Joe Auteri, owner of Joseph Auteri Hardscape Consulting
took home a new iPad 2 courtesy of LM by posting the
low score in a 3-way, five-hole shoot out.
As much as I'd like to think it was folks stopping by to pick up a copy of the October issue, I suspect the increased traffic at Landscape Management's booth had more to do with our Wii Golf challenge and the chance to win an iPad 2.
Contestants earned their scores by playing three holes of Wii Golf on the beginner setting. Scores ranged from 2 under (three contestants earned that score sending them to a playoff) to 9 over (much closer to how I play in real life).
The three finalists played a five-hole contest on the expert setting. The winner was Joe Auteri, owner of Joseph Auteri Hardscape Consulting located in Rohnert Park, CA. Joe took home the iPad 2, which was "the highlight of the trip," he said.
Of course, maybe after he reads the October issue, he'll change his mind and declare that the highlight of his trip, right? No, I didn't think so. But it is a darn good issue if we do say so ourselves. If you like, you can check out the digital version of the issue here.
The calm before the storm. A shot down an empty aisle shortly before the show opens.
GIE+EXPO is wrapped up for another year. The final numbers on attendance have yet to be released, but my suspicion is they'll be up some from last year. I generally spend a lot of time walking the floor, and while it's entirely unscientific, I think there were more folks wandering through the aisles (at least I seemed to get stopped a lot more and had to make a few more detours around crowds admiring the latest piece of machinery.)
STIHL's lumberjack competition always brings out a crowd —even if it was a bit chilly.
Speaking of machinery, there were quite a few updates and introductions of new equipment. You'll learn more about all that in upcoming issues of Landscape Management and in our various newsletters. Most shows seem to develop a focus (for lack of a better word). And while I must admit it was a bit more of a challenge to discern this year's overriding sentiment, I think there were a couple of recurring themes:
First the economy. There was a lot of talk about the recession and how to best deal with it.
Second, social media. It's finding new ways to make its way into our lives and businesses.
Third, technology. Machines are becoming ever more sophisticated. They're improving our efficiency and productivity, driving our businesses to greater profitability.
I think my favorite reason for going to the show, however, is to see some of the folks we spend all year talking to on the phone, and of course, to meet a few new ones. This is an extraordinary industry in which we all work. And that is solely because of the people who comprise it. I'm already looking to head back to Louisville in 2012 (Oct. 24-26 in case you want to put it on you calendar). See you there.
There's always a mix of excitement and dread before the big Green Industry show. Excitement because it's an opportunity to see some old friends and touch base with new ones (and perhaps raise a glass or two in their honor).
It's an opportunity to see the latest products that make our lives easier and help us do our jobs better. There are myriad educational opportunities (many of LM's columnists are presenting at the educational portion of the show). You can download the full list of conference's events including the educational programs in PDF format here here.
In addition, there's always some time to eat a few good meals and maybe, just maybe, visit one of Louisville's interesting attractions (Louisville Slugger Museum, Muhammad Ali Museum, Fourth Street Live, etc.)
The dread comes because it usually means long nights, early days and lots and lots of walking. My advice to new attendees is where comfortable shoes. But even with that, it's a good tired, because you come away feeling like you've done and learned a great deal.
This is a big show with more than 17,000 participants expected arriving from more than 20 countries. They and the more than 750 exhibits will fill the 425,700 sq. ft. exhibit hall and the 19-acre outdoor demo area. In other words it's big. GIE+EXPO always seems to be growing, last year incorporating the Hardscape North America show. There are press conferences and demonstrations of all sorts throughout the show.
Feel free to stop by Landscape Management's booth #3018 if you get a free moment. Let us know what you think of the magazine, suggest a story idea or just to say hello. Of course, you might have to leave a card. There's a pretty good chance we'll be out on the show floor wearing out that pair of comfortable shoes.
Got an interesting question from a reader earlier today, and we thought you might be able to provide some feedback. First a little background.
The company has been using Sprint/Nextel for about 10 years. Most of the units are direct connect and a small number of them have phone service. The company also uses the Nextel GPS in the units to track technicians. The question is primarily one of cost. Should the company continue with the Sprint/Nextel approach or use another method.
