J-1 visas and student workers just don't cut it

I read with great interest a recent article in the Vineland (MA) Gazette that told how businesses on Martha’s Vineyard are surviving in spite of not getting all the H-2B seasonal guest workers they wanted.

The headline suggested that the businesses have been able to hire enough employees for the tourist season in spite of failure of Congress to expand the H=2B program. And in spite of a chamber of commerce official saying that local businesses were anticipating a shortage of about 1,200 workers this summer.

Martha’s Vineyard, of course, is one of America’s busiest and most popular summer resorts.

As I scanned the headline I wondered, wow, am I missing something here? Could my landscape friends be overstating their need for seasonal workers? Could it be that the H-2B program, as some its critics whine, takes jobs away from our young people and other U.S. citizens desiring employment?

Nobody wants to see that, right?

As it turns out, neither is the case. And, the H-2B critics are, in fact, just whining.

The article described how some of the island businesses acquired workers through J-1 visas that allow foreign students to work seasonally in the United States. Others hired local students (mostly high schoolers) for jobs such as bussing tables, cleaning guest rooms, etc.

We’ve talked to a lot of landscape business owners these past few years and while many are doing fine with local help, many others have had little or no success attracting reliable local workers, students or otherwise. Often, again in the face of criticism of the H-2B program, at wages considerably better than those at a fast food joint.

Let me just state — the J-1 program doesn't work for landscape production because these foreign students generally take off in September or October, just when most landscape companies have recovered their costs and are ready to burn rubber in hopes of making their profit for the season.

Local high students, you say? How many do you know that aren’t involved with summer sports, band or working in internships? Darn few are willing to work five or six long hot days in a row through the course of a season. That’s what I’m told.

The J-1 program works fine for amusement parks and tee-shirt shacks that are busy during the relatively short summer season. After Labor Day these businesses generally don’t need as much help so they don’t mind if these workers take off.

The landscape business is a longer, harder pull. It takes a tougher worker, and a worker that shows up long before the summer tourists arrive and is still producing through most of the fall.

The H-2B seasonal guest worker program remains one of the few programs instituted and administered by our federal government that actually works just as intended. Too bad it isn’t being expanded. — Ron Hall

Sticking to his guns on an unpopular issue

Dan Gardner is a columnist for the Ottawa Citizen newspaper. To my knowledge Dan’s salary is not tied in any way to the agrichemical industry, and I suspect that the newspaper he works for is not dependent upon that same industry for advertising revenue. I can’t say that’s the case categorically since I don’t read the Ottawa Citizen.

Several weeks ago Gardner wrote a column essentially saying that he was satisfied with the findings of a Health Canada review finding that “ there is reasonable certainty that no harm to human health, future generations or the environment will result from use of exposure” to 2,4-D. That herbicide, of course, has been subjected to more studies than just about any other chemical product you can think of the past 60 years or so since it’s discovery.

Gardner’s column apparently prompted a “deluge” of emails, from people opposed to the use of pesticides, including herbicide 2,4-D. Rather than retreat from his stance in the face of so negative response, he came back with a second column on the subject Saturday, June 7. The column offers a reasoned explanation of why he feels the way he does about this particular issue.

My hat is off to Dan Gardner, not as much for his defense of a particular product or class of products but for being honest with himself and his readers. He didn’t let the unfavorable response to what he wrote change what he feels to be true.

Click on the headline if you want to read what Dan Gardner wrote on June 6.

City's refusal to ban pesticides just delays the inevitable

In the category of man bites dog in light of the near hysteria over lawn pesticide use that’s infected Canada, the council of Parry Sound, Ontario, turned down a proposal to ban the use of pesticides. The Parry Sound mayor cast the deciding vote.

It seems that skunks and other critters have been tearing up the city’s cemetery looking for grubs, and the city director of operations wants to knock out the grubs with an insecticide. To appease one particularly persistent pesticide critic, who was quoted in the local Beacon Star News as saying, “:I guess we have to control every aspect of our environment and make it as pristine as possible,” (Hey amigo, it’s a cemetery, so lighten up), the city apparently has agreed to try nematodes to control grubs at the town beach.

I don’t know what the rush is to enact a pesticide ban in Parry Sound or any other city or village in Ontario anyway. What’s the point? It's all but certain that the entire province, including Parry Sound, will have a ban on the so-called “cosmetic use” of pesticides on lawns in 2009.

As a point of reference, Parry Sound is a delightful city of about 15,000 people on beautiful Georgian Bay a 2-hour drive north of Toronto, Ontario.

Clean Air Lawn Care getting killer press

Clean Air Lawn Care looks like it might take off. The lawn service company, which is based in Fort Collins, CO, uses electric and biodiesel-fueled equipment to run its equipment. Its maintenance equipment is charged during the day by solar panels mounted on its trucks and at night with conventional energy.

The company has been getting great press wherever it appears and it's starting to appear outside outside of its home base in Colorado. The company began offering franchises just last year.

If you're looking for a way to break into the maintenance market and you need a positive marketing hook, you may have found it, assuming you live in a place that gets a fair amount of sunshine. Or you keep some incredibly long extension cords in your service vehicle. (OK, I'm kidding about the cords.)

While I love the concept, I found the company's Web site, www.cleanairlawncare.com tough to navigate, but you may think it's neat. You can click on the headline to check out the Web site yourself. Go to the news section at the top of the site and see the kind of press it's getting. You might want to see if a franchise has made an appearance in your region yet, too. - Ron Hall

Better dead than in the red

Residents of Corona, CA are asking their city leaders to raise landscaping fees. In fact they're trying to force the city into action. Apparently aan earlier effort to raise the fees was voted down. Instead of paying for extra maintenance, the city chose to let grass discolor and die.

Some residents weren't happy with that solution so they began collecting signatures to force a revote.

According to the article on The Press-Enterprise Web site, "Corona will begin phasing in more drought tolerant plants and installing more efficient irrigation systems to keep costs down if the voters approve the rate hike. If the voters reject the increase, then the city will begin reducing its level of landscape maintained to close the funding gap."

For the complete story click here.

Landscape thieves nab shrubs, gas

Several homes in Mukwonago, WI, have been targeted by thieves who are making away with trees, flowers and shrubs.

According to Newsradio 620 in Wisconsin: Elsie Roth had her newly planted tress, shrubs and flowers dug up and stolen. 25 holes were found all around Roth's condo complex.

"Just a little bit surprised," Roth said.  "This is something unusual. I don't know of any other time someone has taken landscaping out of the ground right after it's been planted."

If that’s not enough, we have a report from Vancouver, WA, where a fuel tank at a landscaping company was targeted. Thieves got away with nearly $3,000 worth of gas.

— Mike Seuffert

Wow, this industry has lots of wage-hour violations

DES MOINES, IA — The feds are finding lots of wage violations among landscape/lawn service companies, says Percella Maupins, the wage hour district director for the U.S. Labor Department. In Iowa, 56% of the companies that have been checked have been in violation of wage-hour regulations. These include failure to comply with federal minimum wage and overtime pay regulations, reported Matt Kelley of Iowa Radio on May 7. (Click on headline for full article.)

She reminds employers that they're required to pay time-and-a-half the employee’s regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40 hours per week. And, don't just hand employees cash for the extra work. That’s a big no no.

Another thing to be aware of — children under the age of 16 are forbidden from using motorized equipment, including lawn mowers and trimmers.

If you’re not certain what is and what isn’t allowed in terms of wage-hour regulations, visit the Web site www.wsagehour.dol.gov and find out. — Ron Hall

Tiny gas protest..hey, at least they made an effort

As protests go, this one is strictly small time. But it reflects what anybody who runs a route service business is feeling right now.

Earl Humphreys who runs a small lawn care company called Lawn Boyz in eastern Tennessee organized a gas protest on May 5. He and a handful of owners and workers at other lawn care companies held up signs along several highways in the Tri-Cities. The signs urged passing motorists to "hold leaders accountable."

Humphreys told a reporter for News Channel 11 he's spending more than $100 a day in fuel to run his company's mowers and other equipment. And that's just for 46 accounts, according to the news account. He says if fuel goes to $4 a gallon he's thinking about getting out of the business.

I applaud Humphreys and his colleagues for making their feelings known, but it's going to take something a whole lot bigger to stop these runaway fuel prices. Maybe something like the trucker's strike in 1974 or so on the Ohio Turnpike.

I was a newspaper photographer at the time and was sent scurrying on one fine summer morning to photograph the huge stoppage of traffic on the always-busy Ohio Turnpike. Truckers, disgusted with fuel shortages and high fuel prices caused by OPEC's oil embargo, had parked their trucks on the turnpike and blocked traffic for hours and hours. Ribbons of trucks and cars backed up for miles and miles and miles. Nobody could budge. By mid-afternoon a large swath of the turnpike had turned one of the world's largest parking lots. That got everybody's attention.

Strangely these days everybody, including truckers, seem to be meekly accepting the escalating fuel prices (Humphreys and his colleagues the exception). Unless we start using energy wiser and collectively decrease demand for gasoline and diesel, prices will keep going up, up, up. — Ron Hall

Click on the headline for the short article about Earl and his colleagues. It appeared on the TriCities.com.

Manatees should be rescued, never eaten

Bert’s Bar & Grill in Matlacha, FL, is the kind of joint you would hope to stumble onto assuming you were lucky enough to stumble onto a real, old-time, authentic Florida fishing village. No high-rise condos. No gated, palm-lined communities with names like “Waiting for Heaven” or “Sunstroke Paradise.” No incredibly manicured golf course with greens fees approaching an editor’s weekly take-home.

I was in luck this week as, driving with my son and his wife to a popular seafood restaurant on Pine Islan, in Lee County in SW Florida, we passed Bert’s and seeing cars lined up and town the main village street, figured this must be the place to stop after dinner.Turns out it was.

