April is National Lawn Care month! This month let’s celebrate all of the great things lawns provide for our companies and our customers. We have all heard about the great benefits lawns have on society and the environment. In our communities and on the news we continue to hear the perceived negatives about our industry and the services we provide. This month let’s stand up and show the world all of the great things we do and how we actually are acting as professionally trained, environmental improvement focused good stewards. I challenge each one of you to make a difference this month and spend some time educating your staff and especially your customers of the many benefits properly maintained turf. When you spend time educating a customer you have an opportunity to gain an advocate for our industry as well as continue to grow a professional relationship with them that will prove to add to your bottom line.
Below are just a few facts about the many benefits of properly maintained turf you can use to talk with your clients as well as a few ideas on how to add some green to your pocket with “Green Services”
Properly maintained lawns:
1. Increase property values as much as 18%
In the 2011 Husqvarna Global Gardening Report it was reported that 60% of Americans consider their yard an investment and 72% believe that someone in the neighborhood has a better looking yard than they do.
This is promising for professional lawn care companies. This information tells us that people care about their lawns enough to consider it an investment and be worried about where they rank in the neighborhood. This can be used to our advantage when selling lawn care in that we can develop marketing pieces and scripts that speak to exactly what the consumer wants
2. Provide cooling, water /air filtering, and carbon sequestering
Healthy lawns are known to be up to 30 degrees cooler than asphalt surfaces and 3 degrees cooler than bare dirt. This helps reduce electricity use for cooling of homes. Lawns trap and hold run off after a storm and filter contaminants in the water as it slowly recharges the ground water supply. Think of turf as a giant air filter removing dust and air pollutants making the air safer to breath for our children and families. Well maintained lawns will consume 5 – 7 times more carbon than the carbon output of mowing.
3. Reduce Stress and increase mental health
It is well known that well maintained lawns and landscapes have a positive calming effect on people. In today’s fast paced and highly stressful climate it is more important than ever that people can relax when they are away from work at their homes.
Green Friendly Add Ons
1. Core Aeration and Topdressing– increase soil microbial activity and will aid in reducing the carbon foot print the customer has.
2. Lawn Over Seeding- Increases overall turf density leaving the lawn less susceptible to insects and weed invasion which will reduce the use of pesticides
3. Soil Testing – one of the most important things you can do to make sure a customer can achieve a beautiful healthy lawn without the overuse of fertilizers or pesticides. You must know what the individual lawns requirements are before you can properly form a plan.
4. Irrigation Audits – Use this service to help your clients save money on water as well as conserve a valuable resource.
5. Irrigation Updates and Maintenance – By simply updating old and worn out heads, emitters, and control panels customers can save lots of money on their water bill. Also, think about adding more service appointments to you annual start up and shut down program to keep heads properly adjusted and timers set properly throughout the season. It’s a win win for your company and the customer.