1. Since all of the employees have their own phones, should the company pay for the Sprint/Nextel service?
2. What are your thoughts on using the GPS (Commettracker) on the phones versus installing GPS on the vehicles themselves?
A couple of issues come to mind: Is there a problem if you're using employees' personal phones for work related purposes. Are you going to pay for all or part of their service. Are you now liable to replace the phone if something happens to it.
Is there an ethical issue of tracking employees through a personal cell phone. They're not on the clock 24 hours a day.
We'd like your feedback. How are do you handle these issues. Your insight is much appreciated. Feel free to leave a comment here or send an email to djacobs@questex.com.
Burton Sperber, FASLA, founder and chairman of the board of directors of The ValleyCrest Landscape Cos., passed away a few days ago, just a few days before another business icon, Apple's Steve Jobs.
While more people around the world will remember Jobs for his technology innovations, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who had as wide an influence on the Green Industry as Burt Sperber.
I only had the opportunity to speak with Mr. Sperber a few times over the years, but his affable nature was clear. He was friendly and generous with his compliments. And after talking with others in the industry — those whose lives he influenced — it's not too much a stretch to say the world of landscaping would be vastly different had he not been a part of it.
Look for more on the life of Burton Sperber in the October issue of Landscape Management.
Most of Landscape Management's forays into pest management are related to grubs, armyworms and billbugs. It's not often we get to venture into the world of larger insects. Of course when one shows up right outside our window (an 11th floor mind you), we tend to take notice.
We had a little trouble identifying this little visitor in the photo above.
With a little help from our sister publication Pest Management Professional and one of the publication's contributors, Gerry Wegner, we got this description of the creepy crawly.
"This is a leaf-footed bug, Leptoglossus oppositus, looking for a way to get into the building in preparation of overwintering. It is a fall invader."
Wegner is the Technical Director, Staff Entomologist for Varment Guard Environmental Services Inc./ProGuard Commercial Pest Solutions.
So this little bug is really bumming the office out -- not so much because it's unpleasant to look at, but more because it's a harbinger of the season to come.
One Portland, OR landscaper got a surprise recently when he spotted a semi truck that had dragged an enormous boulder down the highway.
According to a report in the Oregon Salem-News, the landscaper noticed that a boulder was missing from a turnaround near a local IKEA store. The man then followed scrape marks the boulder had left in its wake all the way to one of Portland's interstates.
On the freeway (we presume the landscaper was driving), the landscaper reportedly saw the truck with the boulder underneath it and notified police. Officers suspected that the truck driver drove the wrong way around the IKEA turnaround, catching the landscape boulder in his rear axle.
Hearing the news harkened me back to my mom's 60th birthday celebration, a National Lampoon's-like family trip to Door County, WI. My nephews were 2 years old at the time, and my mom thought it would be fun for them if we drove to Wisconsin in an RV. Why, I don't know.
When my dad and I showed up to pick up the small RV he'd reserved just outside Chicago, we found that the company had mistakenly reserved a 35-footer for us. In case you're trying to picture it, it was the size of a yacht. When we met up with the rest of my family downtown, my mom was so worried about the RV's size that she forbade anyone to drive in it.
That would have been fine, except that it's illegal to park an RV in Chicago. So my dad had to drive the RV to Wisconsin--by himself. The rest of us followed in two separate cars--my mom and I in one car and my brother and his family in the other. Every time we turned a corner, we had to wait for my dad to follow; the RV was so huge, he could never make the turn the first time.
And so it went throughout the 9-hour drive down highways and one-lane roads. Our drive began in daylight and ended at 1 a.m. And it ended with a flourish--with my dad driving the RV right over a decorative boulder at the resort's entrance.
He dragged the boulder up the long drive and across the parking lot, where the boulder became wedged so tightly beneath the RV that the camper came to a halt. I awoke at 7:30 a.m. to the sound of a jackhammer pummeling rock.
The best part about the whole thing was that my mom's car broke down the last day of our trip.