The place, built sometime in the 1930s as a "sweet shoppe", when the tiny village of Matlacha (prounounced ˆmat-la-shay) was little more than a row or two of shanties and small houses (which is still is with little more than 700 residents), is wonderfully time-beaten and, on most nights, beerily cheerful. This particular evening a 3-piece combo called the Yard Dogs was thumping and plucking away, much to the noisy delight of a the Baby Boomer crowd, the first wave of the Baby Boomer crowd and feeling particularly frisky on a cooler-than-usual April evening.

OK, here’s the hook, as tenuous as it is to the landscape business, which is what this blog is kinda about, right?

On the wall behind the busy pool table at Bert’s is a sign announcing the annual “Manatee Roast.” And, keeping with the theme, you can pick up a Bert’s tee-shirt that reads “I love Manatees . . .They taste like chicken.” (Darn, meant to get one on the way out, but forgot.)

As any Floridian or visitor to the state knows, manatees — those huge, doppy, lovable sea cows — are a protected species. They’re a relatively common sight in the rivers and canals in Florida, but prone to get run over and chewed up by speeding power boats, which is not a good thing, especially for the manatees. Obviously, there is no such thing as a Manatee Roast and it’s not likely they taste like chicken anyway, which brings me to lanscaper Kevin McKeever.

Earlier in April while McKeever was checking out a small drainage ditch near Naples, about an hour and a half drive south of tiny Matlacha, he spotted a baby manatee having a hard time of it. The little fella (165 lbs. and about 5-ft. long) was on his own, and in fact, at a year old, was still nursing. McKeever, realizing the baby was a goner if it didn't get some TLC, called for help.

Wildlife experts arrived and they finally captured the baby, determined it was badly underweight and needed medical attention and trucked it to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, where it will likely spend a year or so getting nursed back to health before being returned to the wild.

Mr, McKeever, on my next visit to Bert’s (It's now on my short-list of favorite joints, I’m going to tip a glass to you, for sure. — Ron Hall
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He turned in $140,000 in found money . . . and he's still smiling

Eli Estrada, the 40-year-old landscaper who found $140,000 in unmarked $20s and turned it into police, is somewhat of a celebrity in Southern California. When the word got out about what he'd done, apparently he picked up some new accounts from people impressed with his honesty.

It turns out the the dough was left on the bumper of a Brinks truck March 11 after a stop at a Bank of America branch in Cerritos. (IHmm, I wonder how the job market is for a couple of ex-Brinks truck guys in Southern California?)

Estrada found the money on the street and admits to wresting over what to do with it before turning it in. I get a picture of a little white angel with wings on one of Eli's shoulder and a little red devil with pitchfork on the other, both of them taking turns on his head before the angel pulls out a huge wooden mallet and bonks the devil over the head.

Click on the headline and you can see Eli's smiling face. He and his partner run a company called Turf Turf in Orange County. At least that's what his shirt says.

Eli you're going to have to do a lot of landscaping to clear $140,000 in tax free profit . . . but you did the right thing!

Town says "no" to landscaper's short green skirt

The United Press International reports that Jay Herrod, the professional landscaper that wears a short green skirt when he's mowing, is going to have put on some pants. Officials in Clinton, LA, on Thursday, April 10, denied his request to wear the skirt while he's working . . . oh, that awful nasty heat rash! — Ron Hall

Woolly lawnmowers

The Guardian reports: In a bid to keep its municipal lawns trim while saving money, the city of Turin has done away with lawn mowers and brought in 700 sheep to graze in two parks.

Turin police blocked roads last Thursday as the first flock moved in to tackle the Meisino park, part of a two-month stint which city officials say will save €30,000 (£24,000) on gardeners' fees.

Shepherds brought up the herd, carrying 16 newly born lambs belonging to the flock, which will now be left to graze at the park on the city's outskirts until the grass is cricket-pitch smooth.

The scheme was tested last year with cows and sheep, but the cows were not invited back after leaving behind too much dung.

Click here for the complete article.

— Mike Seuffert

News of the sublime . . .and the utterly ridiculous

This from the April 9, 2008, San Francisco Chronicle:

It was a tempting sight for struggling landscaper Eli Estrada: a bag filled with $140,000 on a Cerritos street.
There was his credit card debt, upcoming wedding and making ends meet with his artificial grass and landscaping business.
But turning it over to Long Beach police last month was the right thing to do, he said.
The 40-year-old Estrada admits that some days "I think I was nuts," but he adds, "I know in my gut that to keep that money would be wrong."
The Bank of America money bag was lost March 11 by Brinks Armored truck drivers. The unmarked $20 bills were bundled into wads of $20,000 and bound for ATMs.
Long Beach police Sgt. Dina Zapalski says Estrada handed over the money bag to an officer who took a report at one of the landscaper's job sites.
Brinks later gave him a $2,000 reward.

And this from ShortNews.com. (Click on the headline for the link if you don’t believe me.)

Jay Herrod of Clinton, Louisiana is just your typical landscaper who mows other people's yards for a living. However, the manner of dress has some people complaining. That's because Herrod wears a skirt while mowing lawns.
Herrod says the reasoning for wearing the skirt is because he gets heat rash and that "it allow that area to breathe, and uh, wearing a skirt on the mower allows the sweat to evaporate".
While customers aren't complaining about his skirt-wearing, the town alderman is, citing Harrod for indecency, under the recent "no sagging pants" ordinance. Harrod says he has a doctor's note about his condition, and that the law shouldn't apply.

Congo cheats the executioner

Congo (aka “The Mauler”) will live. His life has been spared.

Congo, as you may recall from previous blogs, is the German shepherd that chewed up a landscape worker that arrived in the early morning hours of June 5, 2007, to work on the 10-acre property in Princeton Township, NJ.
The attack resulted in the Hispanic worker, who apparently spoke little or no English, suffering some horrendous injuries that required hospitalization and lots of stitches and patching.

Several weeks after the attack, a municipal court judge ruled that Congo was a vicious dog and it looked like Congo was going to be dispatched to that big dogbone in the sky. The dog’s owners mounted a legal campaign to save Congo’s life and dog lovers across the state protested the injustice of dispatching Congo to "a better place," just because he ripped apart an "illegal" worker, in their eyes apparently, little more than a dog chew.

The court finally ruled that Congo will not be euthanized but that its owners pay $50 fines for Congo and each of the then 3-month-old German shepherd pups that joined in the attack. Also, the dog’s owners are to keep Congo and the other dogs behind a fence on their property, and that the property will be posted with warning signs.

And so ends the saga of Congo , a case that ignited the passions of dog lovers throughout the state of New Jersey.

Click on the headline to access the article in April 3 issue of The Times of Trenton. – Ron Hall

Grounds guy wins $1 mil but stays on the job

Donald Nicholas, a seasonal grounds worker at a Staten Island cemetery, won $1 million in the New York Lottery this week. He will be paid $32,251 a year for the next 20 years. Nicholas moved to Staten Island from Harlem three years ago. He says he loves his job and has no plans to quit. Good call. It's probably pretty difficult to live in the NY Metro area on $32,251 a year. Ron Hall

President Bush visiting Marty Grunder home

In his last year in office, President George W. Bush seems to have taken a big interest in the landscape industry. First, he visits Wright Manufacturing Inc. in Maryland where he does a nifty turn on a Wright Stander professional mower (“Fire this sucker up,” he’s reported as exclaiming.). And now he’s visiting the home of Marty and Lisa Grunder near Dayton. Marty, of course, is the owner and founder of Grunder Landscape and a well-known speaker and consultant to the Green Industry.

Marty’s also a stanch Republican and a frequent contributor to Republican candidates. According to Federal Election Commission records, he’s given more than $10,000 in campaign contributions to Republican candidates in the past seven years.

The President’s visit on Thursday, March 27, is a fundraiser, costing $1,000 to attend the luncheon reception. For $10,000 an invitee gets a private reception with a photo opportunity with the President, according to reports.

Marty, contacted late last week, said that the invitees include “leaders in southern Ohio.” Some landscape company owners will reportedly be in attendance, as well.

Other supporters of Victory 2008, the Ohio GOP’s account for supporting Republican candidates in the upcoming elections — those that can’t attend the fundraiser at the Grunder’s home — are urged to contribute to the cause nonetheless, according to the invitations..

According to leftyblogs.com, the event co-chairs are listed as: Jim and Janet Dicke, Marty and Lisa Grunder, Bill and Sandy Gunlock and Jane Portman and Rayj and Inu Soin. — Ron Hall

Says Brandy: "The check is in the mail"

I’ don’t who the singer Brandy is or why she is famous. Anyway, I thought some recent publicity involving Brandy was kind of funny, at least the responses to the story about her and a landscaper appearing on a Web site.

A couple of days ago it was reported that Raymond Soriano Landscape filed a claim in court alleging that Brandy (the singer) owed him $3,567 for work it had done on her California property eight or nine months or so.

Apparently CelebTV got a hold of the claim and publicized it. Then it was picked up by oh-so-calculatedly hip TMZ, resulting in another media blip.

Amusing? Not the story so much as the postings about the story on the TMZ Web site. Click on the headline above. At least they amused me...kinduv. Ron Hall

It's a gas, gas, gas

We're finally reaching that tipping point when it comes to fuel prices, that point where we finally change our driving and vehicle-buying habits.

I'm seeing it at the park & ride where I catch the express bus into downtown Cleveland. There used to lots of extra parking spaces at the Westlake Park & Ride, even for the 8:30 a.m. bus, the last bus to make the run. Now unless you get to the parking lot by 8:00 a.m. you stand a chance of not getting s spot. More people are bussing it.

If gasoline goes to $3.50 a gallon (which it already has in California and Hawaii)O here's what it costa to fill up a:

Cadillac Escalade — $108.50.
Hummer H2 — $112.00
Ford Expedition — $117.25
Dodge Ram — $122.50
Ford F250 pickup — $133

My guess is gas will go to $4.00 by early summer. But I hope not. — Ron Hall

King of the backhoe operators

I’ve always been in awe of these guys who can operate big, powerful construction equipment likes it’s easiest thing in the world. It could be a big Cat’ dozer or crane or bucket loader, but they jockey these big, powerful units like nothing could be simpler. And for them (wind- and sun-creased, hardhard at a jaunty angle) maybe nothing is.

