Hard-luck Texas family wins lawn care franchise

Wesley Neukam and his family in Corpus Christi, TX, are getting a fresh start in rebuilding their lives after winning a lawn care franchise from Clean Air Lawn Care. Neukam won:

o A Clean Air Lawn Care franchise, along with ongoing support, valued at $35,000.
o Lawn equipment donated by Black & Decker, valued at $1,000.
o Patagonia Clean Air Clothing, valued at - $200.

The Ft. Collins, CO-based, lawn care company launched the contest this past October with applications submitted online. Four finalists were eventually selected and invited to post online broadcasts to be voted on by the public through December.

"There are many hard-working Americans who are currently recovering from unexpected events. We are happy to do our part by giving a chance to someone who has the skills, passion and determination to be successful, but who may not have the means," said Kelly Giard, founder and CEO of Clean Air Lawn Care, whose company and franchisees use electric mowing equipment and offer organic lawn care. Currently it numbers 27 territories across the United States.

This past year was a tough year for Neukam and his family. We wish them a much better 2011. To hear his story and watch his winning video, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqQTyBvpg7g.

Mowing slopes with a joystick instead of an employee?

The new remote-control mower looks like the Mars Rover, only it has tracks instead of wheels. You operate it like one of those monster trucks that you bought your kid for Christmas. In fact, Mississippian John Wright, the developer of the new remote-control mower (actually there are several models) says he got the idea more than a decade ago by tinkering with a Power Wheels Barbi Jeep, an alternator, a remote-control car and a lawn mower.

But it wasn’t until he was inspired by Battle Bots, a program on cable television, and did a lot of research on the Internet that he finally put together a working prototype. Now his company, The Summit Lawn Mower Company, is manufacturing and selling remote-control mowers that he says solve the safety problem associated with mowing steep banks.

Here's the news release from the company:

Remote control lawn mowers from The Summit Lawn Mower Company utilize a self-charging power system while remaining practical on any lawn. And, of course the most environmentally friendly mower is still the push reel from the good old days of Beaver Cleaver. But then again, it boils down to the practicality of the mower. If not many people use it, it is not doing the environment any good. Slope mowing capabilities up to 50 degrees is where the Summit Lawn Mower Company line of remote control lawn mowers really become practical, and not just fun. Lawn care professionals are benefiting from increased productivity. A lawn care professional generally resorts to six or eight men, equipped with time consuming weed eaters, for slopes over 30 degrees. Now they use one man, equipped with a remote control lawn mower, to take on the slopes and ditches. Their other crew members are out focusing on productivity by keeping the wheels spinning on their fleet of zero-turn mowers.

To see a video of one of the company's remote-control mowers doing its thing, visit http://www.summitmowers.com.

P.S., if any of you have tested or used one of these mowers, we'd love for you to share your experience.

Fertilizer prices on the rise; here's why

Consider subscribing to the Purdue University TurfTip enewsletter. It always contains great information. Here's the latest post by Purdue's Bruce Erickson, of the university's agricultural economics department. As you're aware fertilizer prices are rising again; here's why.

By Bruce Erickson, Ph.D.

Fertilizer prices are on the upswing again, buoyed by the high prices of agricultural products that have stimulated increased demand. While the general U.S. economy struggles to recover from the financial crisis of 2008, the demand for agricultural products continues in a strong position due to favorable exchange rates, grain usage for biofuels, production concerns related to recent unfavorable weather in key crop growing regions, and a host of other factors. Higher fertilizer prices have put heavy users such as farmers, lawn care companies, and golf course superintendents on the defensive trying to best manage the input costs of their businesses. The following explains some factors that influence fertilizer prices and possible strategies in dealing with high and fluctuating prices.


Ten-year summary of prices charged by retailers to farmers for urea. 2000 to 2010 information is U.S. average for April each year. 2011 is based on a January survey of Illinois retailers. Source: USDA.