She rode in the RV with my dad on the way home. The kids rode with my brother.
There's something special about those hulking old trees with their gnarled limbs snaking outward and upward. They just begged to be climbed. And few of us (at least when we were younger) could resist the appeal of wending our way through branches, a thick canopy of leaves protecting us from the harsh summer sun.
Mothers everywhere cringed at the very thought, their minds filled with worry about broken arms, but the allure was too much. Even as adults we might encourage our children to remain earthbound, but we struggle with the thought ... because we know. We know what it's like to dangle our legs from high above, to sit with a cool breeze gently rocking us on our perch, to relax without a care.
That's why it's nice to see a celebration of those trees. The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) has put together a traveling photography exhibit — 2010 Landslide: Every Tree Tells a Story. The exhibition features 26 images of 12 different
locations in the US and Puerto Rico, opens Sept. 16 at 21c Museum,
Louisville, Ky., and runs through Jan. 8, 2012.
Landslide: Every Tree Tells a Story is an exhibit that travels around the country and will be open to those visiting Louisville, KY during the GIE+EXPO. The Davey Tree Expert Co. is the presenting sponsor.
Here's what the website says about the Louisville exhibit at the 21c Museum: Olmsted Parks and Parkways ‐Louisville, Ky. This system consists of three flagship parks (Cherokee, Shawnee, and Iroquois) and the six parkways that connect them, all designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. and his sons. For more than three decades, the Olmsted
firm shaped the city — 18 parks and 14.5 miles of boulevards in all —
each designed in deference to natural topographic attributes. Today some
6,000 trees from the Olmsted design era provide the city its mature
tree canopy. Photography by Bob Hower.
For more information about the exhibition, click here.
The Intelligent Use of Water™ Film Competition invites filmmakers from around the world to promote the urgent need for water conservation. Now that we've narrowed our almost 150 entries down to the final six, we need help from Green Industry professionals like you.
Vote now for your favorite film. The finalist with the most votes will earn the 2011 Green Industry Award of $6,000. For each of the first 2,000 votes received, Rain Bird will donate $1 to the Ground Water Foundation. As a thank you, the first 2,000 voters will also receive a FREE Rain Bird hat. Click here to view our six finalists and cast your ballot.
It would be hard to overstate the importance of water to our industry. And in many parts of the country that valuable resource is a scarce commodity. In an effort to promote the value of conserving water, Rain Bird is once again hosting its "Intelligent Use of Water" film competition.
There are six films vying for top honors ($6,000) in The Green Industry division. Voting is taking place now and your input is welcome.
You've got to like headlines that have the words "landscaping" and "win-win" together.
An article in the Seaway (Cornwall, Ontario Canada) News newsletter highlighted a program designed to put youth (here defined as between the ages of 15 and 30) into the landscaping trade. It's a program called "Youth in Landscaping," which is part of the Canadian government's Individual Skills Enhancement program, which is all part of Service Canada.
In this case the youth spend three days a week in the field and two in the classroom learning everything from CPR and resume writing to the finer points of hardscaping. For more on the program, read the full article here.
Even as hundreds of landscapers from around the country descended upon Arlington National Cemetery, the place seemed quiet and still.
Even as they dug, hammered, limed, aerated and cabled, the cemetery resounded with an uncanny peaceful hush, as if the cemetery itself is as resilient as those it holds once were.
Perhaps it was the row upon row of white gravestones, situated in symmetrical straight lines.
Or the grass, so well kept it’s still green in this sweltering summer.
Or the stately towering old trees that show no signs of withering.
Or the striking contrast of green and white everywhere you look.
For whatever reasons, the scene’s all very picaresque, even when you come to the shocking realization that those graves all hold the bodies of people who once were very much alive, people who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.
The landscapers were at the cemetery as part of the Professional Landcare Networks’ (PLANET’s) day of Renewal & Remembrance, in which landscapers from across the country flock to D.C. once a year to landscape Arlington National Cemetery.
The Renewal & Remembrance effort embodies the very traits of Arlington National Cemetery itself: duty, honor and strength. Every cemetery is sacred. But there’s something about Arlington that feels just a little more powerful, a little more historic, a little more majestic than the others.