But for guys like me that have trouble backing a small boat trailer. . .well.

That said,, I tip my hat to Nick Market of Windsor, Ontario. The folks at Case presented Nick a 50th anniversary limited-edition Case 580 Super M Series 2 loader/backhoe, valued at nearly $120,000 yesterday.

Nick won the Case North America Rodeo Series Championship event in Las Vegas where the huge ConExpo equipment trade show is taking place. Nick, who has been at the controls of backhoe/loaders for more than 30 years, beat out more than 4200 other operators in the competition that unfolded over the past year. — Ron

Ahhh, spring...when lawn care rules

Grasscycling “new” again

What is old is suddenly new again. Remember the “Grasscycling” push put on by the Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA) in the late 1980s and early 1990s? The point of the initiative was to convince homeowners and lawn maintenance pros not to bag their grassclippings and not to truck the lawn waste to landfills. As we all know this is incredibly more costly now because of higher fuel prices and almost universal landfill tipping fees. Grasscycling was one of PLCAA's biggest successes because the message did eventually filter through the media to the public. friend and former technical editor of Landscape Management, Bill Knoop, Ph.D., Texas A&M extension, initiated a similar “Don't Bag It” campaign, with essentially he same message. Grasscycling, a term rarely heard for more than a decade or more, is starting to resonate again, this time in the “green” arena. It has been proven again and again that when clippings are returned to the lawn, some of the nutrients, in particular nitrogen, return to the soil, meaning less fertilizer is needed to keep the grass green and growing.

Florida county gets tough on ferts

And finally, I ran across the new law for fertilizing lawn s in Sarasota County in Florida. These types of local laws aimed at lawn fertilizers seem to be cropping up in many parts of the country. These came from a recent article in the Herald Tribune:
Sarasota County's fertilizer law aims to cut down on the amount of pollution getting into area waterways. Here is a look at what it calls for:
- It prohibits residents from applying fertilizers that contain nitrogen or phosphorus between June 1 and Sept. 30.
- It sets maximum levels for the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that legal fertilizers can contain.
- It sets a fertilizer-free zone within 10 feet of any body of water and creates a voluntary "low maintenance zone" within 6 feet of water bodies.
- It recommends use of "slow-release fertilizers."
- It requires fertilizer application companies to create a training course.
- It sets penalties for violators that start with a warning and rise to $500.

ServiceMaster spends big bucks

Business Week recently reported that lawn care and pest-control provider ServiceMaster Co. spent $2.2 million last year to lobby the federal government. The company was acquired in 2007 by private-equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
ServiceMaster, which owns TruGreen lawn care and Terminix pest control, spent $1 million in the second half of 2007 to lobby Congress and the Environmental Protection Agency, said the magazine.
ServiceMaster lobbied on parts of the federal farm bill that apply to insecticides and fungicides and on a bill signed by President Bush in October that extended funding for pesticide oversight office.

Ontario pesticide ban — look out, here it comes!

The Province of Ontario will almost certainly implement a new provincial pesticide law this year. The Province's environment minister in an interview with the Kingston Whig-Standard newspapers said: “The bottom line is this - we're going to ban the use and sale of cosmetic pesticides. It's going to supercede any municipal bylaw. It's going to ban the sale of, not just the use of, cosmetic pesticides by the general public, which is what the municipal bylaws speak to.” — Ron Hall
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One tough "Mole"

I don’t often write about products in this blog. In fact, I don’t think I ever have — until now. What I want to tell you about is a product so simple (and potentially so useful) that it blew me away at the recent California Landscape Contractors Association Trade Show and Conference in LA.

The name of the product is the Bullet Mole. My first thought on hearing the name was that the product is something to kill moles. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Actually the Bullet Mole is an incredibly simple tool. That’s what I love about it; that and it gets the job done without a lot of expense and fuss.

The tool itself looks like a tiny warhead at the end of a metal shaft. This warhead doesn’t explode or anything like that, though, even though it can penetrate and shatter the hardest rock. Made of super tough metal, it makes neat, round openings for installing irrigation pipe and/or wires under sidewalks or driveways. No fuss. No muss.

Quite simply, you dig a small hole at one end of the sidewalk or driveway insert the Bullet Mole, pointy side in the direction of the sidewalk or driveway, than you whack the butt end of the metal shaft with a sledge hammer and it drives the “Mole” (irrigation pipe surrounding the shaft behind it) under the sidewalk or driveway. The force of the falling sledge hammer is enough to drive the “Mole” through clay, rock, just about any material.

Check out the “Mole” at http://bulletmole.com.

(For the record, this product mention was not solicited and was not the result of any freebies or promises by the “Mole” makers and marketers. I just thought it was cool.) — Ron Hall

Physically fittest lawn business owners ever?

Robert Johnson and his wife, Cia, started up their own lawn mowing business this year in Columbia, MO. The name of the company is "The Green Team". They advertise an "environmentally friendly" brand of lawn service.

I'll say.

They transport their mowing equipment to job sites via a bicycle pulling an 8-t. cargo trailer. They charge a flat rate of $25 per lawn within their marketing area, which I'm thinking is probably as far as they feel like peddling a bicycle with a trailer behind it.

I'm also thinking these are very young and VERY fit individuals. They mow lawns with reel push mowers, no engines, no fuel, very little noise.

Wow, would I love for them to mow my neighbor's yard. He doesn't think a thing about cranking up his mower at 6 a.m. on Saturday mornings in the summer. The hell with the neighbors. The hell with the noise is this guy's philosophy

Clicking on the headline will take you to the couple's lawn business Web site. — Ron Hall

"The Tea Leaf", one of my favorite enewsletters

Check out Jeff Thredgold’s enewsletter on his Web site
http://www.thredgold.com/index.html. Jeff is an economist and also one of the most entertaining speakers you’ll ever get a chance to hear. (I’ve heard him speak on two occasions.) He also produces a fun enewsletter entitled “The Tea Leaf” (it’s free) that provides a weekly look at the state of the ever-changing American economy. Who would think that discussions about GNP could be enjoyable, right? You’ll find yourself looking forward to seeing The Tea Leaf turn up in your email in-box each week. I do. Click on the headline and it’ll take you to Jeff’s Web site. Check it out my friends. — Ron Hall

While cruising YouTube I found Ruppert clips

Under the category of “No Good Deed Should Go Unpunished . . .oops, make that Unappreciated”, I inform you of some good work being done by folks many of us know, or know of — Craig Ruppert and longtime associate Chris Davitt, both of Maryland-based Ruppert Nurseries.

I found out about these deeds while cruising YouTube, two neat videos. Who would have thought? One 8-minute clip shows Craig and Chris Davitt. The shorter of the two, entitled “Easter Seals Philanthropist of the Year 2007”, features Craig praising the Easter Seals for the help it provided his Down Syndrome younger sister who is now 43, gainfully employed and living a relatively independent life. (This one really hit home for me in that it’s been almost exactly a year ago that Jeffrey Johnson, son of my wife’s best friend, Sandy, died suddenly, Jeff, a Down Syndrome individual, was an incredibly kind, gentle and responsible person and was voted “Employee of the Year” — and it was no gimme — for almost every year he worked at the local Pizza Hut, and he worked there 17 or 18 years. Damn Jeff, we should have played a lot more golf together. When it came to golf carts you were definitely hell on wheels!)

The second YouTube clip is about 8 minutes long and starts with Chris and Craig telling viewers about Food for the Poor, the third largest charity in the United States that provides a multitude of help, materials and support to the West Indies and Latin America. Every year the two landscape executives plan and promote a trip to Jamaica with family members and friends and help build houses and schools for families there.

Unfortunately, I came across the YouTube clip too late for this year. This year they went Feb. 15-18. Craig, on the videa, says the two men got involved with Food for the Poor in 1999, so it’s a good bet they’ll be returning again in 2009. You might want to google Food for the Poor to see what kind of work that group is doing. That charity says 96% of what it receives gets passed on to the needy.

Here are the urls for the two YouTube clips:

The Easter Seals one is; http://youtube.com/watch?v=4wqLtxMdWCM
The Food for the Poor One is: http://youtube.com/watch?v=bRpxSbKk_Z0

Check’em out. Cool stuff. — Ron Hall

Is this any way to treat a granny?

Bizarre (but real) news from the whacky world of lawns.

This past Monday, Feb. 12, grandmother Betty Perry agreed to a last-minute deal with the City of Orem, UT, resulting from her arrest in July 2007. It seems the city was unhappy with Grandma Perry because she hadn't kept her lawn up to its standards. During the process of letting the 70-year-old grandma know just how unhappy it was on that nice day this past July, she and an Orem police officer had some sort of misunderstanding.

Well, uhmmm, maybe it was more than a mere misunderstanding in that it didn't take long for things to get very unpleasant for Grandma Perry who ended up bruised, bloodied, handcuffed and eventually put into a holding cell. She even had to call her son to bail her out. Hey I'm not making this stuff up.

OK, so I wasn't there to see how exactly what went on, but I gotta tell you I don't see any reason in the world why a simple matter such as a brown lawn (so what if it had a few weeds in it?) could have led to this whole silly episode. For heaven sakes folks, let's lighten up on the lawn patrol.

You can read Grandma Perry's side of the story by clicking on the headline above or going to www.lawnlady.info.

By the way — Go granny go! — Ron Hall

The Cabaret candidate of Super Tuesday

While I’m sure there’s many of you out there who are interested in the upcoming presidential election, I realize many of you weren’t able to stay up late last night to watch returns coming in from the Super Tuesday Republican and Democratic primaries. Since I have no life and did, I figured I’d give you a few quick impressions from all the hours and hours of fun.

John McCain pulled ahead as the clear front-runner for the Republican nomination, winning the majority of states, including New York, California, Illinois and more. While I view myself as a conservative, I’m not one of the hard-core McCain haters out there, like Ann Coulter, who said she’d vote for Hillary over McCain.

