When it comes to household matters, I’ve never considered myself to be particularly handy.
I’m not a complete disaster, mind you. I’ve installed a few ceiling fans, done some basic plumbing work, even built a wall of wooden storage shelves in my basement that have stood the test of time. But if you’re looking for someone who is going to eagerly dive into a kitchen remodel or try to rewire a bedroom, I’m not your guy.
On the occasions when I have tried something a little more adventurous, I’ve leaned heavily into the world of crowdsourcing. When I replaced the alternator on my daughter’s 2001 Toyota Highlander, for example, I bugged the heck out of a few buddies who do know their way around cars with a few YouTube videos thrown in for good measure. And wouldn’t you know it … that new alternator worked like a charm until that 20-plus-year-old Highlander finally went to that great car lot in the sky.
My faith in the collective and the power of shared knowledge has extended into my professional life and the pages of the magazines I’ve managed. During my years in the golf course management business (the statute of limitations says I can keep mentioning that for a few more months), I always marveled at how willing superintendents were to share what they knew and what they had learned with their colleagues. I’d see it on social media and at big industry events, and I tried to infuse that same ethos into the pages of my old magazine by using as many superintendents as authors as I could.
So you can imagine how pumped I was when I started with Landscape Management and learned this industry operated with a similar philosophy. It was clear that just like in the golf maintenance world, sharing was caring in landscaping and lawn care.
I’ve seen folks sharing war stories and tips and tricks at events I’ve been lucky enough to attend, such as Jeffrey Scott’s Summer Growth Summit and Aspire Software’s Ignite 2024 event. I’ve learned about the popularity and value that peer groups can deliver. There are also countless educational and networking opportunities at the industry’s big events, including Equip Exposition, which we feature yet again in this issue of LM.
I was equally fired up when I discovered my new colleagues here were way ahead of me in following a game plan that leaned heavily upon landscape and lawn care practitioners to guide and participate in the content you find here every month. That’s certainly not a revolutionary approach to plotting an editorial course for a magazine such as LM, but it’s an important one if your goal is to produce the most relevant, informative magazine that you can every month, so I was psyched that my new colleagues here had the same passion for that approach as I did.
That approach manifests itself every month in popular features such as our Recommender, where we turn to the professionals to tell us about the tools that are helping them get the job done every day. It could be a new feature on a popular line of mowers, an improved fertilizer to hit the market or a technological advance in a compact excavator. This month, for example, we dive into the world of water and share end-user feedback on drip irrigation and its future in the industry.
You’ll also see that approach in the cover stories and big features that will dominate future issues. For December LM, we’re asking for your help in sharing some of your favorite products from 2024 for our Pro’s Toolbox feature (you can send those my way at shollister@northcoastmedia.net). And we’re hoping you’ll take part in a short survey that will hit your inboxes soon for the magazine’s annual report on the state of the industry that you’ll read about in our January edition.
Just like I rely on others to ensure occasional small victories in the world of car repair and home improvement, we hope you’ll continue to rely on LM and the professionals we feature in these pages to help your business get the job done better, faster and more profitably.