Few tears were shed. There was no laughter, either. Just reverence. For the 15th annual year, landscapers paid their respects in the best way they know how: through their work.
Chopping down a tree, even the spindliest of them all, is no easy task for yours truly. Persistence paid off, though! I enjoyed trying my hand at arboriculture ever so briefly (with a little guidance), but I'm sticking with my day job.
The zoom. The deafening drone of the cars' engines. One bright blur after the other. The overwhelming aroma of burning rubber.
NASCAR inundates your senses from every direction. The best way to describe it is to show it through pictures and video. Thanks very much to Warren and Polly and the rest of the folks behind the GIE Expo for hosting us on Saturday! Amazing!
Running a business is hard, but it's generally not a life and death experience.
Bruce Allentuck of Allentuck Landscaping recently participated in the Death Race, something that can only be described as one of the most physically and mentally challenging, events ever devised. And Bruce participated not only voluntarily, but eagerly.
Bruce details the experience in his blog here. All we can say is congrats to Bruce for undertaking such a monumental challenge.
The city might get the blame, but it's the landscaping industry that looks bad. A news story on KRGV.com which serves Rio Grande Valley, Texas explained how McAllen City contracted landscapers are dumping grass clippings, which get washed down city drains, clogging them, which results in flooding.
The city had been blaming residents for the problem and was quoted as saying: "It gets in the system because it sits in the yards or the parking lots. They'll come through and mow their lawn and blow it into the inlets,” said McAllen Emergency Manager Pilar Rodriguez."
According to one landscaper the KRGV reporter talked to, the only directive workers were given was "keep it out of the streets," so it was being left on the already cut grass next to the roads.
Just wondering who pays the $500 fine if it's the city's workers who are violating the city's ordinance.
Turns out sheep aren't the only eco-friendly animals to work in the landscaping market. It seems a trio of pigs have joined a Loughborough, England landscaping team to help clean up a local park.
Yeah, that's right: pigs.
Turns out a trio of porcine laborers borrowed from Brooksby Melton College to clear an acre or so of they city's Beacon Hill Country Park, according to inLoughborough.com.
Apparently the young pigs are particularly suited to the job. "The Welsh Pig is an old rare breed which is very hardy and is favoured for its management capabilities," according to the article, which can be read in full here.
In Jan. 2009 the European Parliament approved new European Union pesticide regulations. They went into force recently. The UK publication HorticultureWeek reports that the regulations could result in the loss of 19 active ingredients in crop protection products used by the horticulture industry there.
"The new EU legislation is going to have an impact. The potential losses are large and there is a huge degree of uncertainty in the process. We've been working with worst case scenario assumptions and it probably won't be as bad as that, but some products are likely to be lost when we are already at the bare bones. It shows that there is a real problem here," Paul Chambers, Plant Health Adviser of the National Farm Union is quoted in the article.
When the A.I's will be pulled from the market is uncertain.
The following A.I's, some of which most of you will recognize, are not expected to be around when 2020 arrives, according to the article:
It really makes us wonder who was doing the voting. A 28-year-old British landscaper won the title of Britain's "Best Builder's Bum." You can read the story and see the now famous backside here. Apparently, Billy Clark, of the magnificent tush, from Writtle in Essex (love British city names) beat out a "shapely" female contestant, and he's considering (tongue in cheek we think) of moonlighting as a "stunt bottom" in movies. For more on the story (and to get your fill of rear-related puns) read the story from Britain's mailonline.com
Spring-Green Lawn Care, the 34-year-old multi-regional lawn care service provider based in Plainfield, IL, still uses and gets acceptable sales results with direct mail. Even in this age of Twitter, Facebook and Groupon. Not that Spring-Green President James Young is old-fashioned or anything, but he tells nbcchicago.com/blog that social media doesn't work for everything. He believes social media and digital marketing are good for staying in touch with and responding to clients' and prospects' questions. But with direct mail you can better reach prospects with your message and special offers — i.e. acquiring customers. Click on nbcchicago.com/blog to read the short interview. Whether you agree or not, you’ll find Young’s views on the new media worthwhile.
