I write this realizing it is by pure luck that I happen to be a sports fan living in northeast Kansas in the 2020s: When you’re a Kansas City Chiefs fan, March Madness gets here fast. I say that because the Chiefs have been playing so deep into the NFL season these last few years (how about that Super Bowl LVIII victory!) that when their season ends, you take a breath, and suddenly it’s March Madness and time for the NCAA basketball tournaments.
As a sports nut, it’s a fun time of year. As one of the dozen or so people who help create Landscape Management magazine, it’s an exciting time of year because I know what March means to our readers. 2024 is right there in front of us and now it is really getting started.
I dropped my son off at school this morning and as I drove through town, I saw a Ryan Lawn & Tree truck pulling out of a neighborhood and I got excited. I wondered if that was my friendly lawn care operator, Boston Champagne (such a great name), and how soon he’d be pulling into my driveway. (And how’s that for timing? 30 minutes after I wrote the previous sentence, he pulled in.)
It’s that time of year and the team here at LM wish you all the best of luck for the upcoming season. Know that while you’re busy taking care of your clients, we’ll be here continuing to take care of you, our readers, reporting on the industry and keeping you updated on all the latest happenings.
And now, on to the magazine that you hold in your hands, or have on your screen:
- This issue includes our first-ever Equipment Purchasing Guide. I hope you’ll find it useful and even interesting. I know I enjoyed meeting Tom and Tracie O’Brien for my story in that section and learning their story. If you have suggestions for how we can strengthen the Equipment Purchasing Guide in 2025, please let me know.
- Of note in this issue, it’s a good snapshot of where all LM has been over the last month. By my count, in just four weeks, we attended four events: Grow 2024! in Des Moines; SmartCon in Austin; LMN Mastermind Summit in Orlando; and a Conklin AgroVantage Lawn Care seminar in Kansas City. Right up front in the magazine, the LM Gallery shows some of the people we met and were lucky enough to hang out with while we were on the road. Our travel slows down a bit now that we’re in the growing season, but we’ll still see you at the next event. No other magazine gets on the road and covers the industry like Landscape Management.
- I’d like to shout out the following people for their hard work on the redesign of our website: Tami Liss, Joey Ciccolini, Danielle Pesta, Adam Greenwell, Julie Sweany, Bill Roddy, Michelle Mitchell, Brian Davis, Steve Galperin and Craig MacGregor. This crew put in a lot of hours (some of them even working a weekend) to improve our website. I hope you’ll take the time to check it out on your computer, phone or tablet. I don’t know the first thing about creating a better website, but I do know a great one when I see it — and they created a great one.