Prices Influenced by World Markets and Energy Fertilizer prices reached record levels in 2008 just prior to the financial crisis, with the prices of some key fertilizer materials such as anhydrous ammonia and diammonium phosphate exceeding $1000 per ton. Prices retreated in 2009 and 2010, but began increasing again last fall. The price of urea is approximately twice what it was a decade ago (see figure). In the 1980s the United States was a significant nitrogen exporter--now more than 57% of nitrogen used in the U.S. is imported (2008 data). Most commercial nitrogen fertilizers originate from a process that uses natural gas to convert the nitrogen gas in the air into a form usable by crops. Natural gas prices in other parts of the world are a fraction of what they are in the United States, so it is often more economical to produce there even considering transportation costs. Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, Russia, and the Middle East are major suppliers to the U.S.

Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) fertilizer sources such as DAP (Diammonium phosphate, 18-46-0) and muriate of potash (0-0-60) originate mostly from open or underground mines, with the bulk of production controlled by a handful of companies. The U.S. is the world’s leading supplier/exporter of phosphorus fertilizers, but imports most of its potassium from Canada. Investments in fertilizer mining and manufacturing are often long-term commitments and companies often lack the ability to adjust quickly to short-term market conditions.

Fertilizer Pricing is Complex

Fertilizer is not traded on a common exchange like stocks, currencies, or grains, so it can be much more difficult to get a read on prices. In addition, fertilizers are heavy, bulky commodities and their transport involves expense, time, and logistical constraints. Many customers also depend on their suppliers for fertilizer storage and specialized application equipment. So the market is not as fluid as many other inputs—users aren’t as likely to shop around and then just go pick up what they need as they might for chemicals or seeds.

Dealing With High Fertilizer Prices

Using the correct form and amount of fertilizer to achieve the desired plant response maximizes efficient input use and keeping costs in check. Fertilizer suppliers may be willing to enter into contractual arrangements with their larger customers that specify a future quantity and price, to help them manage their own price risk as well as that of their customers. In addition, some larger fertilizer users have also built their own bulk storage facilities that allow them to capitalize on seasonal price advantages or other price trends.

For more information on fertilizer pricing, check out:

Illinois Production Costs Report, Illinois Department of Agriculture: http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/gx_gr210.txt

Agricultural Prices, United States Department of Agriculture: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/MannUsda/viewDocumentInfo.do?documentID=1002

Factors Shaping Price and Availability of This Year’s Fertilizer Market, 2008, Purdue Agricultural Economics: http://www.agecon.purdue.edu/news/financial/Fertilizer_Market.pdf

To subscribe to TurfTips, go to https://lists.purdue.edu/mailman/listinfo/turftips

Long Island group tries to ignite statewide ban on lawn care pesticide use

The Long Island Neighborhood Network has issued a call to arms for all anti-pesticide proponents in New York to stand up and be counted. The 26-year-old activist organization is kicking off a campaign today (Dec. 30, 2010) in Huntington, NY, pushing for a statewide ban on the use of "toxic" lawn care chemicals.

"We don’t believe the use of poisons that can harm our health, our families, our drinking water and the environment is justified for keeping weeds out of lawns and insects out of flowerbeds. The risk associated with these pesticides is unacceptable, because safer, effective organic methods and low-risk materials are available. If you agree, join us there, bring a sign and demonstrate with us, sign the petition and make your voice heard. If you can’t make it, write your State Legislators," proclaimed the group, seeking to ignite a statewide uprising against the use of common lawn care products.

It is not known how many people will show up for the campaign kickoff, including lawn care professionals, the people that are trained, have long used these products and have the most at stake should the campaign gain steam.

Will this be the flame that ignites NY legislation similar to that enacted in Ontario Province several years ago? If it does it will seriously harm the lawn care industry there and likely encourage groups in neighboring states to seek similar bans. — Ron Hall

Flash: Here's an update on the rally held on Long Island to protest the use of lawn care chemicals. The Long Island Press reported Jan. 1 that "a small group huddled in a parking lot" in downtown Huntington. Three of the huddlers wore haz-mat suits and others flashed signs. Doesn't exactly sound like a groundswell of support for the effort in spite of the ambitious name of MillionsOfVoters.org, the organizer. Read the account of the rally here.

Did you ever consider getting into the Christmas tree rental business?

Landscape designer Scott Martin (aka Scotty Claus) rents living, healthy Christmas trees to families and businesses in and around Los Angeles. Apparently he's not the first guy to come up with the idea, but nobody else has garnered the avalanche of positive press that he and his company, Living Christmas, reeled in as this past Christmas approached.

The Los Angeles Times and New York Times were just two of many media outlets that profiled (or blogged) Scotty Claus and his unique service.

