Not all news is bad news. . .however

I spent a few days fishing with my son, Jason, cruising the mangroves in a flat-bottom boat in southwest Florida this past week. The fishing was so-so (barely enough keeper sheepsheads to make a good meal) but the company and the scenery were incredible.
Glad to report that the world kept on spinning in my absence. Sad to report that most of the news (at least the news reported in the local media across the U.S.A. wasn't so good.) Or, as we used to say at the newspaper office the painful morning after a particularly long night at the local watering hole discussing the world's misadventures — “The news never sleeps . . . and neither do we!”
Here’s what’s been happening while I was tossing shrimp into the backwaters:

— the State of Michigan is debating a 2% tax on services, including lawn care. Lawn care providers there think it’s almost a sure thing since the state budget is in bad shape. Those of us in living and working in or near Michigan know that things aren’t so happy in the Motor City, or anywhere where the Big Three have a big presence. Lawn care folks in Michigan tell us that the tax creates a problem because some of their customers have prepaid and there’s no way to recover the 2%.

— A former bookkeeper of a lawn care business in Lincoln, NE, and her son each got sentences of 2-4 years in prison for stealing nearly $200,000 from the company. The two were also ordered to repay the company more than $250,000. The bookkeeper reportedly took the money over a period of three years to finance her son’s towing business and race car, reported the Associated Press. (My sister, who runs a business in eastern Pennslyvania got ripped off by a bookkeeper in a similar scam several years ago. Owners, keep your eyes open.)

— A landscape company in Oswego, IL, mistakenly cut down 31 trees at a 7.5-acre assisted-living development last month. Ouch! Now someone has to cough up more than $27,000 to replace the trees. The excuse being used is that the landscapers “misidentified” the markings on the trees as signs that they were to be removed. For the article in the Suburban Chicago News click here.

— “Gimme Green,” focusing on America’s “obsession” with lawns, got its world premiere at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival on Sunday, Feb. 18. This is definitely something that will NOT win the Professional Landcare Network’s “Best-Film-of-the-Year” Award. Here’s how one newspaper described the 27-minute film: “Gimme Green manages to touch on the most important issues involved with America’s lawns. It uses the visual absurdity of lush yards in Southwest deserts to show how home irrigation sucks up vital aquifers and follows a chemical crew as it sprays pesticides on a patch of suburbia. But mostly the film relies on numbers to make its statement. (Children who play on chemical-sprayed lawns are 6.5 times more likely to develop Leukemia).”
Here’s a link to the article describing the movie.

— A suburban Chicago landscaper will be spending some time in federal prison after being convicted of bribing a Chicago city official to get $8 million in contractors, including work at the city’s famed Millennium Park Here’s the link to a Jan. 31 news report announcing the sentencing of Michael Lowecki, owner of James Michael Inc. Click here , the link to an earlier article describing the scam that landed the landscaper in deep trouble.

— And finally, the Virginia General Assembly is considering a bill that would prohibit commercial providers of lawn care services from broadly applying pesticides and fertilizers onto impervious surfaces such as streets and driveways. (Folks, can it be that we’ve been so sloppy with our applications that we’ve been feeding sidewalks and driveways or not cleaning them off after applications? If that’s the case, maybe we should get spanked.)

Coming to a company near you — workers bearing microchips?

Coming soon to a company near you — an immigrant worker implanted with 16-digit RFID chip.
Maybe not tomorrow.
Maybe not this year.
But. . .I’ll put a few bob on it, not that I’m happy with idea of having a tiny chip, with all kinds of my personal information, injected under my armpit. It’s beyond scary.
On January 22, Verichip Corp, which makes a human implantable microchip set its planned initial public offering at 4.3 million shares. Its parent company, Applied Digital Solutions (NASDAQ, ADSX), is expected to spin off Verichip (www.verichipcorp.com) any day now. The Verichip shares will be listed on NASDAQ under the symbol CHIP.
The Web site of Applied Digital Solutions (www.adsx.com) touts the microchip technology for infants, patient protection and wander prevention, for example for victims of Alzheimer’s disease.
How big a step is it beyond those stated uses to implement a program to implant the RFID chips into guest workers to identify and provide information, at the wave of reading device?
It's being discussed.
A Web site opposed to the use of these chips on humans makes for interesting reading. click here, or click on the headline.