What I am is fascinated by McCain’s political rise and fall over this past year. I wrote him off months ago, as his campaign was based on the support of a war that is now incredibly unpopular even with Republicans. I really wrote him off during the backlash he took for his stance on immigration, even though I personally supported it, especially for the sake fo the landscape industry. And you’d think we’d be writing him off now because voters are tired of politics as usual in Washington, and the economy has become the number one issue. McCain, meanwhile, has been a Washington insider for decades, and still has not articulated any type of plan or leadership on the economic front.

While all of this is fascinating, it’s also moot. There’s a 99.99 percent chance that the Democrats win this election. Like Bob Dole in 1996, McCain is old. I figure Republicans are going to let him have his chance and then try to come out strong four years from now.

Now when I say the Democrats have a 99.99 percent chance of winning, that other .01 percent comes into play only if they elect Hillary Clinton, which they may be well on their way to doing. And if there’s one thing Democrats are known for, it’s pulling defeat from the jaws of victory.

Watching Hillary speak last night, I came to the realization that, believe it or not, she is actually a worse public speaker, in terms of prepared speeches, than George W. Bush. Now I should mention that without a teleprompter, most 9th grade students in speech class will do better extemporaneously than Bush.

From the very beginning of her speech when she actually seemed annoyed that the crowd wouldn’t stop cheering to the point where she started recycling old John Kerry talking points, Hillary was just awful. Here’s a tip for Hillary: If you want to sound sincere — which we know you are not, but you should at least try to act like you are — you can start by pronouncing the word “a” as “uh,” rather than “ay.” You are not the Fonz. It makes you sound stilted, pretentious and disingenuous.

Seriously, how can Democrats be considering making Hillary their nominee? They’ve spent the last eight years complaining about how the Republicans have divided the country, how they won’t work together to fix those problems facing the people of the nation. And then they are going to nominate Hillary? For eight more years of exactly the same kind of politics in Washington? Seriously?

This would be like the Republicans coming out and saying, “OK, George Bush said he was a uniter and not a divider. He didn’t really come through on that front. We can do better. We’re going to clean up Washington. We’re going to make this nation one again.” And then they elect Dick Cheney as president.

Even though I don’t necessarily agree with his politics, I do respect Barack Obama. He is a fantastic speaker. He inspires people. And he wouldn’t bring the baggage of eight years of scandal and a publicity-seeking ex-president with him into the White House.

Now my favorite part of Obama’s speech from last night was when he said, “Maybe this year, we don’t have to settle for politics where scoring points is more important than solving problems. Maybe this year, we can finally start doing something about health care we can’t afford. Maybe this year we can start doing something about mortgages we can’t pay. Maybe this year, this time, can be different.”

At this point, I pictured the lights going out, and a spotlight highlighting a silhouette of Obama, alone of the stage. And slowly, behind him, the music rises and he begins to sing:

Maybe this time, I'll be lucky
Maybe this time, he'll stay
Maybe this time
For the first time
Love won't hurry away

He will hold me fast
I'll be home at last
Not a loser anymore
Like the last time
And the time before

Everybody loves a winner
So nobody loved me;
'Lady Peaceful,' 'Lady Happy,'
That's what I long to be
All the odds are in my favor
Something's bound to begin
It's got to happen, happen sometime
Maybe this time I'll win.

(Cut to Obama’s left (camera right), and the woman behind him would be weeping uncontrollably like that girl on "American Idol" last year when Sanjaya was on.)

Did anyone else picture that, or was it just me? Maybe I’m just weird.

— Mike Seuffert (E-mail comments to mseuffert@questex.com)

Rattin' out your neighbors

If you're going to put down some weed & feed on your front yard in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, you better do it in the dead of the night. Make it a moonless night. You better be quiet, too. Otherwise, somebody (a neighbor perhaps?) might turn you in to the dreaded pesticide police and you'll get a stern warning to cease and desist. If you're caught again and are identified as a flagrant weed & feeder you will likely end up $150 lighter in the wallet.

Yes, there are pesticide snitches aplenty in Waterloo. An article in the Waterloo Record newspaper (access by clicking on the headline) recently reported that that city fielded 83 complaints in 2007 from citizens squealing on their fellow citizens.

What's next, dna samples from the best looking lawns in Waterloo to make sure they not being treated with banned substances? — Ron Hall

Don't get stuck holding the bag for work done

Things aren't so hot for property developers right now. In fact, they look pretty scary. It seems a big developer in Indianapolis has run into some tough times, which is probably an understatement seeing as how it reportedly owes contractors a lot of money for the work they've done.

One of those contractors is The Brickman Group, headquartered in Gathersburg, MD, one of the top three landscape management companies in the nation. The Indianapolis Business Journal reported Satuday, Jan. 26, that Indy-based Premier Properties USA Inc., owes Brickman $54,000 for snow removal at its Woodfield Crossing property in suburban Indianapolis.

As a small business owner myself 30 years ago (partner in a photographic studio) I got stiffed on more than a few jobs, and I didn't like it . . . but never to the tune of $54,000.

Click on the headline for the article ("Financial troubles mount for local developer") on the Indianapolis Business Journal article. — Ron Hall

We bring you good tidings

Here’s some nice things I ran across over the holidays. I hope they make you smile.

FIRST OF THE YEAR
Christopher and Crystal Childers got a nice present but it was a little late for Christmas. Their 9-lb. baby boy, David Matthew, who was supposed to have arrived a week or so earlier, showed up Jan. 2 instead, making him the first child born in Monroe, MI, in 2008. The father, Christoper, an ex-Marine, is a salesman for TruGreen-ChemLawn in Taylor, MI.

LOOK OUT FOR THE "MOW KIDS"
News 8 in Austin, TX, recently aired a segment about a new lawn care operation there named “Mow Kids.” Robert Fleming, 13, runs the business, aided by his 10-year-old twin brothers Sean and Travis. Robert takes care of the trimming while the twins do the mowing. The twins took some of their profits and bought a Nintendo Wii gaming system. Robert is saving for a car. The brothers netted $2,400 for their summer’s work, reported News 8.

HELPING HAND FOR A GREAT GUY
CBS 4 in Hollywood, FL, in a piece airing just before Christmas, told how the community came together to put a longtime landscaper back on his feet. While J.W. Smith, 58, was working on a client’s property in late November somebody stole his truck, trailer and tools. A longtime client alerted the television station’s Neighbors 4 Neighbors segment and the anonymous donations started pouring in, including a new mower and other grounds equipment. People also donated abouot $700 in cash. Smith was described in the report as being a humble, hard-working man that’s greatly admired. Who says landscapers don't get any respect.

LAWNS FOR THE LORD
A couple of day ago I read a report in a Florida newspaper (I think it was the St. Petersburg paper) about a man named Eric Wills, a letter carrier, who began helping folks on his route when he saw that they couldn’t take care of their properties. In addition to delivering mail to about 500 homes, he now drives his homemade trailer sporting a “Lawns for the Lord” sign on it to about 15 properties, which he mows in addition to doing other small chores for people who are either elderly or having other difficulties.

PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE TRIMMER
Finally, preacher Patrick McCary, when he isn't tending to the spiritual needs of his flock as pastor of the Church of Christ in Craig, CO, is tending to customers' lawns. The Craig Daily Press newspaper featured McCary in nice article recently. The pastor, it said, brought 12 years experience tending fine turf to his post when he came to Craig about a year ago. Praise be to those who keep us neat and green. . .and Amen. — Ron Hall


— Ron Hall

What no circus this year because of H-2B stalemate?

Wow, this is weird. Because Congress has failed to act on extending the exemption to H-2B, circuses say they'll be unable to bring in immigrant acrobats and other performers for their U.S. tours. At least one circus is not taking to the road this summer, because of this, reports the Paris (TX) News.

I take this to mean that there's a shortage of U.S-citizen acrobats and circus performers. Who would have thought, right?

Here's the link to the article — http://web.theparisnews.com/story.lasso?ewcd=f3d719bdbea5569e — or you can click on the headline if you don't take my word for it. — Ron Hall

A Christmas dinner of tamales and beans

I don't how many of you got out of bed Christmas morning thankful to get a free meal of tamales, rice and beans, but apparently there were more than a few in Bakersfield, CA. I'm guessing most of the folks that turned out for the free food were down on their luck, perhaps even homeless. I'm also guessing many of them (maybe most) were Mexicans or Mexican/Americans.

Yea, I know. Some of you don't like the fact that there are so many Hispanics (primarily Mexicans) in this country illegally. OK, that's not good.

But people are people, and if they're good people, regardless of race, color, creed or circumstance, they should be treated with charity and dignity.

This is the 13th year that landscaper Mike Vallejo and his family (six of his seven children helped) provided free meals of tamales, rice and beans to strangers on Christmas Day in Bakersfield. Good for you Mr. Vallejo.

We saw the news cast on KBAK CBS 29 (click on the headline above), and let's all be more charitable to each other in 2008. — Ron Hall

Sane solution to immigration mess?

I don’t know Michael Lesser and have never met him. But he wrote an article in the Portsmouth Herald, which I accessed via Seacoast Online, and I was struck by his thoughts concerning our nation’s immigration mess.

His suggestions would (it seems to me anyway) provide a starting point in the contentious debate separating business interests and hardliners on the issue of undocumented aliens.

First, the New Hampshire resident who lives and works in Washington D.C. makes it clear that he feels that anybody that enters the country illegally should be “punished and all of the fruits of the that illegal act are null and void.” He also advocates stronger border protection, including using the National Guard, a “zero-tolerance approach.”

He also proposes “draconian lawns” penalizing business owners who cannot document that they are hiring persons legally in this country.

OK, let’s move on to the issue of the estimated 10 million to 12 million so-called illegal immigrants already in the United States? While Lesser believes it would be possible to “create an environment” to compel or force them out of the country, he instead suggests allowing them to stay under the following conditions:

They must report to immigration where the process of complete vetting will begin. All persons not reporting by a certain date will be deported when caught. Criminals are ineligible and will be deported immediately.