Checking out the equipment at the 14th Annual Snow and Ice Symposium. More than 1,300 people are expected. Lots to see this year, including the SnowDozer B.A.T. and other new plows. Pretty cool so far!
Attend a turfgrass field day this summer. Many public land-grant universities with turf programs put one on each summer or early fall. These are great educational and networking events. A recent visit to the East Tennessee Research & Education Center just outside of Knoxville, TN, reminded us what you can miss by letting yourself get too busy to show up.
We were among about 150 other turf and sports field managers participating in the Sports Turf Managers Association (STMA) Regional Summer Conference at the University of Tennessee.
The gently rolling outdoor research site on the banks of the broad Tennessee River now features 15 acres of turfgrass research plots thanks to the efforts of the University of Tennessee’s turf team, in particular Dr. John Sorochan. When Sorochan joined the university nine years ago after earning his Ph.D. at Michigan State University the site contained no turfgrass plots. Zero. Nada.
Tennessee’s Turfgrass Field Day is Sept. 15. This should be a must-attend event, especially for sports field managers in the South and Mid-South. Sorochan and his team, thanks to the generosity of the Peebles family and its AstroTurf company, developed The University of Tennessee Center for Athletic Field Safety. The outdoor research facility has 60 small-scale athletic research fields build from a variety of playing surfaces — from the professional level to the public park level.
Initial research there started in the fall of 2010. Sorochan and his colleages will share some preliminary findings at Tennessee’s Turfgrass Field Day, Sept. 15.
Check the date for the Turfgrass Field Day nearest you and plan on attending. We can guarantee you a barbecue pork sandwich, Marconi or potato salad and ice tea lunch — and the latest research information about turfgrass and its management in your neck of the country.
Turfgrass Growers Association in the United Kingdom this week provided water companies with new information to help educate homeowners that there's no need to water established turf.
Four new factsheets, available from its website at www.turfgrass.co.uk, focus on looking after newly laid and established lawns in warm, dry weather.
They advise homeowners to avoid watering established lawns after the driest spring in 20 years put pressure on water supplies.
Tim Mudge, Chief Executive of the TGA, whose members produce more than 70% of the turf grown in the British Isles, says that during hot weather, the watering of established lawns is, in most situations, wasteful and unnecessary.
"Our message is not to worry if your lawn goes brown during the summer. Going brown is the natural survival mechanism of grass. When water is in short supply grass responds by shutting down. The brown color shows that it has stopped growing until more favorable conditions return. We all have an obligation to use water responsibly and we're trying to do our bit to get the water conservation message across."
The TGA also reminded water companies that grass does, indeed, need water to get established. It recommended a discretionary 28 day exemption from discretionary use bans for newly laid turf.
Summer 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the second of two U.S. Senate sub-committee hearings on pesticide use by the lawn care industry. The first hearing on Capitol Hill took place the previous summer. Senators John Warner (R-VA), Harry Reid (D-NV) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) conducted the hearings. Representatives from the lawn care industry and pesticide critics, including people claiming to have been harmed by them, testified.
The professional lawn care industry was understandably concerned. The hearings marked the first time that the industry came under the national media spotlight. And, it was clear from the start that the hearings weren’t being called to pat the industry on its back for ridding the nation’s lawns of crabgrass and dandelions. Their purpose was to determine if the industry’s use of lawn care chemicals was harmful to the health of customers.
Scrutiny fails to uncover hazards
Industry professionals, business owners and spokespeople from the Professional Lawn Care Industry of America (PLCAA) defended industry practices. Industry critics received equal time to state their case. Overall, their testimony was, for the most part, anecdotal rather than substantive. In one instance it bordered on silly when the manufacturer of a “natural” lawn care product suggested that homeowners pay neighborhood children a nickel for each dandelion they dig from their yards. The supplier earnestly floated this as an alternative to professionally applied weed controls.
(You can’t make this stuff up. I had a front-row seat to both hearings.)