Taking jobs away from the Gringos

"When I was mowing lawns, I saw myself in a truck checking on the men. When I was in the truck, I saw myself in the office. Now that I'm in the office, I see the company running itself.”
So said Nikita Floyd to a reporter for the Washington Post, in a perceptive article focusing on the issue of immigrants versus native-born minorities in the U.S. labor market. Floyd is the owner of Green Forever Landscaping, Upper Marlboro, MD, and by all accounts doing quite well. One of the reasons he gives for his company's growth is his workers, many of whom are from El Salvador.
Are immigrants taking jobs from U.S. citizens?
The article in the Washington Post, doesn’t make a definitive case for or against, but it reinforces what many service company business owners have been saying for years now: It's pretty darn hard to find U.S. workers that will show up every day, at least for $10 an hour.
The article is well worth a read,
click here, or click on the headline.

ANLA's Management Clinic great mid-winter event

Louisville, KY, in mid winter is not one of America's party cities. But it is a darn good location to hold a big educational/networking event. Most of us couldn't find much mischief to distract us from the business at hand — attending the sessions and networking. What I'm referring to is the Management Clinic sponsored by the American Nursery & Landscape Association.

I'm not sure how many years these ANLA Clinics have been going on, but I'm sorry I didn't check in years ago because this is one first-rate event. Held annually in the venerable Galt House Hotel overlooking cold, muddy Ohio River, there's not a whole lot to do in the city except dive into the many events swirling around the Clinic.

(Oh yes, there was a Clinic 5K Fun Run along the river at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. A small knot of us — maybe 12 or 15 masochistic souls — gathered in the hotel lobby and cruised east along the river, then doubled back, glad to get some hot coffee and a warm shower. But back to the Clinic.)

Two editors from our pub made the trip, one driving from Cleveland and the other from Toledo, and we split up coverage of the event. We could have easily brought three editors there was so much going on . . . but somebody has got to get the February magazine proofed and ready for the printer, right?

We were surprised by the number of landscape company owners and managers at the Clinic. We learned maybe 30% - 35% of the attendees were landscapers, the second biggest group of participants next to the nursery owners and managers. In total, I think about 1200 people attended.

The ANLA focuses on the "green" part of the landscape — the trees and plants grown in our nurseries. Many of these nurseries also have landscape divisions. But there were plenty of landscapers there just learning business and plants. There were plenty of sessions devoted to both.

Not to take away from the efforts of any other association or organization, but if you're in the landscape business and you're doing design/build, bid/build or any significant amount of installation, you definitely want to check out next year's ANLA Clinic program.

Like I said, Louisville in mid winter is hardly a garden spot. But it's a nice city, it's easy to get around, the prices are reasonable, the people friendly and you'll be spending most of your time hanging out with old friends and making new ones anyway.

A provocateur draws some heat

I looked up the word "provocateur" to write this blog. A provocateur is a person assigned to provoke unrest, volence, debate or argument. The reason? Rick Anderson, a great big guy from who runs a service called the Whispering Crane Institute gave a "provocateur's perspective" of the landscape world at the ANLA Clinic in Louisville.

And yes, after about an hour of dissin' "trends" driving landscape design/build (you know, fire pits, outdoor kitchens, etc.) , he finally manages to provoke some "unrest" with his presentation, which is entertaining and, at times it seems, intentionally confrontational. But hey, how can you be a provocateur without stepping over the line, right?