Persons going through the vetting process will receive documentation (not a green card) and perform 30 hours of community service per month for three years and must maintain documented employment. They can also get a driver’s license if they can pass the written exam in English. After that 3-year period the person will be on another two years of probation after which time they will be eligible for a green card if they can prove their proficiency in English. One year later they can apply for citizenship.

During this 5-year period these people would be eligible for services currently available to green card holders, and if during this period any person is convicted of a felony, the person will not only serve the required sentence, but will be deported after serving the sentence.

Any persons joining and serving honorably in the military and their immediate dependents (spouse and children) for a period of four years are eligible to apply for, or possibly be granted, citizenship.

I'd rather have the undocumented on the road to citizenry, working legally and paying taxes, than to punish them at this point, and that is a huge change for me,” he writes.

Click on the headline for a link to Lesser’s article at Seacoast Online. — Ron Hall

Throw the rascals out

To say that I’ve become increasingly cynical of the ability of our federal government, or any of its various bureaucracies, to deliver efficient and sane service to the citizens of this nation is to grossly underestimate my growing dismay.

From the screw-ups in Iraq to Katrina and including the ongoing blatant partisanship, posturing and petty bickering that has deadlocked action on just about every major issue facing the nation, if this is the best government on this beautiful blue ball, then God help us all. In fact, it might be that only God can help us if we don't start helping ourselves. . . at the ballot box.

Let’s take a look at the mess our governmental policies have made in just one single issue — immigration. Indeed, everything
that the government has done during the past two generations — going back to the Reagan administration's so-called one-time amnesty — has only worsened the problem of illegal immigration. How else do 10 million to 12 million undocumented people get into this country?

But it gets worse.

Our government’s most recent activities — from building walls along our southern border to its enforcement-only policy to its inaction in expanding programs to allow legal and properly vetted guest workers to flow back and forth between their home countries and the United States — compound the problem.

Our government has guaranteed that illegal immigration issue will simmer on, and the undocumented workers already in the United States aren’t about to leave now, and will continue to live in the shadows of our society. They will continue to work in agriculture and hundreds of small businesses across the United States, And they will continue to look over their shoulders fearing enforcement actions.

For those of you that think that these seasonal guest workers aren’t needed in the United States, and that they take jobs and employment opportunity from U.S. citizens, in the broadest sense you’re right.

There are a lot of small businesses, in particular, landscape companies that could use your help or the help of your U.S.-born sons and daughters. Just apply and show up for work. You’ll find companies a plenty willing to train you on the safe operation of commercial mowers and the art of laying block walls and pavers. And they’ll guarantee you at least 40 hours a week, probably more in season.

(If you don’t think that our government is capable of massive screw-ups, allow me to recommend a recently published book, “Legacy of Ashes, The History of the CIA,” by Pulitzer-prize winning author Tim Weiner.) —Ron Hall

Just more political posturing

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney fired his landscape company after reporters from the Boston Globe discovered that the company continued to maintain his property with the help of illegal immigrants. The same issue arose just over one year ago. At the time, Romney had a discussion with the company, Community Lawn Service of Chelsea, MA, giving the company a second chance to comply with the law.

The other presidential candidates, both Republican and Democrat, were just a little too happy to jump on this issue.

Fred Thompson’s campaign released a statement saying, “First Mitt Romney was for illegal immigrants working on his lawn, and then he was against it, then for it, and now I guess he’s against it again. Sounds like his position on amnesty.”

Rudy Guiliani’s staffers said Romney’s statement speaks for itself, and John McCain, as described by the New York Times, “walked out of his hotel in Bedford, N.H., yesterday with a broad grin because he knew what reporters were about to ask. He mimed a motion as if he were pushing a lawn mower and said, “I am more than pleased with the fact I live in a condominium.”

"Smooth talking Mitt Romney's lingering lawn care problem is the latest reminder of his shameless and hypocritical efforts to pander to the right wing of his Party by saying whatever he thinks the political winds dictate," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Damien LaVera.

While Romney’s illegal flap is embarrassing, it ultimately means nothing. Right now, Congress is sitting on a bill that will help landscape companies bring in much-needed guest workers to fill their labor needs. It’s called Save Our Small and Seasonal Businesses Act of 2007. The bill would extend the returning worker exemption to the H-2B cap that limits the number of guest workers to 66,000 per year. Without extending the returning worker exemption, more and more landscape companies are either going to lose business due to lack of labor, or they will turn to illegal immigrants to get the work done.

While many like Sen. Barbara Mikulski has led the charge to extend H-2B reform, too many Congress members are afraid to touch the immigration issue in the current political climate.

So while the presidential candidates play politics and Congress sits on its hands, the landscape industry is going to suffer due to political cowardice. It’s time to stop talking and take action. — Mike Seuffert

Another take on the Congo furor

A narrow alley separated our two houses, and for years our neighbors kept a dog in their back yard. It was a cross between a beagle and a rottweiler, a 70-lb., black-and-white spotted creature that rushed to the chain link fence and barked and snarled whenever anybody in our family went into our backyard, our garden. The dog, Tyler, took the barking and snarling to an even more threatening level whenever school kids passed through the alley between our two properties. The only thing separating Tyler from what can only be imagined as an attack was the sturdy fence.

In the dog's defense, it was a happy, tail-wagging joy to our neighbors; they adored the dog. I suspect they greatly appreciated the security it provided them and their property.

Even so, and without apologies, we were happy when the neighbors, too elderly to take care of Tyler and unable to place it with their grown sons or daughter, got rid of the dog. We do not know what happened to it, but we suspect it was given to the local human society and eventually euthanized. That's not what we wanted for the dog; we would have preferred one of the children take the dog and keep it — somewhere away from us.

Our years suffering with Tyler's threatening behavior (It never subsided.) admittedly colors my opinion regarding the curious case of Congo the German shepard condemned to death for mauling a landscape worker last summer near Princeton, NJ. The injuries sustained by the worker were horrendous. Even so the outpouring of sympathy for Congo has been incredible.

Columnist Paul Mulshine, writing on nj.com, dares to wonder how the public would have reacted to Congo's death sentence had he attacked a 12-year-old Girl Scout stepping onto the property instead of a 42-year-old landscape worker, one that's since apparently been outed as being an "illegal" worker. (By the way, the worker reportedly received an insurance settlement of about $200,00 along with his medical bills.)

Not unexpectedly, daring to question the ability (and responsibility) of the owners of the dog to control Congo as it chewed up the landscape worker, drew a firestorm of controversy.

Only in America, in the land where capital punishment is legal (the victims almost always being the poor and uneducated), does a dog on death row generate such a flood of sympathy and publicity.

Click on the headline to read the column that Mulshine wrote and the resulting reader response. — Ron Hall

"Set Congo free! Set Congo free!"

Kelly Heyboer on blog.nj shows just how strongly people feel about Congo, probably the most famous German Shepherd since Rin Tin Tin. Congo remains in death-row limbo after chewing up a landscape worker last summer. A lot of people are blogging that it's time to free Congo. Viva Congo!

If you want to see a photograph of a Congo (happily unaware of the fate that possibly awaits him), click on the headline above.

Writes Kelly Heyboer: Congo, New Jersey's most notorious German shepherd, has his own blog.
Some of the dog's online supporters started the Save Congo blog last week. They are trying to mobilize dog lovers to protest a judge's decision to sentence Congo to death after he allegedly attacked a landscaper in Princeton.

The blog creators say:
Bloggers are not connected in any way with this case or any of the individuals (including the dog, Congo) in it. We are simply concerned indiduals (attorneys, animal advocates, etc.) who, while concerned about the public's safety, are equally concerned about the harsh Dangerous Dog Acts that are sweeping the country condeming innocement dogs to death and their familes to great tragedy.
Over the last few months Congo has become one of the most-blogged-about dogs on the Web, partly because his case also has an illegal immigration angle.
The story began last summer when Congo mauled a landscaper working on his owners' property. The dog's owner said the landscaper, who is an undocumented alien, did not follow directions and inadvertently provoked the dog.
Congo was recently returned to his family after five months in an animal shelter. He is under house arrest while his death sentence is appealed.
And Gov. Jon Corzine has gotten thousands of letters, phone calls and e-mails asking him to pardon Congo. Legislation has also been introduced to make sentences for unruly animals less harsh.

From The Daily Biscuit:
Why was the judge punishing a dog for doing its job? Isn't that what German Shepherds are bred for? Guard dogs? The German Shepherd is used for military work, police work and assistance work. Few other breeds are so widely used. Had Congo been a pit or a rott he would have been put down quickly. Had this been the 80s, when the German Shepherd was the dog everyone hated, he would have been put down.
What do Americans want?

From Immigration Watchdog:
Clone Congo and give one of him to every Sheriff's Office and Police Department in the country. Also provide enough Congo's to ride K-9 with every U.S. Border Control vehicle. Give a Congo to every family whose ever had a burglary or crime committed against a family member or property.

From All American Blogger:
NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE. NO JUSTICE. NO PEACE.
Free Congo.