Martin did a soft rollout of the service in 2008. The idea has (pardon the pun) taken root. This holiday season, according to an article in the LA-area Daily Breeze, he expected to place 2,000 rented Christmas trees, more than three times the total he rented in 2009. According to that newspaper article he charges $25 to $125 to rent a tree with delivery charges based on the size of the tree.

The Daily Breeze article gives a pretty good description of Martin's operation.

What do you think, something for those of you in the landscape lighting business to consider adding to the mix?

Guest worker piece draws fire. . .as usual

A recent opinion piece in The Arizona Republic made a case for a workable guest worker program, and this in a state with the toughest laws against undocumented workers.

The writer of the piece relates how the U.S. population is aging and the country will need more young people to tend and harvest our fruits and vegetables. Or make the beds in our hotel rooms. Or mow our lawns. Or shuck our oysters. Or degut the chickens or whittle the beeves in our huge factory-like meat processing facilities. (OK, the writer didn't mention all of the nasty, hot or bloody occupations open to any red-blooded U.S. citizen needing a job, but seemingly always only able to attract willing foreign-born workers.)

But, judging from the posted responses to the piece, you would have thought that the writer had just endorsed the Communist Manifesto with a return to Prohibition tossed into the mix. Write anything positive about allowing foreign-born workers into this country to work or perform services (even, educated, hi-tech types) and, wow, you're sure to hear from "America is only for us Americans" crowd, apparently not mindful that — assuming they're not native Americans — they or their ancestors were once immigrants.

In the case of the recent newspaper opinion piece, more than a couple of the responders pointed to our nation's high unemployment rate as an argument against allowing guest workers to take these repetitive, often exhausting, low-paying jobs. . . and this at a time when our national lawmakers have extended unemployment benefits for the chronically unemployed yet again. We can only imagine the response of guest workers to this extension — nice work if you can get it, right?

Read "Guest worker program is vital to U.S." in the Arizona Republic and if you think we're full of beans on this issue, fire away. — Ron Hall

9.5 Secrets to Growing a Lawn Care Company

This blog is especially for those of you in the lawn care business. After you read it click on Barrett Ersek's 9.5 Secrets to Growing a Lawn Care Company. Ersek is CEO of Holganix, a relatively new company headquartered in Glen Mills, PA, that markets its own proprietary natural organic fertilizer. But, for the time being, let’s get beyond any discussion of natural versus synthetic.

Barrett, who has built and sold two successful lawn care companies, knows that to be successful (business or life) you have to share. In this case, Barrett is sharing some great free information with his 9.5 Secrets to Growing a Lawn Care Company.

It’s often said that free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it. But I can tell you, had I listened to and heeded some of the free advice coming my way over the years I would have avoided a lot of kicks to the posterior. . . Ron Hall

An appreciated enewsletter from California

Those of us in the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes are out plowing snow or planning for the coming season. A storm walloped us this past weekend with ferocious winds, frigid temperatures and snow. Lots of snow.

So, getting a enewsletter from California showing an incredible garden was welcome. The enewsletter from Madrone Landscape also offered us some great information about water use, an issue that's growing in importance for our industry.

With greater urgency we’ve been researching and writing about water issues and how they’re affecting our landscape industry. Mostly we’ve focused on irrigation, the act of applying water to green living landscapes under our care.

But, that’s just part of the urban landscape water picture. The other equally important part is runoff. How do we keep storm water from overloading our treatment systems or flushing pollutants into our waterways?

Landscape professionals do clients and their communities an awesome service when they design and install landscapes that capture and use rainwater on site, assuming, of course, the design does not create drainage problems for structures or neighboring properties.

Writes Josh Carmichael, construction division manager at Madrone Landscapes in Atascadero, CA, in the company’s latest newsletter: “ Rainwater harvesting is quickly becoming a smart trend nationwide as people are looking to save money, protect water bodies, or keep their wells from drying up. There are many ways, simple to complex, to store rainwater for future irrigation use or allow it to infiltrate directly into the ground in a rain garden or bioswale.”

In Madrone’s market, a non-profit known as SLO Green Build will be releasing a guide on rainwater harvesting soon, he writes. This is a follow up guide to its Graywater guide released last year.