In the end, neither Capitol Hill hearing gave the senators ammunition enough to move against the industry or the products it uses. In terms of damning revelations the hearings were a flop.
Even so, the hearings led to the establishment of Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE), representing the specialty chemical industry, which has since successfully defended the industry's right to use pesticide products. The U.S. lawn care industry remains healthy in spite of the economic turmoil of the past several years and (to my knowledge anyway) has not been proven to result in any undue health risk either for lawn care customers, the public at large or chemical applicators.
A different sort of celebration
Coincidentally, this summer marks the 20th anniversary of the Town of Hudson in Quebec Province banning the use of most synthetic pesticides for lawn care. The town is planning a special celebration on June 18. Hudson’s Awakening Festival will reportedly feature 14 speakers from across North America, including Paul Tukey, who has fashioned a high profile career bashing the lawn care industry's use of traditional pesticides.
Tukey, who claims that lawn care chemicals harmed his health when he was as a lawn care professional in Maine, travels the United States and Canada promoting pesticide bans wherever. Articulate and media savvy, Tukey has deftly positioned himself as the champion of the anti-pesticide movement in lawn care, and is in high demand as a speaker.
Whether out of genuine concern over the health effects of pesticides, entrepreneurial opportunism or a combination of the two, Tukey’s efforts have the potential to contribute to the failure of thousands of businesses and the loss of tens of thousands of lawn care jobs in the United States. That’s a lot of damage to be directing at an industry on what is (being generous) flimsy and poorly documented evidence of harmful effects.
The consequences of what Tukey and other like-minded individuals (for whatever reasons) are promoting are staggering. Witness Canada’s rapidly shrinking lawn care industry where provinces and local governments have implemented a welter of pesticides bans, each with its own set of rules.
All of this has taken place since Hudson’s landmark victory to enact its ban. Is this is something to be celebrated, really?
Perhaps forgotten in the town's 20th anniversary Awakening Festival is that the issue, at least from the courts’ rulings, wasn't about the safety of lawn care pesticides, at all. The courts' ruling upheld the town’s right to enact its own legislation. — Ron Hall
Feel strongly about water conservation issues? Now's your chance to put your passion --and creativity -- to good use. Create a short film about responsible water conservation for a shot at $6,000 and a trip to the awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, CA (Sept. 20).
Films should range from 1 to 10 minutes in length. Submissions are accepted until Aug. 1. For contest rules, a look at past winners and more information, visit http://www.iuowfilm.com.
Boulder, CO, with the Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, is a beautiful city and home to the University of Colorado. Those leaning to the right on the political scale sometimes refer to Boulder as “The Republic of Boulder” for its progressive attitude on environmental and social issues. (Image courtesy UC-Boulder)
Therefore, we weren’t surprised to read that CU-Boulder will begin using compost tea rather than synthetic fertilizers and conventional pesticides to keep its common areas healthy and weed free.
The first phase of the program will cut the use of herbicides on turf areas this season by 45% compared to the 2009 season, and by 93% by the end of 2012, said an article on dailycamera.com. Student leaders think it’s a grand idea.
Switching from traditional products to compost tea (aided by some hand weeding) is going to be costly. Frank Bruno, vice chancellor for planning and administration at CU-Boulder, says the switchover could cost $90,000 extra a year. (Ouch!).
We’re not pooh-poohing compost teas, which have intrigued some of the industry’s more adventuresome professionals for decades. We’ve interviewed more than a few landscape/lawn service professionals who swear by their brews in improving plant performance and suppressing diseases. Almost to the person, they say their biggest challenges are manufacturing consistent product from batch to batch and producing teas in sufficient quantities for commercial purposes.
A good place to start if you're curious about compost teas is a fact sheet “Compost Tea: Miracle or Marketing Gimmick,” by Linda Chalker-Scott, associate professor and extension horticulturist, at Washington State University.
Tom Oyler loves to sell. He founded and sold U.S. Lawns, and has sold millions of dollars of products, services and companies over the past three decades. He owns and still actively runs several Florida-based companies in addition to partnering with Bruce Wilson in their successful consulting business, Wilson-Oyler Group.