For the fstory on Congo's attack on the landscape worker that led up to his death sentence and the furor this created, check out the Landscape Management article, by clicking here.
— LM Staff

Outsmarting some very clever squirrels

There are a lot of big red squirrels in my neighborhood. I don’t know how many because they all look alike to me. Actually, there could just be a couple of very active squirrels. How would I know? Like I said, one big red squirrel looks pretty much like another to me.
Generally, I don’t mind the squirrels. I sometimes get a kick out of watching them; they're so perpetually busy. My feelings toward these twitchy little devils cool each winter though.
I’m one of those guys that waits until the bulbs go on sale 75% off, which is usually just before or after Thanksgiving. I count on the ground not freezing before I can get them into the ground. I buy dozens of tulips, narcissus, daffodils, crocus and tiny colorful things that come up in February.
In late November or early December I get out a tough little spade for the big bulbs and I get down on my knees and drill holes into the ground with an old hand auger for the smallest bulbs. I plant them in groups of three, five or seven, just about anywhere I can an area in our garden that doesn’t already have perennials or bulbs. The smallest, earliest spring bloomers go in my front yard because my wife, Vicky, loves seeing color, even these thumbnail-size flowers that bloom even before the snow is off the ground. They will be spent and gone before the front yard needs mowing.
Several winters ago the foraging squirrels discovered the bulbs I had planted, the sunflower seeds I put out for the birds in our garden not being enough for them. They now can tell just where I plant bulbs regardless of how I try to disguise the sites. Through the course of the winter, they dig them up, generally a couple at a time. The empty holes in the ground give them away. Sometimes I find a bulb on the ground with several bites taken out of it. The squirrels don’t find some of the bulbs tasty enough to finish.
I've finally come up with a plan to thwart the squirrels. I feel pretty clever. I stretch sections of green wire fencing material with a ¾-in mesh that I cut it into rectangles over the areas where I had plant bulbs. You can hardly notice the screen (it's green) in my yard. This spring, after the flowers are poking up out of the soil, I will remove the screening. I think that it will discourage the squirrels from decimating the bulbs I planted. We’ll see. — Ron Hall

Murder in Monterrey

There’s a right way to do things and a wrong way. Or, in the case of immigrant workers, there’s the legal way and the illegal way. Santiago Cruz, who spent three years working in North Carolina, was working for the legal way. It's believed it cost him his life. He was brutally murdered.
Colleagues are viewing his killing as a warning from vicious forces in Mexico not to tamper with their lucrative business. And what kind of business would prompt murder? No, we’re not talking drugs. We’re talking about the business of bilking fellow citizens out of their money on promises (rarely fulfilled) of working in the United States.
Santiago worked for the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) in North Carolina, and had traveled to Monterrey, Mexico, to fight corrupt recruiters who take money from people who want jobs in the United States.
This type of extortion is big business in Mexico, perhaps the darkest side of U.S. guest worker programs. Most poor Mexicans seeking work in the United States are not knowledgeable about the guest worker process. Or perhaps they’re desperate, desperate enough to pay shady recruiters exorbitant (sometimes thousands of dollars) fees on promises of working in the states.
Honest recruiters typically charge hopeful jobseekers minor administrative fees, usually just enough to cover the cost of processing their applications. Legitimate recruiters make their money from the fees that they charge U.S. business owners, not from job seekers.
Recruiting is a serious business in Mexico as Santiago’s brutal death illustrates.
He was discovered beaten to death in his Monterrey office. His hands were tied behind his back and his feet bound. FLOC represents about 7,000 guest workers that come to the Southeast each year to work in agriculture.

Raleigh's ABC11 Eyewitness News offered a full account and video of the tragedy on Nov. 16. Click on the headlne for the ABC11 report. — Ron Hall

Formula 1 mower

While landscapers now have some pretty cool-looking zero-turn mowers to zip around lawns on, when it comes time for some of the detailed work, the trusty old push mower is still pretty boring. Until now. Here's a concept mower that will have you mowing like an F1 racer. Check out the whole story from this blog.

— Mike Seuffert

Leaders reflect on Spring Green's 30th anniversary

“All politics is local,” said the late Thomas “Tip” O’Neill, a longtime speaker of the House in the U.S. Congress.
Let it be acknowledged here (and recently verified by James Young, president of Spring Green Lawn Care Corp.) that: “All lawn care is local.”
His company turned 30 years old this past January. Spring Green, with 70 independent franchises and four company-owned locations generated revenues of $26 million in 2006, according a fine article written by Eric Krogh, generated by the prestigious Medill School of Journalism, University of Northwestern.
In the article, Tom Hofer, Spring Green’s CEO, points to location, specifically the lawn care-happy Chicago metropolitan market, as one reason for his company’s success and longevity.
“Chicago is just the best lawn care market in the world,” he was quoted in the article.
Equally important, said company president Young, is being recognized by customers as a locally run business. “The best opportunity to differentiate our brand from our competitors is to have that local presence.”
Click on the headline to read the nice article about Spring Green written by Eric Kroh. — Ron Hall

Why you must get active

You've heard us sound the rally cry for action many times. Primarily (or at least recently) we've amplified the calls of those who have been pushing for extension and permanent passage of the H-2B returning worker provision. As of this posting, much to the relief of many landscapers, it looks like that will pass. But the bigger message (and perhaps we've been too subtle in our expression of it) is that the important thing is to get involved in local government, at least make your presence known.

While it looks as if landscapers have received a temporary reprieve from the H-2B issue, it is by no means the only impediment Green Industry business owners face. Water restrictions, chemical application rule changes and now even "luxury taxes" are a concern. That's right, the same term applied to Major League Baseball's George Steinbrenner and the enormous salaries he pays out is being applied to landscapers.

Apparently, Michigan legislators are considering imposing a tax on certain services, including landscaping. The story, reported here. by Lansing, MI-based WLIX.com, suggest that a 6% sales tax will be added to these services, which landscapers say could cost them jobs. The good news, and the point of this rant, is to let you know that this is not a done deal. The most heartening news in the story is this line: "Landscapers and other small business owners voices have been heard. Lawmakers say they're open to considering alternatives to the service tax."

Be assured, however, that nothing will change if the voices of Michigan landscapers fall silent. Simply put you've got to find out what is happening at the local city council and at the state level. And then you've got to get involved.

For the complete story click here.

For more ideas on how to contact your legislative representatives click here.

Missouri Botanical Garden sets great example

The Missouri Botanical Garden set a new recycling record in 2007 with the collection of over 100,000 lbs. of horticultural plastic originally destined for landfills. The Garden’s successful Plastic Pot Recycling program in St. Louis is the most extensive public garden recycling program in the United States, collecting over 300 tons of waste in the past 10 years.
The “green” initiative is led by the Garden’s William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening, which organizes the yearly public collection of plastic garden pots, polystyrene cell packs and trays on six weekends in May and June.

In several years, satellite collections centers were established at retail garden centers in the St. Louis metro area; 2007 participants include Greenscape Gardens, For the Garden by Haefners, Crabapple Cove Nursery, Summerwinds at Timber Creek, Schmittels Nursery, Garden Heights Nursery and the City of Kirkwood Recycling Depository. Over the last four years, the program has been further expanded to include collections from green industry businesses such as landscaping contractors, public works departments, grounds management professionals and wholesale growers.

Over 100 volunteers contributed to the Garden’s recycling effort this year by donating more than 500 hours to assist in the collection and processing of horticultural plastic. Pots and trays are sorted by plastic type and granulated on-site into small chips that are easily transported for recycling. The plastic regrind is sold back to consumers as retaining wall ties and timbers for use in landscaping projects. The plastic timbers are water and pest resistant and can be cut and drilled similar to wooden lumber. They outlast traditional wooden railroad ties that have a lifespan of only ten to 15 years.

Proceeds from the sale of plastic timbers are used to fund future collections. Grants from the St. Louis – Jefferson Solid Waste District, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Missouri Environmental Improvement and Energy Resource Authority, and California-based Monrovia Growers also support the program.

“It is increasingly apparent that our disregard for the reuse of plant containers ends in millions of pounds of plastic being wasted into landfills each year,” said Dr. Steve Cline, manager of the Kemper Center for Home Gardening and Plastic Pot Recycling program founder and organizer. “Providing an alternative to pitching pots by offering a program to recycle them has sparked a sense of loyalty to doing the right thing. We continue to be impressed with the public and green industry response to this effort.”

The Garden looks forward to enhancing the program in 2008 by expanding the fleet of recycling trailers to additional nursery and garden centers, and making the satellite collections available year-round. Program organizers also hope to offer additional bins at collection centers so consumers can sort their plastic when it is deposited, making the collections more efficient by saving significantly on labor. Repositioning of recycling trailers at the Garden’s collection site will also make drive-thru deposits accessible throughout the year.

“Ultimately, our goal is to develop a workable system of collection and processing so that other communities can adopt a similar effort and evolve this into a common practice,” said Cline. “We are especially pleased that in the past three years Monrovia Growers has taken a leadership step forward on behalf of the green industry and supported the experimental phase of the program. This public/private partnership enables us to continue the growth of a fundamental recycling program such as this. We look forward to other green industry support, including the container producers, as we deal with this ongoing waste issue.”

For more information on the Garden’s Plastic Pot Recycling program, visit the Web site www.mobot.org/hort/activ/plasticpots.shtml or call (314) 577-9561. For more information on purchasing plastic landscape timbers, call the Kemper Center at (314) 577-9441.
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Can you legislate professional behavior?

How would you like me, an editor, to put together licensing legislation for landscape contractors in my home state of Ohio? Not a good idea? Hey, I’ve been a part of the landscape industry for more than 20 years, albeit as a reporter and editor; cut me some slack.
OK, I don’t have 20 years “practical” experience as a landscaper, not like Tom Castronovo. Castronovo is the publisher “of New Jersey-based “Gardener News,” a nice little monthly publication that provides good information on everything from turfgrass to pumpkins. He’s also the author of legislation to license landscapers in his home state of New Jersey.
The aim of the bill, which may be considered by state legislators when they reconvene in November, is to “elevate” the profession of landscaping by weeding out low-ballers, fly-by-nighters and so forth.
If enacted it would require all owners of landscape businesses, and one in 10 employees, to be licensed. It also establishes an continuing education component.
Friends in the landscape business in New Jersey are divided on the need for yet another licensing requirement.
One told me he feels the state already has plenty of licensing requirements — for pesticide applicators, irrigation contractors and home improvers. As a certified landscape technician and a card-carrying member of the New Jersey Landscape Contractors Association, he isn’t looking forward to having to get another license and paying more fees, which he sees as just another complication.
Others seem to feel the legislation, if enacted and enforced, will cut down on the number of “gypsy” landscapers that undercut their prices and do sub-standard work.
The basic question is: Can you legislate professional behavior?
Proponents of licensing for landscapers say their efforts will help bring the industry’s image on a par with other professionals, such as doctors and lawyers. Hey, I know doctors and lawyers that I don’t think are professional, at all. On the other hand,I have to confess, I've never met a lawyer or doctor that low-balled another lawyer or doctor, and we've got plenty of both in my neighborhood. — Ron Hall

Teresa Mello and Dreamscape Designs — nice job!

