

Mobile technology at your fingertips could change your business

How Uber-like mobile technology could change the way you find, communicate with and bill customers. When Bryan Clayton owned Peach Tree Landscapes, it focused on commercial maintenance. The Nashville, Tenn.-based firm didn’t offer residential mowing. That’s why his staff always kept a list of other landscape companies by the phone to give referrals to homeowners […]

1-Minute Mentor: Bruce Allentuck

President of Allentuck Landscaping Co., Clarksburg, Md. Who’s your mentor? I’d have to say my dad. I’m always better off when I listen to him compared to when I don’t. How did you get your start? I’ve always liked working outside. I did this work in high school, like most people in the industry. I […]

PLANET volunteers return to Arlington National Cemetery

Grasshopper Lawns in Larksville, Pa., has been participating in the Professional Landcare Network’s (PLANET’s) Renewal & Remembrance event for 18 years — since the inaugural year. The event, which took place July 28 this year, is a beautification effort in which landscape industry volunteers from around the U.S. gather for a day to apply lime […]

Green Industry generosity

It’s 6 a.m. on Friday, June 20. I pour a cup of coffee and sit down at my kitchen counter to check my email on my smartphone like I do on all workdays. It’s probably a bad habit, I realize, but I like to clear out the clutter so it’s not waiting for me when […]

LM150 Lessons Learned: Q&A

What do you know now that you wish you knew then? “I would have hired managers from outside the industry earlier.” –Keith Rotolo, senior vice president/owner, Rotolo Consultants (RCI) “The hardest challenge for any business owner is to let go and trust others to do tasks that you might not think they can do as well. It took […]

LM150 Lessons Learned: Don’t ignore attacks on the industry

No. 113 Lawn Dawg Nashua, N.H. Seventeen years ago, Jim Campanella was ready to branch out on his own after working for various lawn care companies in New England. In late 1996, TruGreen acquired Barefoot Grass, where he was the New England regional manager. The company offered him a job in Portland, Maine, but that […]

LM150 Lessons Learned: Embrace your mistakes. Plus, a few tips

No. 22 NaturaLawn of America Frederick, Md. With 64 branches and sales nearing $46 million, the NaturaLawn of America franchise system has a thing or two to share about growing a business. Phil Catron, president and founder, has been in the industry since the 1970s, working for large and small lawn care companies before starting […]

LM150 Lessons Learned: Consistent marketing matters

No. 100 Engledow Group Carmel, Ind. It’s common for company marketing efforts to go in fits and starts, especially when there’s multiple people manning the effort. That’s been the case for the 82-year-old Engledow Group, operated today by second- and third-generation Engledow family members. There were periods where marketing played a big role, says Marketing […]

Project EverGreen volunteers green up Liberty Island

The Statue of Liberty is famously green, with her oxidized copper patina. But one part of Liberty Island, where the monument sits, was in need of a green up, due to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. On June 10 more than 30 volunteers coordinated by Project EverGreen, a national non-profit organization that […]

Guided learning in the landscape industry

It’s been said many times that there are no shortcuts to success. Yet, it’s graduation season, a time when universities and high schools (heck, even kindergartens) parade in well-known speakers to impart wisdom upon their graduates. Many of these speeches draw upon the life experiences of the presenter and offer knowledge from a learn-from-my-mistakes perspective. […]

Houzz & Home Survey shows boost in renovations

Houzz unveiled findings from its third Houzz & Home Survey, including homeowners are optimistic about the housing market, which is driving renovations. The annual study covers historical and planned projects, the motivations behind these projects and the impact of the economy on home remodeling, building and decorating plans. The research yielded data at the national, […]

1-Minute Mentor: Chuck Carr

Business development manager, commercial maintenance Pierre Landscape, Simi Valley, Calif. Who’s your mentor? The first guy I worked for in the landscape industry, Mark Jordan. That was 21 years ago when I started with Jordan Landscape in North Hills, Calif. From him I learned basically everything about the business. I went in doing sales and marketing, […]

Getting schooled: Numbers behind the largest 150 firms in the landscape industry

A look at the numbers behind the largest 150 firms in the landscape and lawn care industry. The Green Industry’s largest 150 firms, ranked by annual revenue, grossed a total of $7,668,025,804 in 2013 sales. That’s a 0.2 percent drop from last year’s list, despite the list’s bottom threshold bumping up to nearly $7.6 million […]

What I’m Reading Wednesday: Where are the workers?

