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.
# # #

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