My wife of 38-plus years, Vicky, keeps reminding me: “If you have your hand closed tight, you can’t receive anything.” I take that to mean that you have to give before you can get.. I think the same thing applies to the human heart.
What I really want to say is that I’m always impressed when I see somebody, with little regard for their own gain, do something to make something a little bit nicer or prettier, even as simple as picking up a piece of scrap paper on an office floor or a city street.
That’s why I’m so proud of the people I meet in the Green Industry. Apart from attempting to build their businesses and provide for themselves and their families, just about every one of them opens their hands and hearts when the situation requires.
Here’s the latest incident I learned about:
Teresa Mello, Dreamscape Designs, LLC, New Britain, CT., took it upon herself recently to beautify the 15-by-20-ft. entrance to Martha Hart Park in that city. According to an article in the New Britain Herald, Mello often drives by the park. Apparently, the lack of color there got to her and she volunteered to fix it up and maintain it.
“I love things to look nice and well cared for,” Mellos said in the article. Typically, she does some work at the park before heading out for her “paying” jobs.
“It is very nice of her to do that,” said Parks Department Director Bill DeMaio. “She is going to add perennials, shrubs and mulch, and she is going to; maintain it throughout the year. She has the skills and wants to give back to the community.”
Nice going Teresa Mello. You sound like the kind of neighbor and business person that would be a credit to any community.
Click on the headline for the complete article.

Folks are drilling backyard wells to save their grass

I flew into Charlotte, NC, today after having spent a couple of days in Virginia Beach and Chesapeake, VA, and the only kind of grass I’ve seen this week in the Southeast has been brown grass.
Not fescue. Not bermudagrass. Not centipedegrass. Not St. Augustinegrass.
Brown grass. Dried up grass. Ugly grass.
And things are pretty much the same all over the Southeast — in fact, worse in some parts — friends in the landscape and lawn care businesses tell me. They also tell me that it's going to be a long, unhappy winter (for them at least) if the rain doesn't start falling soon.
So, what do I see when I check into a hotel in Charlotte — a front page article in The Charlotte Observer about how homeowners there are hiring well drilling companies like crazy just so they can water the grass and plants on their properties. The region has gotten precious little rain for more than two months now.
Many property owners figure the $5,000 or so cost to have a well drilled is money spent considering the $600 and up monthly water bills they’ve paying to keep their landscapes alive using water supplied by a utility. And they were racking up those big irrigation bills even as they follow the county’s recommendation that they just water twice a week.
How long the folks in and around Charlotte will be allowed to draw groundwater from their wells for irrigation is problematical because some political jurisdictions are concerned that they’re taking too much from the region’s aquifers.
Click on the headline for a copy of the article on Charlotte.com. — Ron Hall

Lawnmower bike

The Web site Treehugger.com has pulled together a feature on lawnmower bikes. Perfect for either bike enthusiasts, environmentalists or that ever-growing population of bike enthusiast environmentalists. I honestly can't imagine that these bikes do even a half-way decent job, but I wanted to pass along the link.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/09/the_cutting_edg.php
— Mike Seuffert

Llama love

Proving there is no end to notion that truth is stranger than fiction, we shouldn't have been surprised when we read the headline on the New Jersey Business (NJBiz) Web site.

It was the first thing to catch your eye — "Local Landscaper Finds Black Gold," but this was no "Beverly Hillbillies" story of sudden riches from hidden oil deposits. No, it was more of a Peruvian poop, kinda story. Yeah, that's right poop, as in the stuff that comes out of the nether end of llamas.

According to the story, Robert Schucker, the owner of a R&S Landscaping, was hiking in the highlands of Peru when he happened across the creatures. He has since added llama pellets fertilizer to his organic landscaping offerings.

For the complete story click here.

What — turfgrass pests that oink!!?

Pigs generally aren’t considered turfgrass pests. But, at least in one recent incident in East Lyme, CT, they did more damage to a homeowner’s lawn and garden than any number of grubs or cinch bugs could do. But, what makes the story even better is what happened afterwards — several Green Industry companies (and their family members) repaired the property for free.
I came across the tale at theday.com. (Click on the headline for the complete story and an image of the volunteers making the repairs.)
According to reporter Tim Martin, 18 pigs escaped from a farm in nearby Waterford and found their way to the home of Raul and Cheryl Valdez where they tore into (and destroyed) the family’s lawn and garden.
But this past Sunday, Sept. 30, several Green Industry companies — Green Acres Inc. lawn care, Jordan Brook Lawn Care and Cranberry Meadow Farm joined with Rick Taylor, owner of Pillar to Post Home Inspections — renovated the lawn.
With so many hands at work, and using a John Deere tractor, the volunteers had given the Valdez family a new lawn before noon that same day.
How did they all celebrate?
When they finished they joined voices in singing a chorus of “Green Acres” and put down an application to kill the grubs, which apparently attracted the pigs in the first place.

Extreme landscaping

Put away that shovel. A California landscaper may have found a better way to take care of that patch of crab grass. According to the Roselin & Rocklin Today local newspaper, "On Thursday, September 20, 2007, at approximately 1:00 PM a landscaper working in the area of Park Dr. and Lake Tahoe Ct. found a hand grenade wrapped in an old shirt just off the Park Dr. roadway. He summoned police. Rocklin Police Department officers responded, isolated the immediate area, and identified the device as an intact Vietnam-era hand grenade. The Placer County EOD team responded within an hour and a quarter and they detonated the grenade..."

OK, the grenade turned out to be a dud, but I still think it could have been a terrific time saver. — Mike Seuffert

Mystery of the dying frog blog

There's been a lot of finger pointing in California environmental circles regarding declines in the populations of yellow-legged and red-legged frogs and Yosemite toads in the High Sierra. And most of the fingers have been pointing at pesticides that they claim are drifting from farmers, many of them miles from the mountains, as the cause for the frog die-off..
It now looks as if the fingers may have been pointed prematurely.
Scientists have identified one of the main frog-killing culprits, a fungus known as Batrachocytrium dendrobatidis. They say that the waterborne fungus kills frogs by damaging their skin.
There could be (and probably are) other contributing factors, scientists speculate, including an increase in the levels of solar ultraviolet radiation reaching the High Sierra. In fact, nobody is 100% certain exactly why the number of amphibians is decreasing so rapidly. It's premature to lay the blame on one factor, most scientists now recognize as they continue to study the problem. — Ron Hall

The Dream Act Could Be a Nightmare for H-2B

According to news reports, Congress is supposed to vote on an important bill that will continue to fund our troops fighting overseas. This is exactly the kind of bill that recent extensions to the H-2B program have been attached to. And even though there might be some debate and a few votes against the measure (especially from Democrats currently running for president, which by my count now reaches 174), members of Congress know enough not to vote against the troops while they are in harm's way. Good news for H-2B, right?

Not necessarily. Senator Dick Durbin, D-IL, is also planning to try to attach legislation known as the Dream Act to the defense funding. The Dream Act has good intentions. It's designed to help children of illegal immigrants stay in the United States since they're not the ones who broke the law, and hence shouln't be punished for their parents' mistakes. To qualify, they must have been in the country for at least five years, have a high school diploma and meet other requirements. Over the next six years, they would have to spend two years in college or in the military, after which they could become legal permanent residents.

While the H-2B program has been extended numerous times and has bi-partisan support, even if it is widely misunderstood by the general public, the Dream Act is precisely the kind of wedge legislation that divides Congress and the public. On the one hand are children, who nobody wants to vote against; and on the other are illegal immigrants, who just aren't popular with the general public. On top of that, opponents of the Dream Act suggest that it would become a bureaucratic nightmare to implemenl, and way too easy for illegals to forge documents proving they meet the Act's requirements.

Ideally, a 3- to 5-year H-2B extension could have been quietly passed and serve its purpose until broader immigration reform can be accomplished. But I think a proposal like the Dream Act will cause opponents to axe all immigration reform measures together, leaving the Green Industry dangerously short on workers come next spring. Hopefully I'm wrong.

Here's a few links to learn more about the Dream Act:

Democrats in Senate returning to Immigration


Student's hopes rest on federal Dream Act


The return of the American Nightmare, A.K.A. The Dream Act

Foes line up to oppose Dream Act

— Mike Seuffert

Police to landscaper on stolen truck — Hang on tight!

San Diego landscaper Juan Jara wasn’t about to let a thief steal his truck. When he saw a man start to drive away with his truck, which he had parked on Fourth Avenue one recent morning he immediately called 911 on his cell phone . . . and then he grabbed the rack on the truck and climbed aboard.
Jara got a wild ride into downtown San Diego and onto several local freeways, apparently in the bed of his truck. Many minutes passed (or it seemed like that to Jara) before police finally acknowledged his 911 call and advised him to “hang on tight!"
Eventually police managed to corral the truck and arrest the 22-year-old truck thief and haul him away kicking and cursing. Jara got his truck back undamaged.
There is an article and a viewer video of the arrest on the local NBC afilliate's Web site. Hopefully nbcsandiego.com still has the article and a viewer video. Click on the headline. — Ron Hall

Get paid for installing fake grass

Helix Water District near San Diego is offering rebates to single-family homeowners through its Artificial Turf Rebate Program. Customers of the East County water agency can receive a rebate of $1-per-square-foot up to 1,000 square feet for the purchase and installation of artificial turf.

If you're a homeowner there, here's what you have to do to collect:

The artificial turf must replace existing grass that is currently irrigated.
The artificial turf can be self-installed or installed by a licensed contractor.
Customers must agree to a pre- and post-installation site inspection.

Other water districts in the arid Southwest are offering similar incentives to limit the amount of irrigated turfgrass on home lawns.