“These are both great ways to irrigate your garden with a local, free, environmentally friendly water source year round,” writes Carmichael, who is principal of Carmichael Environmental Consultants.

“Locally, SLO Green Build, a non-profit environmental construction coalition, is due to release a guide on rainwater harvesting strategies for county residents later this month. This is a follow up guide to complement their Graywater guide released last year. These are both great ways to irrigate your garden with a local, free, environmentally friendly water source year round.” — Ron Hall

We want this guy on our team

Who says hard work doesn't pay off? Hey, it doesn't hurt to have smarts, drive and a willingness to help others, as well.

Jarret Krueger, a student at Wellington High School, has the complete package and earned himself a $48,000 Harry Gore Memorial Scholarship to Wichita State University, reported the Wichita Business Journal Dec. 9. (Image courtesy Wichita State University.)

We could list all of the activities and accomplishments of this young man (4.2 weighted GPA, managing the vending operations at Wellington High, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, etc.) . . . but since this blog is devoted to matters "green" we will just mention that Krueger's been running his own Krueger Lawn Service these past five years, which kinda makes us proud.

Jarret will be studying entrepreneurship at Wichita State. (Why doesn't that surprise us?)

There's no sugar-coating the effects of this economy on our industry

I just came back from the Lawn Care/Pest Control Summit in Atlanta, GA, this past Friday. It was put on by the Professional Landcare Association (PLANET) and National Pest Management Association. I'm guessing there were between 150 and 200 participants.

Over the course of several days there, I talked to more than a dozen owners and they told me that they're hanging on and some said they're continuing to grow their companies, although at a slower pace than prior to 2008. To the person, however, they said things could be better — a lot better. That's very evident in several recent news articles.

On Dec. 5, the Springfield (OH) News Sun reported that sod farmer Ivan Lavy decided it was time to call it quits after 20 years in business. On Saturday, Dec. 4, he put his turf and grass company on the auction block. The property was sold and will eventually be used for homes, commercial development and sports fields, the paper reported.

Kirk Hunter, executive director of Turfgrass Producers International, is quoted in the article as doubting that the sod business will never be as robust as it was in the mid 2005s, at the height of the homebuilding boom. But, he says it will return to health eventually.

To read the article in the springfieldnewssun.com, click here.

A sizable landscape company in Georgia also packed it in this past year. Lee Daniel lost Forever Green Lawn Care and Landscaping, Newnan, GA, that, at one time, employed 40 people. But, not only did he lose his livlihood, he lost his home, his wife and, in a touching article appearing in the Newnan Times-Herald newspaper, admits to almost taking his own life.

Daniel said that he rode the wave when the housing market crested several years ago, and when that wave crashed, his company crashed with it.

To read the article in the times-herald.com, click here. — Ron Hall

Forget the tie with the lightup reindeer nose; give dad a gift certificate for lawn care

A gift card to Sears for dad? Nah . . .Wouldn't a gift card for professional lawn service be more appreciated?

That's what Gerry Okimi, owner of Turf King Hamilton (Ontario, Canada) is promoting. He says his company is offering a limited number of special lawn vouchers throughout the month of December.

"During the upcoming holiday season with Christmas and Hanukkah approaching, many people will be wanting to give the gift of a healthy, green lawn to someone they love," says Okimi.

TruGreen Landcare being shopped around

In November, ServiceMaster's board of directors said it's exploring strategic alternatives designed to maximize value to shareholders. To that end, it's working with Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs as its advisors and Sidley Austin as its legal advisor.

Included in the company's Form 10Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Nov. 15, is the following comment regarding ServiceMaster’s TruGreen Landcare unit: “The Company is exploring strategic options relating to TruGreen LandCare, including the potential sale of the business.”

“The early indications we’ve seen in the market are that there is a solid interest in TruGreen LandCare, so we think the time is right to evaluate the opportunities," said ServiceMaster CEO J. Patrick Spainhour.

“Our executive team is dedicated to exploring all strategic options that have potential to allow TruGreen LandCare to reach its growth potential,” he added. “In the meantime, we will continue to operate TruGreen LandCare in the best interests of our customers.”

The ServiceMaster Form 10Q reported a 7.9% decrease in revenue in its landscape segment and a $5.2 million decrease in operating income for the third quarter of 2010 compared to 2009. Contract maintenance revenue was down 9%, and enhancement sales were down 8.3%.

