Sunday, September 25, 2016

Some of these lawns are not like the others

No denying, this has been a tough year for lawns. In fact, one of the worst I've seen and the importance of maintaining your grass with proper mowing and watering has never been greater, (like the lawn pictured above).

Yet, many homeowners just raised their hands in surrender and stopped proper practices, sighting financial reasons, hopelessness or just plain laziness as the reason.

You need to understand, there is no magic pill for your lawn care provider to correct the lawn issues over night, if you do not hold up your end of the bargain. We came to realize this season the weather was not going to be our ally back in May.

Then again, back in May you were probably cursing because your grass was growing too fast. So you let it go a couple of weeks and then scalped it putting-green short. As the first heat wave hit, your green lawn went brown in a matter of three days beat by the relentless sun. Without any natural precipitation the insects moved in and chinch bug, sod web-worm and army cut worm weakened your lawn further to allow the opportunistic weeds to take over creating one hell of a mess. Sound familiar?

I've seen lawns on the same route, done the same day, with the same products, go from those that are green and plush, (watered and cut properly), to brown, weedy and insect infested. Sometimes this is on the very same street.

Yes, grass is resilient and will recover over time with a little help, but in the meantime it is very frustrating to have to attach my company name to an unsightly lawn when I know everything was done correctly on my end.

Maybe the day is coming where in-ground sprinklers and proof of proper cutting techniques are prerequisites before we show up to treat the lawn. At least then we'll know we are in a partnership with a homeowner who cares about their lawn the way we do.

Monday, September 5, 2016

No "I" in team

A pitcher in the major leagues has a responsibility to his team...to get as many outs as he can. Yet, without a strong bullpen and run support from his teammates, he is not going to win any games.

Now try to think of your lawn-care provider as that pitcher, Mother Nature is out in the bullpen and the homeowner is the run support.

Let's take a look at Mother Nature's stats this year shall we...second hottest summer on record, driest season in 75 years, 50+ days with humidity over 30 Celsius with several pushing 40 degrees, (awesome for sun worshipers, not so much for lawn care). She's been tossing everything at us from crabgrass, to chinch bug, to sod web-worm and hasn't allowed us to go deep into the game since May. We've had little in our arsenal to answer the onslaught.

We just have to trust in our pitching mechanics and hope we have enough run support to win the close contests going down the stretch.

Some, like the lawn pictured above, are the Josh Donaldson's of our team, with a sprinkler system and cutting the lawn at 3 inches high the grass has not suffered much. With them in our dugout there was little to no damage from the invasion of weeds and insects this year.

Yet, along with the Bautista's, Tulowitzki's, Martin's and Encarnacion's in the field there were those, lower in the batting-order, who refused to water and still felt scalping their lawn while catching knuckle balls day-in-day-out was a sure-fire road to post-season success, (my apologies to Josh Thole).

Now those same homeowners have found, as September rolls around, they are too many games behind their neighbors to make a run at the Pennant.

I'm sure most lawn care providers strive to be the ace of the pitching staff (although some appear to be here to collect the big contract). However, with the team we've had this year it doesn't matter how well we pitched, we might end up being just another hack who can't win games.

Go Jays Go!