General Landscaping

The old saying goes, “you have to spend money to make money”. While that is very often true it also applies that “you have to spend money to save mone...

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Having your property inspected in early spring by a professional is critical before any major projects are planned and even maintenance started.

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WHAT IS THATCH? Thatch is the build up of undecomposed organic matter. This organic layer is made up of a mixture of stems, leaves and roots. It accu...

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The recession that for our industry started in 2007 and has gotten steadily worse ever since has caused a price war in the landscape industry.  I...

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The Green Industry contributes $100 billion to the American economy and adds 15 percent to real estate values. Our industry does make a difference, bu...

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When the snow starts flying this winter, many people tired of shoveling or wrestling with an archaic snow blower call a professional snow plowing company, often a landscape company. Unfortunately many people call too late! They call just before or during a snow event. It is virtually impossible for that company to serve you, give you an estimate or even call you back for that matter. Mark your new calendars now for early September to contact a snow plowing company. Ask them for a seasonal contract. Most snow plowing companies only service their contract seasonal clients.

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It may seam ludicrous to be thinking about snow at the start of October but now is when landscape and other snow handling service companies start to plan their upcoming winter season (if not much sooner). In my company we take some time in late August to inventory our snow equipment. With the inventory any equipment needing overhauling is sent out and we also order new equipment that we have budgeted for.

 

 

The worst thing anyone can do is not plan ahead and try to track a snow plow company down the day before or during a snow event. Any snowplow company will tell you they schedule work for all their equipment in advance with a seasonal contract and cannot accommodate the influx of calls before or during the snow event. Now I realize many people do not want to pay for a seasonal contract because they would rather not pay for the smaller snow falls that are more easily handled with a shovel or small snow blower. These same people also must be prepared to be terribly inconvenienced when the larger storms do come.

 

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Timely fall leaf clean-up for a professional landscape maintenance firm is a huge undertaking. It consumes a large amount of man power, specialized equipment, and planning to execute the work efficiently. A well equipped modern mid sized dump truck with trailer, mowers, blowers, vacuum truck loader, and other miscellaneous equipment has a whopping approximate cost of one hundred thousand dollars. Many landscape firms need to hire on temporary labor, increase overtime payroll and deal with down time on windy, rainy, and even snowy days. A sixty to sixty five hour work week can become the norm during leaf season after a long hot summer season.

 

 All this must be balanced with townships and municipalities all having differing curbside pick up requirements and dates. Additionally with the advent of some municipalities enforcing noise restrictions during certain time periods will further complicate the clean-up process.

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Summer is just about over and what a summer it’s been! Our lawns have certainly been affected very differently than the previous year. Turf diseases were common this season with summer patch, dollar spot, and leaf spot (among others) causing many areas of our lawns to die out. As with people, a lawn in good health will stand up to disease better than in poor health.

 

Another big problem this summer was weed control. Even lawns treated with controls had weeds. The problem is all the rains diluting the controls we put down. Even when we went back and killed these weeds new one grew in vigorously. The weeds may have also filled in where disease had killed your turf.

 

The last problem is compaction and trafficking on the lawn. Summer parties, sports activities, etc all have been compounded with this years wet conditions. Now that we have identified the main problems we can now work to correct them.

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There are often huge variations in the pricing you receive for landscape services. Many times it is a case of apples and oranges. Unfortunately it can be very ambiguous for the consumer to tell the differences. It takes a lot of probing questions and research for a consumer to ensure that a proposal is relatively equal in materials, labor and equipment cost. After doing that you may still find cost differences. Why are there are still price differences and what causes them?

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