TruGreen LandCare, which has operations in more than 100 locations in 40 states, generates about 14% of ServiceMaster's annual revenues. By contrast, the TruGreen LawnCare segment delivers 32% of the company's revenues.

TruGreen Landcare, as many of your remember, was born in the mad dash in the late 1990s to acquire regionally prominent (although not necessarily profitable) landscape companies by national players, such as ServiceMaster and rollup upstart Landcare U.S.A., which several years after the landscape acquisition arms race sold out.— Ron Hall

Turf pros say that evidence is strong for global warming

It seems like we don't hear as much about global warming these days in the mainstream media because the economy continues to dominate the nightly news. But at a recent industry event, climate change — as two speakers preferred to call it — was talked about often. And both speakers, who appeared at the recent Green Start Academy hosted by John Deere Golf and Bayer Environmental Science, believe there's something to global warming.

During his presentation, Tom Rufty, Ph.D., a turfgrass professor from North Carolina State, displayed a slide containing two satellite photographs of Artic sea ice — one from 1979 and the other from 2008. The later photograph clearly revealed ice that had melted.

"We're in an inter-glacial period right now where the Earth should be cooling, but instead it's warming up," Rufty said.

Nick Hamon, Ph.D., who was recently named the head of sustainability for Bayer CropScience, said 95% of scientists believe there's a climate change issue.

"The 5 percent who don't think we have a climate change issue may end up being right," he said. "But 5 percent is not a great probability to live and work by when it comes to decide what the future may look like."

The basic message from Hamon and Rufty is climate change is something that can't be ignored.

"You may be cynical and say this is not going to happen," Hamon said. "But even if it's 50 percent correct, it's a little concerning."

Despite the challenges the world will face, Hamon has a good outlook for the green industry.

"Good science shows that the green industry has a place," he says.

Turfgrass plays a vital role in carbon sequestration, which can mitigate climate change, Hamon adds. He notes the following statistics should make people who work in Green Industry feel good about what they do for a living:

* Turfgrass removes 20 million tons of carbon — 5% of the carbon from our atmosphere.

* 10,000 sq. ft. of grass can produce enough oxygen for a family of four. 10,000 sq. ft. of healthy grass absorbs 6,000 gal. of rainwater without runoff.

* Managed turfgrass sequesters significantly more carbon than healthy turf.

Editor's note: Thanks to sister magazine Golfdom for the above report.

How will NY's organic yards initiative change lawn care in the Empire State?

It’s difficult to predict just how New York’s “Be Green Organic Yards NY” initiative will change the professional lawn application business in the State . . . but it will change it. Just how much will become more evident this coming Jan. 11, the opening day of the Empire State Green Industry Show in Rochester.

That’s when the Cornell University team of Dr. Jennifer Grant, Dr. Frank Rossi, Walter Nelson and David Chinery will present a 4-part session. Trained lawn care companies who successfully complete the course exam can apply for a NY Department of Conservation license agreement to use the “Be Green” logo. The course exam will be presented the same day at 4:30 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Bring along a crisp C- note, yes, $100. DEC says you’ll have to fork it over to take the test.

Not familiar with the Be Green Organic Yards NY initiative? Here’s a website that explains it: www.dec.ny.gov/public/65071.html

For the record: Our guess is that the rooms for the organic lawn care sessions will be full. — Ron Hall

Jump-start 2011 business growth

Landscape Management visited many booths at the GIE+EXPO Oct. 28-30 in Louisville, KY, to obtain the latest industry news and trends and gather some education for readers on the business opportunities 2011 beholds.

Here is a collection of the videos we shot, providing you with tips to drive business improvement and growth next year.

OVERCOME PRICING PRESSURE
John Deere's Chase Tew gives landscape professionals his best advice for alleviating pricing pressure in today's economy.



2011 LANDSCAPE BUSINESS PREVIEW
PLANET president and landscaper David Snodgrass reveals the mindset of today's typical landscape professional, his predictions for business in 2011 and PLANET news.



BRAND BUILDING
Syngenta's Dan Steltz shares his tips on how lawn care and landscape professionals can improve their brands as they go into business in 2011.