Oyler's an entertaining speaker, too. We attended the recent Next Level Network University and participated in a spirited day-long selling seminar with Oyler and a group of talented managers from top U.S. landscape companies.
Here's Tom's top 10 things to think about in the sales process:
1. Qualify prospects. (No bad meat in your camp. Laser sharp value proposition. Time management.)
2. Maintenance services are short-cycle and renewable services. (You do not have to sell the customer; you have to suppress the competition. Build value chains. Empathetically engineer sales solutions)
3. Build market density. (A crew behind glass is just burning gas. Speed of service and service recovery. Lower supervisory costs.)
4. Do the math. (Data base management. Time management. Meeting goals.)
5. Inside sales support may be needed. (Inexpensive. Accurate. Routine.)
6. Get there first. (Build your brand. Understand market trends. Alter pricing strategies. Sell strategically.)
7. Invest in your client. (Be selflessly selfish.)
8. Become a business leader. (Within your company. Within your community.)
9. Build trust. (Communications. Corporate and competency.)
10. Gain subject matter and domain matter expert status. (Be the knowledge leader.)
We all know it's a lot cheaper to keep customers than it is to go out and find new ones. Customer loyalty is a tenuous thing these days, with so many looking for the best deal. It was quite refreshing to read a story about a customer loyalty that we imagine will be pretty hard to beat.
A Chillicothe, Ohio woman has been a customer with her local bank since before World War I. June Gregg, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday still has the account her father set up for her in 1913. For more on the story, read the Associated Press article here.
Have you got a customer loyalty story? Let us here about it: djacobs@questex.com.
"Green" or "sustainability" or whatever term you want to give to this new era of resource preservation and ecological regeneration is resulting in some far-fetched environmental claims.
A recent one coming to my attention involves a grass seed marketer — not a name most of you would recognize — that's aggressively marketing the environmental benefits of its grass seed mixtures. The company makes some rather exaggerated (remarkable?) claims for its products.
On its website it says that buyers/users of its grass seed need only mow once a month, seldom or never water (after establishment), that it thrives without chemicals and grows 12-in.-deep roots.
Yes, in theory, the grass seed mixtures it sells (a 5-lb. bag costs about $35) will probably survive and may even result is a sward acceptable to a "naturalist" with minimal care. But, my guess is that most people buying these products and expecting to have attractive, high-quality lawns without watering, fertilizing and by mowing just once a month are going to be sorely disappointed.
What do these "environmental" lawn seed mixtures contain? It turns out they're comprised of different ratios of fine fescues, turf-type tall fescues, Kentucky bluegrasses and perennial ryegrasses.
The fine fescues (hard, creeping red and chewings) predominate in the shade mixtures, with Kentucky bluegrass and tall fescues making up a goodly portion of the sunny mixtures. Combining improved varieties of these different species for different growing conditions (sun and share) are a common practice by grass seed marketers.
The fact that this company’s website bears the seal of approval of SafeLawns.org should be enough of a tipoff that this company is aiming its marketing at the naive consumer. And, judging by the press this company is getting, the naive media. (Hey, I've been a part of the media for 40-plus years, and will regretfully admit to being naive on more than a few occasions.)
I hope this one example isn't indicative of where the landscape industry is going in terms of its commitment to sustainable products and services. — Ron Hall
Word comes that some Canadians are buying pesticides online or crossing into the United States to get weed killers and insecticides. The authorities have been informed. This is a no-no. Several provinces in Canada, including Ontario, have banned the sale and use of almost all traditional lawn care pest control products.
Could it be that some Canadian homeowners are fed up with how their properties look? From what we've been told from lawn care pros there, the so-called“natural” or “organic” replacements for these government-approved weed killers are:
—more expensive —require the use of more product —more frequent applications and —provide less satisfactory results.
Moreover, whether these products are “safer” than those they've replaced is debatable. Any reasonable discussion relating to the relative “safety” of pesticides — alternative vs traditional — is now unlikely because the issue has become so emotional and politicized.
