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Several times a year I meet someone who is sick and tired or their corporate job, and longs to earn their living amongst the fresh air and sunshine. These folks are looking to start their own lawn business.

Before starting your lawn business, you need to decide which type you will operate; a mowing service, or fertilizing and weed control service.

The mowing service
This is the primary lawn business people think of when striking out into the green industry. There are no specific licenses needed to cut grass, and very little if any outside training is required. The initial investment for this type of lawn service is fairly high, considering you will need a truck and trailer, as well as commercial lawn cutting equipment, trimmers and a blower. A quality commercial walk-behind mower can cost as little as $1500 for a 22″ cut, and up to $8000 for a 54″ cut. Keep in mind the wider cutting area mower will save you time and allow you to cut more acres per day, bringing in more revenue.

The lawn spraying service
Treating lawns with fertilizer and weed control is a more involved process and requires training, licensing and permits, as well as quite a bit of experience spanning seasonal changes. It is best that entrepreneurs interested in starting this type of business work for one of the large commercial outfits like TruGreen or Scott’s to get some good training and experience.

One positive to starting this type of lawn business is that you can begin with just a truck, a fertilizer spreader, hand can and a few bags of fertilizer.

Starting a lawn business is a difficult job, but also a simple one.

The difficult part:
Once you decide between the above, you now begin the hard part; getting customers. The lawn game is saturated with companies doing the same thing you will do, and all have their individual niche as well. Some offer bagging, others mulching. Still others take pride in striping the lawns like a baseball outfield. Needless to say, marketing and creating brand awareness will be a difficult task. Whatever you do, don’t go out as the “cheapest game in town.” You will regret that as your business grows and costs rise.

The simple part:
The good news is that lawn businesses are simple. You basically do the same thing for each customer, each time and on a consistent basis, creating predictable revenue. Predictable revenue means you can forecast your growth and control your expenses, thus keeping your business in the black.

The drawbacks
Your customers will be your greatest asset and your biggest headache all at the same time. No matter what you do, you will run across people who are never satisfied. In addition, you will find those who won’t pay their bills on time, creating a collection problem for you. This can sink a new business that has limited cash flow.

One strategy that works well to combat this is to ask your customers to pre-pay for services. Give them a hefty discount for paying up front. Another idea is to utilize computer software that stores credit card or checking account information and automatically bills customers on a monthly basis. This will offer a nice convenience to them as well because they don’t have to chase down invoices and stamps.

Whatever you decide to do, realize that the green industry is full of tradesmen professionals who take pride in caring for green spaces. You never know, that guy you see pushing a lawn mower across your neighbor’s lawn could be a former accountant who just got fed up with life in a cubical. Just remember to keep your business honest!

Al Haneson blogs about Illinois issues and life at Ambit Energy Chicago Illinois and Lawn Care Tips

Many consumers don’t take advantage of the beauty and value a vibrant and colorful garden can add to their property due to the fear of time involved. There’s no need to feel intimidated when so many choices can make starting and maintaining your garden an efficient process. From using perennials to enjoying outdoor water fountains, your garden decor can have as many colorful elements as you wish with little work.

Perennial flowers are the ultimate time-saver when it comes to your garden. These plants grow in a fairly regular pattern every year. This perpetual process saves you a great deal of time and money. You only need to find the appropriate plants for your area and invest in them once. You can enjoy their beauty for years. Perennials come in a variety of sizes, colors and growing patterns.

Follow these tips to make your garden budget go further when looking for perennial plants. The first step you need to take is to consider what climate you live in. How long are your winters? How hot are the summers? A visit to your local garden center should answer all these questions and more. The staff there can point you in the appropriate direction for your creating your garden.

Once you see what types of plants are best suited to your region, you can start looking at the individual plants offered. You want the healthiest plants possible. Avoid the plant if the leaves have spots or the petals appear to have bugs. A diseased plant may improve in a garden, or it may simply continue to deteriorate. Many consumers don’t have the time or resources necessary to “nurse” a sick plant. If you take the plant home and place it in your current garden, there is a risk that the insects or the disease may spread to the other greenery. A broken stem or bruised leaf isn’t usually a cause for concern. These are the byproducts of poor shipping practices.

Transferring your chosen plants from the container to the garden should be done carefully. The hole should be large enough to accommodate the plant with a little room to spare. Gently squeeze the sides of the container your plant is in and slip the clump of dirt out. After gently massaging the sides of the packaged soil, set the plant onto the ground and cover. Pack the soil down atop the plant and water.

Outdoor water fountains are a desirable addition to any garden and improve the garden’s appearance as soon as they’re installed. The numerous benefits and joys of a water fountain make it as worthwhile an investment as the plants themselves. Outdoor water fountains add visual appeal while relaxing the body and the mind.