FERTILIZER PRICING UPDATE & FALL FERTILIZATION TIPS
Agrium Advanced Technologies' Chris Derrick shares current data on fertilizer pricing and offers his best advice on how lawn care operators can improve fall fertilization.



ADD-ON OPPORTUNITY: AERATION
Want to know how to start an aeration service and sustain it? Turfco's Bob Brophy reveals his secrets from 36 years in the industry.



CONQUERING CRABGRASS
Crabgrass has been tough this year. Dow AgroSciences offers some tips for getting ahead of it in 2011.



POWERED BY PROPANE
Landscape Management Editor-in-Chief interviews the Propane Education & Research Council's Brian Feehan on the growing trend in propane-powered landscape equipment.



MAKE MOWER MONEY
Properly storing a mower for winter means a quicker, more productive and instantly profitable spring start-up. Cub Cadet's Allen Baird shares his tips.



CREATING OUTDOOR LIVING SPACES
Belgard's Ken O'Neill discusses a growing trend: outdoor rooms.



COLOR READY?
Landscapers: November is the time to build relationships with your growers for 2011 orders. Are you ready? Ball's Jeff Gibson shares some tips for improving your 2011 seasonal color programs.



SEE THE LIGHT
Kichler's Scott Pesta discusses the new "green" trend in LED landscape lighting fixtures.



PAVING THE WAY
Patrick Day of Boral Bricks updates GIE+EXPO 2010 attendees on one of the hottest trends in hardscapes today: permeable pavers.



ADD-ON OPPORTUNITY: STUMP GRINDING
Expand your business in 2011 with stump grinding. Learn more from Toro's Greg Lawrence.

Wow, this is a lot of candy for our troops!!

A tip of the hat and a "nice job" to all of the landscapers and other small businesses across the nation that promoted this year's Treat for the Troops candy drive. And a special thanks to Allentuck Landscaping for reminding us.

Today, on this special day, Veteran's Day, Bruce Allentuck emailed this note to his customers and friends, thanking them for their support of Treats for the Troops:

"You came through again! Congratulations on a superb candy drive for Treats for the Troops. When combined with the other groups collecting candy, the total came to over 10,000 pounds collected. That is over 5 TONS!

Mover Moms (http://www.movermoms.org/ ) has already trucked the candy up to a National Guard post near Wheeling, West Virginia where it is being sorted and orgnaized. Next it will be flown over to our men and women of all faiths serving in Afghanistan and Iraq in time for the holidays."

Sincerely, yours,

Bruce Allentuck
President

Huge fine should remind us to look before we dig

ST. CATHARINES, ONTARIO, CANADA — Please don’t accuse us of picking on this landscape company; we’re not. Indeed, we’re genuinely sorry the following tragedy, one of the strangest we’ve read about in a long time, happened in the first place. The purpose of this blog is to remind you of what can go wrong if you don’t you know about and mark all underground utilities before digging.

In July 2008, a worker for a Niagara Falls landscape company punctured a propane line with a reinforcing bar on a customer’s property. To make a long story short (you can get the details from a recent article in the Hamilton Spectator), the propane gas leached through the earth and followed a television cable conduit into the home’s basement. When enough propane collected in the home’s basement, it exploded and killed a 54-old-occupant.

The company has been fined a total of $225,000 for health-and-safety violations, reported the newspaper. The court said that company did not mark the propane line and its workers made no effort to locate the underground gas line.

Click here for the full story.

Expect fertilizer prices to rise 10% (maybe more) for 2011

None of us, and especially those of us in the turf health business, want to see fertilizer prices spike like they did a couple of years ago. Likely they won't, not to that extend anyway. Even so, if you're buying turfgrass fertilizer next season, you might want to heed Lebanon Turf's advice to watch corn prices.

“As corn goes, so goes nitrogen and as nitrogen goes, so go fertilizer prices,” said Harry L. Mathis, corporate director of Materials, Distribution and Order Fulfillment for Lebanon Seaboard Corp., parent company of LebanonTurf.

The USDA’s corn forecast – recently adjusted downward 3.6% – caused a ripple effect that likely will be felt at golf courses, sports fields and anywhere turf managers rely on nitrogen-based fertilizers. The forecast sent corn futures soaring to near $6 per bushel, a price that encourages farmers to plant more corn, which in turn, requires increased nutrients. The subsequent jump in worldwide demand for nitrogen increases costs to fertilizer producers.