A survey released last month by the National Federation of Independent Businesses indicates small business optimism is improving, but the levels are still not high enough to show the economy is expanding. “Small Business Optimism Improves, But Don’t Get Too Excited” NFIB The NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism increased 1.8 points from last month […]

Q&A: Brickman, ValleyCrest CEOs address merger

Earlier this week, the Brickman Group and ValleyCrest Cos. officials put a month of rumors to rest when they said they would merge, creating a nearly $2 billion company with a national footprint and offices on two coasts. The companies, based in Rockville, Md., and Calabasas, Calif., respectively, are the two largest landscape service providers […]

What I’m Reading Wednesday: Immigration reform talk rears its head

Immigration reform is a perennial issue for the landscape industry. The promise of Congress passing a comprehensive bill to address the nation’s broken immigration system doesn’t come about very often, but it reared its head again this week. Obama: 2-3 months for immigration reform Politico Earlier this week President Obama said legislators on Capitol Hill […]

May 2014 Web Extra: Lawn Cure’s SQA program

When Patrick Hawkins left corporate America to join his wife’s family’s lawn care company, he brought with him a few tactics from his previous career. (See the May 2014 cover story, “New direction,” for more on Hawkins and others in their second-act careers.) One of them is a Service Quality Audit (SQA) program, used to […]

What I’m Reading Wednesday: Any business regrets?

Work is well underway for the 2014 LM150 list, to be published in June. It’s our annual report of the industry’s largest companies, ranked by annual revenue. Our theme for this year’s coverage is “lessons learned,” and we’re identifying those lessons by asking CEOs on the list, “Knowing what you know now, what what would […]

Who is talking about the collective landscape industry?

Are your ears ringing? They should be. People are talking about the collective landscape industry, and it’s a good thing. Who do I mean? Investors at private equity firms like KKR, which bought the Brickman Group last year for $1.6 billion. KKR also is reportedly in talks to acquire ValleyCrest Cos. for around a billion […]

New direction

How landscape and lawn care pros use strategies from their first careers to improve their Green Industry operations. F or years, every Monday morning Bruce Ward boarded a plane from Columbus, Ohio, to Philadelphia to commute to his job as senior director of oncology sales for pharmaceutical company Cephalon. He’d fly home Thursday night either to […]

photo: Nufarm

5 tricks for bed weed control applications

Brickman’s Joe Ketterer shares five pointers for lawn care applicators to increase efficiency with landscape bed weed control.  When it comes to effective and efficient application techniques for landscape bed weed control, Joe Ketterer has a few shortcuts up his PPE-approved, long-sleeved shirt. Ketterer, a certified pesticide applicator with a bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture […]

What I’m Reading Wednesday: Good news on landscape company sales, profits

The landscape industry has received some interesting outsider attention over the past week. For starters is The Financial Times article about a potential merger between the industry’s two largest players: ValleyCrest Cos. and the Brickman Group. (Read our follow-up report on this topic with industry members’ reactions here.) Next comes a report from financial information […]

logo: Brickman and ValleyCrest

What a merger could mean

With reports swirling of a blockbuster deal that could merge the ValleyCrest Cos. with the Brickman Group—forming a nearly $2 billion national landscape company—landscape contractors and consultants are weighing in on the likelihood the deal will go through and what it could mean for the rest of the market. “KKR has plenty of money to […]

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