WANTED: Sustainable Landscape Services for Savvy Consumers
For decades, Billy Goodnick has been showing people how to create sustainable landscapes – and how to ditch their lawns. But don't think of me as a "bad guy," he says.... more
Latest News
- Survey Gives Mixed Report for Landscape Architect Businesses
- Millions of Texas Shade Trees Succumb to Drought
- Counties Push Electric Mowers for Residents
- Contractor Indicted on Immigration Charges
- Drought Forces Overhaul of City Irrigation Systems
- Real Estate Management Firm Buys Landscape Company
- Smartphone App to Access Soil Survey Information
- Mowing Bids Open to Scrutiny
- Giant Snails Threaten Mowing Equipment
Business Articles
Digital Design Software
IF YOU ARE A NEWBIE TO THE WIZARDY of digital software for landscape, landscape lighting, and irrigation design, be prepared to be dazzled. With a few keystrokes or a simple click, drag, and drop on your laptop or desktop computer, you can create exciting knock-it-outof-the-ballpark photorealistic designs—and you can do it lightning fast. ... More
Eco-Green Sustainable Landscapes
Creating an Award-Winning Sustainable Landscape
Van Westervelt, who has been in the landscape business for years, finally decided that it was time to take a busman’s holiday and make the yard as beautiful as the lakeshore...and do it with a focus on sustainability, minimum care, and harmony with the natural environment. ... More
Landscape Maintenance
Top Dressing: How to Profit from this Add-On Service
Recent improvements in application technology have finally made it possible for landscape professionals in all sectors of the business to provide this valuable service. Top dressing is already considered essential in the maintenance of athletic fields and golf courses. ... More
Close-Up Profiles
Rick Henninger
Rick Henninger is a turnaround specialist. A business veteran at 63, he loves to find companies that are on the decline but still full of potential. He’s worked his magic with companies in the arenas of telecommunications, defense support, and hazardous waste disposal. ... More
Weed and Pest Control
Winning the Ground Game with Pre-Emergent Controls
In the landscape business, as in football, your ground game is the backbone of your offense. In the NFL, teams that boast a seamless offensive line, an explosive tailback and the finest downfield blocking money can buy still struggle to get the ball moving on the ground. ... More
Irrigation
Irrigation Service Contracts: A Benefit for Your Customers, A Profit Center for You
You might think this is a pipe dream, but it’s reality for the growing number of landscape contractors and irrigation specialists who also provide seasonal care for their customers’ irrigation systems. These firms do it with a formal or informal Irrigation Service Contract (ISC) that seals a season-long—and, hopefully, lifelong—agreement. ... More
Power Equipment
Alternative Fuels
Seldom has an industry movement gained importance so quickly. Take the test yourself. Type the phrase “eco-green” into your favorite search engine. Twenty years ago, that search might have drawn a blank. Today, it will return upwards of three million hits. ... More
Landscape companies of all sizes are being pushed to achieve increased capacity and better margins. Today’s business climate requires contractors to squeeze higher volume and productivity out of the same 24-hour day.
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WHAT LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR’S eyes wouldn’t light up at the prospect of ten to fifteen percent of business growth a year, every single year? Or new accounts where the work is under written contract? Or when you’re able to pay your bills on time, every
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When you’re busting your butt in a challenging economy to run your business—and even trying to grow it—few things are as frustrating as wasted time and effort. Each is a giant sucking sound on your company’s bottom line, but avoiding inefficiency
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This story begins and ends with the perspective that “No one was hurt.” Considering the damage, that’s a miracle in itself.
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A little over a year ago, I noticed that our backyard lawn was turning brown even though we had an automatic sprinkler system. I called in a landscape contractor to find out what was wrong. He discovered that the irrigation system was not working.
WHILE TAKING A WALK IN MY NEIGH borhood one day I noticed that water was spewing out from everywhere at a nearby home, or at least it seemed that way. Upon closer inspection it appeared that the valves that service the irrigation system were damaged, caus
A POND OR WATER FEATURE CAN be a striking addition to any landscape. It can be sized to fit both the smallest lot and the smallest budget, or built to dwarf an average swimming pool. The problem with ponds is that they're sometimes put in the wrong locati
ADD THE SOUND AND BEAUTY OF A WATER GARDEN TO YOUR FRONT PORCH by creating your own mini water feature.