“We were sailing along in pretty stable condition this summer, and then the USDA numbers and the corn harvest sparked the markets,” Mathis said. “It just goes to show how fragile and interconnected the supply chain is.”

While market conditions have stabilized in the last several weeks, Mathis predicts that prices for fertilizer products high in nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium will increase by 10% or more for the 2011 growing season. Any disorder in the worldwide supply chain, which could be brought on by disruptions at nitrogen plants and shipping interruptions, could cause another spike in costs. “N, P and K are in the mix together,” Mathis said.

“The corn number is real; the nitrogen situation is real, and when the season hits, low inventories of raw materials stateside could force some significant availability and pricing issues in the spring,” he said.

GIE + EXPO staying in L'ville through 2014

LOUISVILLE, KY — The GIE + EXPO is staying here at least through 2014 and Hardscape North America is returning for 2011, reported Bill Harley, president and CEO of the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute (OPEI). This was the first year that hardscape suppliers, under the sponsorship of Interlocking Concrete Paver Institute (ICPI), had a large presence at the event.

Harley’s announcement Thursday, Oct. 28, ended speculation (as little as there was) that the GIE + EXPO might move elsewhere as the original agreement between the three-sponsoring associations approached its end. But the board, made up of members of the OPEI, the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET), and the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS), decided Louisville was the place to be, at least for the next four years.

This year’s event, Oct. 28 – Oct. 30, featured 750 exhibitors and attracted an estimated 20,000 participants (including exhibitors), Harley said at a press conference the morning the trade show opened. The trade show is reported to be the 14th largest in the United States, says the OPEI. Final attendance numbers will be announced soon.

Why Louisville again?

A number of factors figured into the GIE Board’s decision to keep the trade show in Louisville, not the least being the 190,000 sq. ft. of indoor space in the Kentucky Exposition Center and the 20 acres of outdoor demonstration space just outside its doors. All of this located just minutes from the Louisville airport and an easy 10-minute drive from downtown. What other cities east of the Mississippi can offer this?

Important as that is, the efforts made by the convention people in the city itself appear to be an equally large reason why the event isn't moving soon. They genuinely seem to appreciate having the event and, from appearances anyway, do everything they can to accommodate the trade show and the concurrent PLANET and PGMS business conferences.

It's strictly business

While many of us, myself included, wouldn't squawk if a different venue were chosen (just for a change), there's no denying that, unlike other cities with huge convention centers (Las Vegas, Orlando, New Orleans immediately come to mind), if you're coming to the GIE + EXPO in Louisville, you're coming to learn, network, operate some really neat equipment out in a big dusty field and, perhaps, do business. As nice as the city's smallish Fourth Street Live entertainment district is, Louisville is not regarded as a family vacation destination. Not like other big convention cities, anyway, and certainly not in late October.

In the end, the decision to keep the event in Louisville for another couple of years is a good one. Louisville is a nice city with good facilities, and the people that run the event do a very good job.

Hey, that's just my opinion. What do you think? — Ron Hall

A chance to grab a Rain Bird grant

Here’s a heads up about a neat new contest from the folks at Rain Bird. You’re getting the news here before it’s released to the public. We’re one of the partners in this contest and we’re very excited about it because it addresses just what our landscape industry is all about.

In other words, we'd love to learn that one or more of the readers of this blog pick up some of the more than $50,000 in grants that Rain Bird will be awarding to companies, non-profits, homeowners or, in fact, anybody in the whole wide world that submits a winning water conservation or environmental sustainability project that promotes green spaces. The company is awarding three $1,500 grants, three $5,000 grants and three $10,000 grants.

The contest is the latest wrinkle on the company’s Intelligent Use of Water program it initiated in 2008. Any internet user can submit a project via the Intelligent Use of Water Awards (IUOW) website and can promote it within his or her own community.

All projects can be anonymously voted upon by visitors (one vote a day per project, per individual user. The projects with the most votes will receive funding from Rain Bird according to their funding category.

OK, there you have it; you can get a head start on submitting one of your great water conservation or environmental sustainability project. Visit the IUOW awards website here to get the details, submit your project, let people know about it and start voting . . . In other words, get crackin’. — Ron Hall