The trend for fountains began around a decade or so ago. This popularity hasn’t decreased, and with so many designs and sizes available, these beautiful elements help consumers around the world feel more peaceful within their gardens. Water fountains are the best gift idea for gardeners; they doesn’t lose their appeal over time.

Water fountains do far more for your outdoor sanctuary than just adding visual appeal. They create an sound that has been proven to relax and soothe away stress. They are a beneficial element to a chaotic and fast-paced world.

The primary reasons water fountains are the best gift is the selection available. Garden fountains have a variety of loudness levels and speeds. The resulting flow is entirely dependent on the construction of the fountain. Fountains can give off a soft trickle reminiscent of a tiny creek or the rushing flow of a stream.

The sizes of available fountains offer even greater flexibility. You can purchase a table-top model suitable for outdoor patio furniture or an full multi-tiered upright fountain. There are even fountains used as accessories for ponds and swimming pools. For the consumer with a small walled patio or veranda, consider a model that attaches to the wall, giving the benefits of a fountain without requiring a large amount of space.

Outdoor water fountains also give the atmosphere of your garden a cleansing feeling. The open running water provides moisture to the air around and works as a natural humidifier. The air feels clean and refreshing as after a rain shower.

The best garden is at your fingertips with some simple planning and the use of elements that are low maintenance. Complete your garden with perennial flowers and elegant water fountains.

Author Don Hollingsworth of Best Gift World. Viit today Best Gift World

A very important part of the majority of landscape designs is the garden furniture that is to be used in the garden and lawn around the house. Outdoor Furniture included in a plan of landscaping is a way of creating special places in your garden, where the family and their guests can meet comfortably, relax and enjoy the beauty of the surroundings. In addition, furniture for the outdoors will make people feel attracted to the special meeting area so that the they will be more willing to make use of the landscaping and appreciate your efforts for landscaping.

Added Living Space

A superior landscape design not only produces beautiful surroundings, but the most advantageous landscaping concepts carve out extra living space that extends the useful square footage of your home. Depending on the size of your own land and landscape design, these outdoor living spaces can on certain occasions double the area people have for social gatherings of family and friends. The seating arrangements make a big difference in how well these spaces are finally used and the manner in which your guests will enjoy all your efforts on entertaining outdoors.

There is a wide range of furniture that is made primarily for use in areas that are outdoors. There are styles ranging from the formal to relaxed and elegant and comfortable. Numerous different types of materials are used in making frames of outdoor pieces of furniture as well as for cushions and covers which are used to make them comfortable and inviting.

Choosing The Right Colors

When making the right selection of garden furniture, some people prefer to select styles, colors and textures that blend and reflect the total design of the landscaping around their house. This type of approach has a tendency to create a harmonious blend that helps the people experiencing it to relax and feel more involved in the garden that surrounds them. Greens, browns and more muted tones of nature are well liked for those who want to create a smooth flow between your garden and furniture design they add.

Other homeowners enjoy furniture for the garden that pop out and end up getting attention. Often, the colors are bright and the designs are very bold and are not intended mix in with the natural background. The pieces normally have an artistic type of feeling are primarily intended to make a statement and on certain occasions reflect the personality of the homeowner. These types of options in outdoor furniture create a lively atmosphere of fun and frivolity.

Flowing Design

Another approach that some individuals take when it comes to their outdoor living spaces is to make you feel as though the garden or patio which they have just stepped into is no more than a continuation of the interior living space. This is accomplished by the selection of styles, fabrics and colors that intimately imitate the furniture inside the house. Numerous individuals like this approach because it can fool the eye and make both the house and garden spaces seem more prominent, as they flow together smoothly.

Once you have selected just the right outdoor furniture that will make your guests more comfortable and will continue with the overall theme and the feel of your living area outdoors, it is a good idea to give attention to the lighting in the area. Good landscape lighting really complete the outdoor spaces and make them feel even more welcoming and warm, particularly if you will be doing nigh time entertaining.

Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as a avid writer in the field of gardening and home. If you would like to learn more go to Indoor Ponds advice and at Homemade Ponds and Waterfalls tips.

Almost everybody realizes what “curb appeal” is and the reason why it is important. This is the first impression that an individual receives as they initially pull up to the house. It only takes a fraction of a second for somebody to ‘evaluate your house and determine a number of different things about you even before they set foot onto your property.

One of the most significant ways that you can provide your house with a needed boost and enrich its curb appeal is feeding the lawn and making sure it is well maintained and carefully manicured.