Click on the headline to go to the Helix Water District Web site to view its many water conservation projects. — Ron Hall

Pile of soil costs superintendent her job

A parents' uproar arising from a pile of soil containing pesticides near a school building cost a school superintendent her job this summer.
The pile of soil, which was located near West Brook Middle School, Paramus, NJ, was contaminated with long-banned chlorinated hydrocarbons at levels greatly exceeding state standards. Parents raised a huge fuss when school officials didn’t inform them of the pesticide-laden soil until months after it was tested. Responding to their concerns, officials closed the school in May. It reopened earlier this month following remediation by a contractor.
The school board has been interviewing candidates for the superintendent’s position this September.
Was it the pesticides that caused the superintendent to resign or a lack of communication and decisive action by school officials after the soil was found to be tainted? My bet is on the later. —Ron Hall

Merkle Lawn Care did the right thing

We call it doing the right thing.
When Antonio Rodriguez Ramirez was struck and killed by a driver near Cincinnati recently, the company that employed him, Merkle Lawn Care, paid $5,000 to return his remains to his family in Guanajuato, Mexico. The 54-year-old had been working with co-workers near Ft. Thomas, KY, when an uninsured driver swerved off the road and hit him
Paying to have the body returned to his family was just the beginning of what became a complicated process that the lawn care company navigated to return the body to Mexico.
The owner of Merkle Lawn Care reportedly traveled to Mexico with Antonio’s brother.
Again, our hats are off to Merkle for their compassion.
Read the WKRC-TV report of what the company did in reuniting its deceased and valued employee with his family by clicking on the headline. — Ron Hall

Clean Air Lawn Care a new idea with promise

Maybe you haven’t heard. After all, this is one very quiet company. But its founders are banking on it making a loud noise in the professional lawn maintenance market. The company is Clean Air Lawn Care, headquartered in Fort Collins, CO. Its plan is to plant franchises all across the United States. These are pretty lofty goals for a 2-year-old company, but its owners are confident that its use of non-polluting mowers (electric) and its business model that targets neighborhoods with properties of two acres or less will give its franchise owners a unique opportunity to gain a unique and profitable toehold in the incredibly competitive lawn maintenance industry. The company’s “environmental” message is attractive to local media types, and it’s getting lots of favorable press.
Check out its Web site at www.cleanairlawncare.com or click on the headline, which will get you there pronto. — Ron Hall

State rep. nailed for H-2B scheme

The H-2B seasonal guest worker program has been one of the big reasons for the growth of the professional landscape industry this past decade. Without reliable and cheap labor the industry could not have possibly met its customers' demands.

On the surface it seems to be a happy marriage — the landscape services industry and the annual flow of willing, hard-working seasonal immigrants.

But this is a government program with more than a few blemishes — from unscrupulous recruiters in Latin America (mostly Mexico) that charge fellow countrymen exorbitant fees in the hopes (usually unfounded) of working legally in the United States to middlemen in the United States who invent false companies and fraudently inflate the number of workers companies need in order to snap up more H-2B visas than they would be entitled to otherwise.

SInce the number of workers gaining H-2B visas is limited, every visa that's obtained illegally denies another company a legal immigrant worker.

It's with some satisfaction that I alert you to the guilty plea entered by Missouri Representative Nathan Cooper, Cape Girardeau. He plead guilty to fraud charges of obtaining worker visas for clients in the trucking business. The 33-year-old immigration attorney had a nice little racket going on and reportedly pocketed thousands of dollars in the process.

Cooper is likely to spend some hard time in the joint and pay a pretty hefty fine.

This thing is getting a lot of press in Missouri, more news reports are coming in and they say that Cooper has resigned from the Missouri House and he's losing his law license, too.

Here's one interesting report: http://www.semissourian.com/story/1245545.html

And Land Line, a magazine for professional truckers kicked in with a news story of its own, which you can access at:

http://www.landlinemag.com/Special_Reports/2007/Aug07/081007_Visa_fraud.htm

Click on the headline to read yet another newspaper article about how this state rep let his greed get the better of him. — Ron Hall

Bikini lawn care — great franchise idea?

The media around the world has run articles about the Memphis, TN, lawn care company that uses young ladies in bikinis to mow customers' lawns.

We've never seen so many articles devoted to a single lawn care company before ever. Every day a couple more come to our attention. Just when you think the media's fascination with the service has cooled, along comes another article.

But the latest article really caught our attention. It said the Tiger Time Lawn Care, the company that became notorious for the stunt was franchising bikini lawn care, and that it was selling 53 franchises every hour . . . .WHAT!!!!!

As I read further I learned that the company was charging $100 for one of its lovely young employees to mow a lawn, which includes cutting, bagging, edginig and weed whacking. . .The price doubles if you stay outside to watch.

OK, enough's enouogh, right?

The article telling about Tiger Time's new franchise venture appeared on "The Spoof," which kind of reminds me of "The Onion," another source of outlandish (and often funny) material. In other words, Tiger Time Lawn Care is NOT franchising bikini lawn carre services.

If you don't believe me, click on the headline and read the article for yourself.

Feds charge Chicago-area landscape company owner

Aidan E. Monahan, president of Monhan's Landscaping Inc., Arlington Heights, IL, is being charged with cheating the Chicago Pulbic Schools out of $1.5 million. Prosecutors say he used a city-certified minority-owned business as a front to contract with the school district from 2003 to 2006. The feds say the minority-owned business provided a way to funnel money back to the landscape company in a pass-through scheme.

Hey, these kind of schemes (or variations thereof) have been going on in Cleveland for years. . .So, what's the big deal?

In any event, click on the headline to view the article that appeared in the Chicago Daily Herald about the landscape company president.

Bikini maintenance

Oh where do we begin? There are so many problems with this story.

First the background. A Memphis, TN landscaper has hired a number of shapely women to cut grass while wearing bikinis. According to reports not only is he getting business, he's able to charge a higher price then local competitors.

Let's start with the safety issue. Bikinis aren't well known for their ability to protect the body against flying debris, not to mention the exposure to sun.

Clearly the owner of the company, which bills itself as Tiger Time Lawn Care knows a little something about marketing. People will pay to see attractive women in skimpy clothing. Not that we don't appreciate the feminine form, but there is a time and a place, neither of which are when you're around landscaping equipment. It also takes away from the professionalism most companies try to project.

We could make an argument for sexism (since there are no men in Speedo bathing suits), but we won't go there.

Nowhere could we find a comment on the quality of their work, and we suspect that will ultimately decide fate of this company. There are probably a lot of things companies can do to capture your attention, but if the quality of your work is substandard, you can't expect the flash to sustain you.

For more information on the story and to see Memphis, TN's WMC-TV video report, please
click here.

Elderly woman roughed up because of untidy lawn

Orem, UT, means business when it comes to its lawns. And I mean business.

A couple of weeks ago I reported on the city hiring TruGreen ChemLawn to treat some of the city because Japanese beetles had been discovered in one of its neighborhoods. Apparently, they had never been seen there before, and the city didn't want them to get established.

Now comes news reports that a policeman there cuffed and jailed a 70-year-old woman there because she hadn't been watering or tending her lawn. According to the report by the Associated Press, the officer knocked on the door of Betty Perry to inform her of the city's nuisance ordinance. The woman refused to give her name, saying later that she wasn't going to say anything until she had talked to her son or a lawyer.

Anyway, the situation went from bad to worse. The officer arrested her and slapped handcuffs on her. As she was being led down her stairs she reportedly fell and got skinned up pretty good, her nose and elbows.

The 70-year-old woman ended up in jail, but for just an hour, according to reports. When the higher ups in the department heard what had happened they released her from jail and dropped the charges — maintaining a nuisance property and resisting arrest.

The arresting officer? Last word was that he was sent on for the rest of the day and was put on paid administrative leave. — LM Staff

My lawn looks like shredded wheat

Talked to Matt of Matt's Fast Lawn Care this morning. "We need rain," says Matt, who only gets paid when he's out there mowing. Don't think he has many seasonal contracts. Good thing Matt's got a second job. The guy loves to work. But he'd rather be mowing than retreiving carts at the local Kroger where he's worked for years.

The neighborhood's been strangely silent these past few weeks. The mowers are silent. The grass in my back yard looks like shredded wheat. Who can afford to water? Water is expensive here. Hey, somebody has to pay for the new water plant and the upgrades to our sewage treatment plant, right?

This isn't the picture I had in my mind of my property this spring, not after II practically emptied the big box stores in a 50- mile radius of pavers and wall blocks (both were on sale) this past winter. Yes, the plan was to design and build an incredible patio behind our home. (Ahhh, starry summer evenings and me and the mrs. relaxing on comfy chairs, foo-foo drinks in hand, soft rock in the background.)

Instead, the yard's a disaster. The aging, sagging deck that graced the rear of our home has been reduced (finally) to a huge pile of weathered lumber. It's a toss up if that mess looks worse than the mess of the nearby huge stack of wall blocks and pavers, and all the other crap that accumulates around an abandoned work site — wheelbarrows, shovels, garden hoses.

All I need now to complete the picture of a landscape from hell is a sun-faded Pontiac Firebird on blocks and a clawfoot bathtub planted with petunias and marigolds.


I'm going to have to suck it up and get back to this project one of these days. — Ron Hall

Robots among us

I wouldn't worry -- yet.

Last year, Popular Science magazine ran an article entitled "Where's My Flying Car?" It focused on a lot of the technology science fiction writers and movie makers implied we'd be enjoying right about now, including the ever desired flying vehicle.

OK, you can actually find a flying car, but these are the toys of those people whose bank portfolios use eight or nine digits, the people featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." For most of us the flying car remains a bit out of reach.

But time marches on. Technology advances and they have invented something to give pause — a robot that can pull weeds. That doesn't mean you should polishing your resume or heading back to finish that economics degree just yet. They've had robotic lawn mowers for awhile and not too many people have been put out of business.

Right now the robot only identifies 23 kinds of weeds. And if my yard is any indication, I'm still going to have to get out there and work even if I did have a mechanical weed pulling robot. If it ever becomes a viable, commercial product, we'll have to deal with it like everything else. Homeowners have their own mowers and still the market grows for our services. Like every other item that comes along, it's simply another tool to embrace to make us all more effective.

For more on the device please, click here.