Bob Mann, Author at The Edge from the National Association of Landscape Professionals

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Author: Bob Mann

Bob Mann is the director of state and local government relations for NALP.

The Agronomist: Seek Out Turfgrass Research to Improve Your Lawn Care Operations

I always looked forward to the time of year when all of the hard work that you put into your customers’ lawns has finally paid off. If you’ve timed your fertilizer correctly – and your customer hasn’t scalped the lawn down to putting green height – the color will last until about Christmas. Hopefully. I […]

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The Agronomist: Advocacy Is Just Selling Yourself To a Different Audience

This month, I am going to discuss a coin with two sides. I can hear you saying, “Bob, coins always have two sides!” Yeah, I know that. I think. Maybe. When I run into people that I haven’t seen in a while and they ask about how my job at NALP is going, some will […]

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The Agronomist: The Work You Do Is Award-Winning

I get to do some very cool things in my job, not the least of which is to represent the landscape industry in organizations dedicated to the stewardship of pesticides. In this case, I am referring to The Pesticide Stewardship Alliance, a group consisting of cooperative extension folks, pesticide safety educators, registrants (a fancy name […]

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The Agronomist: Want To Improve Your Lawn Services? Become a Horticultural Detective!

Back before I joined NALP, I spent quite a bit of my time training new lawn specialists. That includes teaching problem-solving, a proficiency that takes a very long time to master. While it is very true that some of the problems we encounter in caring for turfgrass are pest-related, many times, the problems are due […]

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The Agronomist: Cultivate a Healthy Lawn to Control Weeds

This coming Labor Day will mark the sixth anniversary of my second career of government relations. Before that, I was in lawn care, working for myself and for others over the course of thirty seasons. I use the word ‘season’ instead of ‘years’ because, in the lawn care industry, we mark time in terms of […]

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The Truth About ‘No Mow May’

Well, it’s finally May, and the newspapers and online forums are filled to the brim with articles telling you not to mow your lawn this month. For the pollinators, they say. Everyone is busy and no one has the time to look to see if this “No Mow May” thing is legit or not. Except […]

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The Agronomist: Dedicate Your Downtime to Careful Planning

Winter…Not the agronomist’s favorite season, at least in the northern states anyway. If it’s not brown, it’s covered in a blanket of white and in either case, it’s frozen solid. This time of year, I love a trip down to Florida for a few days. Speaking of Florida, I headed down to Orlando in early […]

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The Agronomist: Reviewing the Year’s Successes and Failures

It’s been a long, hard season, hasn’t it? Every year it’s something: last year, it was armyworms eating half of the lawns in America; this year, for most of us, it simply did not rain. Will it be a plague of locusts next year? Who knows? On the one hand, the challenges we face in […]

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The Agronomist: What Weed Killer Should I Use to Kill This Weed? Try Healthy Turf

I have a stunning admission to make. I love lawn weeds. I know, I know. You don’t need to tell me. Failure to control weeds is the number one reason that lawn care customers cancel their services. And yes, I have battled the dastardly dandelion and the crafty clover in lawns for years. Most of […]

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The Agronomist: Getting Round 1 Right

As goes Round 1, so goes the season. Or at least that’s the saying in the lawn care business; the first visit to a customer’s home and the quality of the application sets the tone for the rest of the year. This is not only true for agronomics but also from the perspective of customer […]

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