Even so, not every Canadian homeowner is enamored with lawn weeds, one of which is now apparently in consideration as the country’s official weed. OK, that’s not funny. Let it be said here first: There’s no chance, absolutely no chance, the national flag will become known as The Dandelion rather than The Maple Leaf.
We don’t condone illegal activities of any kind. We're merely commenting that some of our fine neighbors from the north are crossing our U.S. border to buy weed killers. Here’s a recent news article about that: “Gardeners cross-border shop for illegal pesticides.”
Rarely do we feature products on this blog. The LM staff's postings are not for sale. Our criteria for posting is simple — helping readers offer better service, save time and money, be more environmentally responsible.
Michigan contractor Mark Bruinius came up with a product, TankShield, that helps contractors save money by stopping fuel theft from skid tanks. We're passing along the information because we've heard lots of stories about equipment and fuel theft this spring.
Bruinius, who ran a landscaping business for 15 years, contacted us after reading the article "Theft: Lock it up" in our Feb. 2011 issue.
Maybe like you, he had a problem preventing fuel theft from his skid tanks. He had three 500-gal. tanks — unleaded, on-road and off-road diesel. Most of the theft involved small amounts taken periodically. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t figure out a way to stop it. It took the theft of $1,100 worth of unleaded fuel for him to say “enough.”
After a lot of experimentation, he came up with a rugged patented product made of 12-gauge steel and secured with using puck-style lock that allows his employees (those he trusts with keys) to access the pump through the front door. A unique internal slide rod at the rear door allows his fuel distributor to fill the tanks.
Bruinius, who manufactures the TankShields in Michigan, says they’re available in 550 and 1000 gal. UL, non-UL, double-walled tanks and high-flow pump models.
Always feel free to share your ideas with us and we’ll pass them along so that others can benefit from your experiences.
John Levonsky, JK Landscaping, speaking to WINK News in southwest Florida, referred to the thieves that hit his company as “being like ghosts.” They cut a hole in the chain link fence at his company’s holding yard in Bonita Springs, FL, and selectively picked out and made off with thousands of dollars worth of his equipment.
“They came in, took it, closed the doors, put the locks back in their place and just disappeared,” Levonsky told the TV station reporter.
Similiar discouraging reports from across the United States and Canada have been filling the news wires. It almost seems like an epidemic this spring. Thieves apparently see landscaping equipment as easy pickens’. The small stuff is easy to fence for fast cash. Apparently, it’s no problem to move the big stuff, too — commercial mowers, skid steers, loaders etc. Thieves even make off with trucks with loaded landscape trailers.
There are two huge costs to equipment theft:
1. The monetary cost represented by the loss of the equipment. Make sure equipment is properly insured!
2. Downtown and loss of production while replacement equipment is rounded up. This will spoil any landscaper's day. Levonsky, speaking to the WINK reporter, took his loss more philosophically than most.
"You shut down for a day, you regroup, you can't let it get you down. You just gotta keep moving,” he said.
When we polled readers earlier this year, more than 60% of respondents said they had been ripped off at least once in the past three years; some said they'd been hit multiple times.
For great information about how to reduce the risk of theft of your stuff, click on our special spring report — "Theft: Lock it up."
The Ohio State University turf team has put together a very nice digital publication, “The Benefits of Turf.” This is something you may want to share with customers, prospects or local regulatory officials. Click on “The Benefits of Turf,” and I think you will agree that this is nicely done.
That was the estimated total economic contribution (revenue) for the U.S. Green Industry in 2007. Landscaping services contributed $86.6 billion. That was the largest of the 17 industry categories in the report.
Here are some numbers gathered from the 61-page report:
— The Green Industry employed almost two million full- and part-time workers in '07 with approximately half employed in landscaping services. — Labor earnings in the Industry exceeded $53 billion with landscaping services again the largest segment handing out $28 in paychecks.
— California led the nation in Industry output contributions at about $25 billion. It was followed by Florida at $15 billion, Illinois 8.2 billion and Ohio approximately $7 billion.
— The Green Industry represented 0.76% of U.S. gross domestic product in 2007.
The report makes great bathroom reading. To download a pdf of the report click here.