Although it may seem easy enough, sometimes making the back and front lawn to appear beautiful, impeccable and appealing can be a tedious process, particularly if there were some initial problems with the health of the lawn. Listed below is a set of lawn care suggestions and tips that can assist you in cultivating a lawn that draws people to your house, invites them, and provides your curb appeal with a real boost.

1. Find out about the condition of the soil of your lawn. It is easy enough to get the soil tested. Just contact the agricultural extension agent in your city. This basic test will be able to speedily discover the elements of your soil and will indicate all that is missing so that you can correct the problem.

2. Have a scheduled lawn maintenance routine that incorporates fertilizing three to five times per year. Make certain that it is performed on a regular basis and it provides the right kind of food for the grass in the garden lawn. The extension agency can also assist you with information in this matter as it pertains to your local area.

3. When attempting to mow your grass during the heat of summer, make sure that you cut it to the maximum height that your lawn mower permits. This help the grass to dry faster after rainfall and even allows for shade on the ground, which assists in preventing moisture loss. This will help to conserve water, and it will also help the lawns to crowd out the weeds and smother them. During the cool and wet parts of the year, you can setup the lawnmower to cut lower depending on your preferences.

4. Water approximately one and a half inches at least once a week. When you briefly water every day, you encourage your lawn to develop a more shallow type of root system. Watering just once a week helps to develop strong deep roots that have the ability to better withstand hot, dry summer weather.

5. You should aerate at least once or twice each year. It also helps to promote a lawn with a deep root system and helps water and allow food for the lawn to get past the surface and into the roots, where it can do the most good. Aeration can also repair the symptoms of soil compaction, which is a specific problem if you are using a riding lawn mower to help maintain your lawn.

6. Keep your mower blades sharp and well maintained. Dull blades actually tear off the tip of the blades of grass and give it a ragged appearance and cause browning at the ends of the grass. Also, you should mow your lawn in different directions and patterns each time you mow. This helps avoid soil compaction and ruts.

7. Watch for signals of dead areas. These dead patches can be an symptom of a problem with insects or diseases that attack your home and garden lawns. When you notice this, you should not deal with the problem until you are fully aware of the facts. Your local extension agency will be of great assistance in this case also.

8. Handling weed control with the use of good quality herbicides. You can do this individually or look for a fertilizer that also contains elements of weed control.

These basic tips should give you a good starting point from which to enrich the health, vitality and appearance of the lawn that is the welcoming introduction to your home. With prudent lawn care, you will enjoy great curb appeal and you will also be able to use and benefit more fully from your yard.

Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as an expert author and an avid writer in the field of home and gardening. If you would like to learn more go to Building Concrete Ponds advice and at Indoor Ponds tips.

Now that we are well into the 2008 lawn growing season, I’m sure you’ve got your turfgrass properly fertilized properly and looking super thick and pretty. You’ve toiled to foil the onslaught of invading dandelions, clover and other weeds; and you are on a regular watering and irrigation schedule to keep your investment alive and growing.
The final basic element involved is the cutting. This is my favorite part of the maintenance process.
The positives are not only for the turf grass, but for the homeowner as well.
Mowing benefits to the homeowner include:
First off, cutting the lawn involves a power tool, namely, your mower.
Secondly, it involves some form of exercise (for which my wife is appreciative).
Finally, it affords the operator a chance to get some real thinking done.

Let’s explore each of these benefits.
(1) The power mower: I use a variable speed, self-propelled 21″ Lawn Boy ’sense-a-speed’ mower, rear wheel drive. (Oh that sounds hot just to say out-loud!)
My lawn is only 8,000 square feet, so I am not in need of anything larger; besides, I run that puppy wide open!
(2) The exercise: It takes about an hour to mow my lawn including edging, weed-whacking and cleanup. That’s not bad really. I suppose if I wanted to increase the aerobic benefits in this process, I could lose the “self-propelled” mower option and push the thing, but I’m not really that fat! Ha!
However, one thing I am in favor of to increase the benefit in exercise is mow the lawn 2 or 3 times per week! This helps #3 come more into focus as well as benefits the turf itself: it’s a venerable cornucopia of benefaction!
(3) The thinking time: (this is a great one!) Ponder this: you are out for 1-hour doing a job that only requires one person to do, that no one else in your household really wants to do anyway (especially if you have teenagers like I do). This means it’s all yours; you own it … completely!
On top of that, your wife can’t bark or nag at you during this time because the mower engine noise drowns her out completely and she knows it! It’s just plain quiet time for you inside your head! That’s better than a hammock under a tree and a cold lemonade as far as I’m concerned.