Anyhoo, when big Rick gets on the subject of the value of "blogs" (something he strongly endorses) in attracting customers' attention, and he keeps on about them maybe a tad too long, he "provokes" a female conference attendee near the front of the room to comment that she works 60 hours a week and doesn't have time to blog. (Bear in mind that Anderson has been literally begging for reactions from the 100-plus people in the audience throughout his presentation.)

Anderson quickly responds to the lady: "You have time to write three sentences, don't you?" Or something very close to that.

A smallish lady, and as Anderson finds out, one with more than a little pluck, she stands straight out of her seat and tells him in no uncertain terms that she lives in the country, doesn't have access to broadband or hi-speed internet connections and, to this point anyway, is no great fan of blogging. It's pretty obvious she isn't about to have somebody talk down to her, which, to my mind anyway, is pretty darn neat. Like I said, she's a small woman but I don't think anybody in the room would have wanted to tangle with her for a minute or two.

AT this point Anderson backs off a bit and tones down his message a click or two.

As the presentation ends 10 minutes later or so, she and big Rick come to a friendlier meeting of the minds, not that they hug or anything. But, like I said, they're friendly and chatting.

In any event, Anderson's presentation was kind of on the edge but a lot of fun, and I've got to hand it to the little lady that he briefly riled; she's one tough cookie.

We don't recommend you try this

Granted the Internal Revenue Service tax code is long, complicated and best left to those green-shaded, pasty accountant types. But that's not to say we don't apreciate the, shall we say, "creative" deductions some business owners attempt.

Jay MacDonald of Bankrate.com reported this among his list of the nine oddest write-offs:

"A landscaper who was under audit with the IRS had deducted the expense of their dog because he would pull the wagon on landscaping jobs. They felt he was out there helping. He may have been listed as an independent contractor."

For the complete list of unconventional deductions click here.

ServiceMaster's pricey new digs

Fox News in Memphis is reporting that ServiceMaster, parent company of TruGreen ChemLawn, Terminix and Merry Maids is building a new $122 million headquarters two miles from the FedEx World Headquarters in Memphis. The company announced this past fall that it was moving its headquarters from Downers Grove, IL, (Chicago), to Memphis, which has been the site of its residential services business for several decades. Fox News says the move will bring about 500 new jobs to Memphis.

Big government strikes again

In it's never ending struggle to make the world a safer place it seems the Environmental Protection Agency delivered a dumbfounding ruling, one which might have saved billions of dollars of damage to citrus plants following the recent freeze in California.

It seems, at least according to the former head of the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Biotechnology Henry I. Miller, that a simple gene alteration in a naturally occurring bacterium already in the fruit might limit the damage from a freeze. Because the bacterium contain a protein that promotes frost damage, removing the gene might, thus limiting or prevent frost damage, could result. But scientists were never allowed to test for it. They considered the original bacterium a pest so the altered bacterium became a pesticide.

For more information on the ice-minus issue, please click here.

An easy target?

Sometimes, when we've come across a news story about a landscaper being robbed or worse, most of the time it's a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now, it looks like landscape companies may have to be wary of even the people who hire them. According to this article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "A landscaper in Clayton County was shot six times Sunday when he showed up for what he thought was a grass-cutting job, police said. When Pho Le, 60, owner of Le’s Landscaping, arrived at the Owens Trail house, he was shot in the abdomen and five times in the right leg by two men who hired him to cut grass, police said."
The thieves' motive was robbery. They had met Pho Le previously and paid him in advance to show up to do the landscaping. When he showed up, they tried to steal his truck, but dropped the keys as he escaped, according to the story. No arrests have been made.
— Mike Seuffert

Lock it and secure it or lose it

Contractors are so busy thinking about the next sale or the next day's operations they too often neglect to protect what they've got. If you haven't been hit by a professional thief, consider yourself very lucky — to this point, at least. Equipment and tools taken from shop areas and construction sites is a multi-billion dollar business. Common thieves (if there is such a thing), meth or crack addicts, or pros that know what they're doing? Bad guys come in many flavors.