What would you do if you got up one morning, went to brush your teeth and saw yellow gushy stuff pouring from the faucet?
As the demand for potable water exceeds supply, the responsibility of the irrigation contractor grows. The contractor must protect public water supplies from contamination.
For potable water, life is a series of one-way streets. Safe drinking water depends on all “traffic” within a water system to move in the direction it’s supposed to.
In a California suburb, a man sprayed his lawn with a commercial weed killer that contained an arsenic compound.
Weeds, weeds, weeds— those pesky patches of unwanted growth that mar the most perfectly manicured lawn and can create an endless series of headaches for you, your clients and your crews.
AS A LANDSCAPE CONTRACTOR, AS IN ANY BUSINESS, YOU’RE constantly looking for ways to increase your client base. Of course you provide the very best in design/build and maintenance services, or just maintenance itself, but so does your competition.
While much of the country is still digging out from under mountains of snow, it’s hard to imagine that spring is just around the corner.
THE RESIDENTS OF CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, typically take pride in what their town has to of fer—gorgeous mountain scenery, numerous swimming and fishing spots, a rich and vibrant array of wildlife—but when fall cankerworms began devouring th
Every contractor and landscape service provider knows that the lawn cutting business is more a marathon than a sprint.
Have you ever designed and installed a beautiful landscape, just to see it become so overgrown that you´d never know it was designed and installed by a professional? Either the client let it get out of hand, or the person who was doing the maintenance re
How much time do you spend shaving every morning? No matter if you use an electric or straight-edge razor, or how close the cut, you have to shave again the next day and the next, and the next.
My mother always said, “If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.” This worked fine when she was a homemaker, but once she started her own business, Mom soon realized that the only thing she was doing right by following h
Reactivation, inspection, tuneup, evaluation, system turnon—no matter what terminology is used, irrigation systems are routinely evaluated for proper operation and condition.
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Creating NEW SOURCES OF revenue from a preexisting business is nothing new. For large corporations, it’s a way of life. However, it doesn’t have to be the exclusive domain of big business. There’s and untapped source of revenue you may be ignoring-f
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The EPA’s WaterSense program announced today that irrigation controllers will soon be the first outdoor product eligible to earn the WaterSense label.
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“A family with six children had just moved in and needed a kid-friendly backyard,” says Eric Fenmore, owner of DIG Landscape Construction in Newport Beach, California. “The landscape had been neglected—the backyard was overgrown, dark and damp, wi
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When you think of wireless, what comes to your mind? Do you conjure up some new technology that would be beneficial for your business, or is it just another gadget for the ‘techies’?
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Say the word `recycling` and what usually comes to mind is taking aluminum cans.
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When the hospital renovated its underground conference center in the mid 2000s—the courtyard is actually the conference center’s old roof—it was also time to do something about the ‘monstrosity.’.
NO MATTER WHERE YOU LIVE, THERE’S always one glorious day in early spring that hollers to the world, “Winter’s over! Winter’s over!” The temperature is unseasonably warm. The sun is finally high enough in the sky that north-facing shrubs and tre
If you work in the residential market, opportunity abounds. With the economy trying to ease out of the doldrums, and the price of gasoline keeping families off the road, what a perfect time to look at the great outdoors of your client’s own backyard
ARE RETAINING WALLS CONSTRUCTED WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE of holding back soil and preventing erosion? You’d be surprised at what some landscape designers and homeowners are using them for instead.
There are few jobs as monotonous, back breaking and unfulfilling as digging out weeds. If you’re providing landscape maintenance services, cutting down the amount of time you spend nurturing a virtually weed-free area should be a priority.
Kirk Engle of New Jersey and Aron Hoffman of Hawaii are separated by the entire breadth of the continental United States and a fair expanse of the Pacific Ocean
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