Now let’s get down to the tips that benefit the lawn itself.
(1) Mowing height
(2) Mowing frequency
(3) Mowing direction
(4) Mulch or Catch

Mowing benefits for the lawn, by the numbers:
(1) The height: This one varies according to the type of grass you have. But who *really* knows their grass type? Chances are you have a mix of Kentucky BlueGrass and some sort of fescue or rye. With that in mind, I tell folks to set their mower on the highest or second-highest setting. You just don’t want to remove much more than 25% of the grass blade in any single cutting.
It’s like this: If I lose a finger-nail, I’m going to be just fine, but if I lose my entire arm, I’m in a world of hurt, …got it?
And on a side note, ya gotta have a sharp blade. A dull blade rips the grass blades instead of cutting them. Rips turn brown and rob the lawn of it’s color.

(2) Assuming proper irrigation year-round, the lawn needs cutting weekly. I’ve had people call me to complain that after cutting their lawns, they turned yellow. Upon further investigation, I found that they had not cut the lawn prior for a month! Now we’re back to the finger-nail vs the arm analogy. Please folks, be responsible and keep your turf trimmed regularly.
As mentioned above, I actually try and get people to mow twice per week, but that’s over-the-top for most.

(3) The mowing direction isn’t the biggest deal here, but you certainly don’t want to mow the exact same way all the time or you take a chance on developing ruts in the lawn. You also will literally push lines of turf down, and “train” them to lay down all the time … like people “train” their hair to lay a certain direction…this is not a good situation for turf-grass.

(4) Mulch or catch? Ford or Chevy?
Yeah, it’s like that. I do both depending on my mood. Catching has benefits in the end because you don’t have as many clippings to blow off the driveway. If you do mulch, make sure you have a quality mulching blade installed to grind up the cuttings into super-fine bits!

So next time you head outside to cut that lawn, be sure to review the benefits to you, as well as your nice patch of green grass.

Al Haneson blogs about Illinois issues and life at Ambit Illinois Natural Gas and DIY Lawn Tips

A basic way to make sure your lawn is substantial as well as healthy each spring is to provide it with the proper lawn care throughout the months of winter and in late fall. While most lawns appear altogether hibernating throughout these months, the way that the lawn is cared for during this time period can make a lot of difference to the overall beauty and health of it when the summer time arrives. Here are a few ideas that will assure that the lawn is as healthy as it can possibly be when warm weather eventually returns.

Clearing Debris

If you happen to live in a region where there is regular snowfall, you want to be certain your strategy includes seeing to it that all parts of the lawn are free of debris as well as clutter prior to the first large snowfall of the year happens. Good maintenance of your lawn and preparation for winter snow include raking the leaves, getting rid of sticks, and removing any other kind of debris that simply does not belong on your lawns.

Even if you do not expect a lot of snow, it is always important to make sure the grass is not left under a pile of leaves or other waste which can interfere with the grass receiving a higher rate of moisture, air and nutrients. While the growth of most grass frequently stops at the end of autumn, it still has the capability of dying if it is buried under any type of yard debris.

Controlling Weeds

There are numerous individuals that have the misconception that the summer season is the most significant time period to control weeds. However, just the opposite is true and it is significant to realize this in order to plan for appropriate and healthy lawn care for the lawns that are around your home and garden.

Weeds actually grow much quicker than your lawn did during the winter, as compared to the summer season. If weeds are allowed to merely grow out of control during the “off season”, then there might not be a lot of lawn left to enjoy when spring comes.

Fortunately, since your grass will be growing at a much slower rate during the fall and winter, it is fairly easy to pinpoint the progress of weeds during this time period. Just make certain that you give a little attention and care to your lawn during these particular months, and get the weeds pulled out, or apply herbicide, so these weeds do not smother the lawn and ruin the appearance of your designed landscape.

Rye Grass and Bluegrass

If you are happy with the look of a thick flourishing lawn through the wintertime, then it is a good idea to plant ryegrass, bluegrass or other types of northern grasses which all have a tendency to be heartier and will survive through the cold winter months.

One of the primary benefits when using rye grass in your lawn, is that it generally grows well when mixed with your current grass and it will make your lawn appear more lush and full. However, the ryegrass will actually die off and the lawns regular grass will then take over as it comes to life in the springtime.

The winter grasses such as rye, will tend to grow better if you plant them in mid and later part of October. If you decide to plant in the fall, you will still need to make sure that your new lawn receives sufficient amounts of water.

If you get a week of dry weather, you want to make sure you water your lawn so that the rye gets one to two inches of water per week. Just by taking a few simple measures of lawn care should help you achieve a healthy and lush lawn that stand out in the summer.

Listen to Corbin Newlyn as he shares his insights as an expert author and an avid writer in the field of home and gardening. If you would like to learn more go to Backyard Ponds advice and at Natural Swimming Pools tips.