Police are looking for whoever it was that ripped off Stone Ferris Lawn Care, Cape Coral, FL, earlier this month. Owner Robert Ferris told authorities somebody hauled off about $42,000 of his lawn maintenance equipment. He figures thieves have stolen $200,000 of his equipment over the years.

He wants the city council to give him a variance to put up a fence. But many landscapers have discovered that even fences can't keep out some thieves. A favorite target these days is compact equipment. Where it goes and who ends up with is anybody's guess. Most of it is never recovered, we're told.

An "add-on" service opportunity to avoid

"The best thing that could be for this man is that he gets locked up because if I ever run into him he's going to wish he was locked up." So said a burglary victim at the sentencing of the thief who broke into his home.

A landscaper on Oahu (Hawaii), who cased out homes to burglarize while he was on the job, got 10 years in the slammer. Not enough claimed victims. Already charged with three break-ins and out on bail, he struck again. And was caught again, reported television station KHNL.

Revenge of the mole

Moles can be a serious and frustrating problem, but some things are just better left to the professionals. In a scenario reminiscent of Bill Murray in Caddyshack, man in Germany annoyed with his lack of success in getting rid of the invaders, escalated his attack. It cost him his life.

For more on the story, click here.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place

Sometimes, and I only mean sometimes - when I'm feeling particularly generous - I feel sorry for the EPA. At least, as sorry as you can feel for a massive government bureaucracy. The EPA is constantly being attacked on all sides — by environmentalists who don't think the agency is doing enough, and by chemical manufacturers who think there is too much government intrusion into their work and products. And I think most of us can relate to the feeling of being pulled in two directions at once. Anyway, here are a couple recent news articles concerning the EPA and the use of pesticides that could impact how lawn care operators do business.

EPA facing new lawsuits over pesticide use
EUGENE, Ore. – The Environmental Protection Agency is facing an onslaught of lawsuits from both the pesticide industry and environmental activists, over a new rule on pesticide use in or near water. Lawsuits have been filed in 11 of the nation's 13 circuit courts, including the 9th Circuit, which serves Oregon. Environmentalists say the EPA has knowingly violated a court decision in an Oregon case that would have meant fewer pesticides flowing into Oregon rivers. Pesticide manufacturers counter the new rule doesn't do enough to protect them from unnecessary and costly government regulation.
Read the complete story from the Seattle Times here.

EPA asked to crack down on natural pesticides
Currently, the EPA does not regulate "minimum-risk" pesticides produced from natural products such as peppermint oil, licorice, garlic, lemon grass and thyme that are "generally recognized as safe." As long as labels do not make a specific health claim or list a specific disease that a targeted bug or other pest may carry, the EPA doesn't require marketers to prove that the substances work. The Consumer Specialty Products Association, whose members include manufacturers of conventional chemical pesticides, sent the EPA a petition in March arguing that a product that claims to kill or repel a pest known to carry a disease is making a health claim, even if its label does not specifically refer to the disease.
Read the complete story from the Palm Beach Post here.

Oregon's pesticide reporting system takes root
In the first week of the state's new program to collect pesticide-use information, almost 20 people filed reports. The Pesticide Use Reporting System, established in 1999 but funded for the first time in 2005, aims to provide information about what pesticides are being used in Oregon, in what quantities, and generally where they are being applied. The state estimated that the system will track about 8 million reports of pesticide applications per year from 123,000 pesticide users across the state. "Having access to information about environmental hazards, in this case where pesticides are applied, we are hoping we might see use patterns to help us inform our health surveillance," said Lori Barck of the environmental and occupational epidemiology program at Oregon's Public Health Division.
Read the complete story from the Statesman Journal here.

— Mike Seuffert

School of hard knocks a great teacher

Check out this “school” if you're short of help and looking for an employee with some Green Industry knowledge - the school of hard knocks.
The Associated Press, reporting in the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper, reported on a program at the Southeastern Correctional Institute in Lancaster, OH, that trains inmates for careers in the Green Industry. (When they get out, of course.)
One former student got a job as a golf course superintendent, another was recently promoted to landscape designer and two others started their own contracting businesses, according to the article. It went on to describe how one “graduate”, in prison four times, got two job offers within days of being released.
Our hat is off to retired horticulture instructor Tom Ramsey, who leads the program and says some of his pupils keep in contact with him to let him know how they're doing.

Festivus Celebration

Kevin Campanella, a landscaper from Rhode Island, was featured in an article celebrating the holiday of Festivus, an anti-Christmas holiday created on Seinfeld. If you want to read about Kevin's Festivus celebration, click here.

I loved this episode, and may have to buy one of these Festivus poles.

And just in case you really want to get into the Seinfeld holiday spirit, you can make a donation in your friends' names to a real-life Human Fund. Based out of Cleveland (where Landscape Management is also based), "The Human Fund effectively supports arts education programs for under-served children," according to its Web site. Visit it here.

Happy holidays everyone.
— Mike Seuffert

Another great snow job

Give Snow King John Allin credit. The former Erie, PA-landscape company owner and one of the forces in the formative years of the Snow & Ice Management Association doesn’t let any slush form under his feet. After founding, running (and piling up a lot of debt in the process) and unloading the national Snow Management Group, he’s become an international traveler as president of Snow Dragon, a division of huge Park Ohio Holdings, based in Cleveland, OH. We recently got a news release about Allin in Salzburg, Austria. It looks like he’s helping pull together another snow association, this one in Europe. You can bet he’ll be pushing and selling his company’s large snow-melting equipment. He knows the business and the melters fill a big hole in the industry. Beyond that, Allin is a pretty good darn salesman; he proves it again and again.

Free isn't always good

Countrywide Lawn Doctor, a UK-based landscaper is offering free franchises. It's a brilliant marketing scheme, but will it hurt the industry? The company is getting interest from numerous people, many of whom have never been in the industry. Sure it's only in the UK right now, but you be be sure if the concept takes off, it will show up in the States.

It takes more than a little business savvy to be succesful. While it's easier to win business when you're better than the competition, truly bad providers can sour people on an industry.

The franchisee does need to pony up the money for equipment, so new owners will certainly have an investment they'll want to protect. Let's hope that Countrywide supports that in every way possible.

For more about the free franchise click here.

Light up your customers like Lampoon's Griswolds

Jim and Lea Sharp, Sharp Lawns, Mooresville, IN, say the holiday decorating season keeps getting longer and longer, with some customers wanting their home decorations in place soon after Halloween.
Challenges to home decorating include high winds and homeowners that want their homes to look like the Griswolds in the movie, “National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.”
You can read about the Sharps in a nicely written article (click on headline) that appeared in a recent issue of the Martinsville, IN, “Reporter-Times” newspaper. — Ron Hall

Don't take shortcuts

Nothing could be more tragic than the loss of the child. Being responsible for that death and having to live with that knowledge for the rest of your life has got to a nearly unbearable experience. The driver of a landscaping truck ran down a 10-year-old girl was an off-duty police officer working for his family's landscaping company. What's worse, he didn't have the proper license to drive the vehicle.

For the full story click here:
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2006/12/driver_in_fatal_1.html

Some good news

It's sometimes amazing the stories you'll see come across when you "Google" the word "landscaper." A lot of the time, the news involves the police blotter. (Like the landscaper who nearly drowned in a client's pool with his backpack blower on.) But for once, the news was good. Congratulations to Feliciano Aragon, a Melbourne, FL, landscaper from Costa Rica who just won the $9 million Florida Lotto jackpot. Check out the rest of the story here.

— Mike Seuffert