http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/02/17/147050691/can-gardening-help-troubled-minds-heal

My Sagos think it’s snowing…………….
What is that white stuff on my sago palms? Chances are it is the little creature known as the Asian Cycad Scale. Scales are very common in landscaped plants. They are sucking insects that can have soft or hard shells. Some are more aggressive than others. The Asian Cycad Scale that affects Sago “Palms” is a particularly voracious multiplier. They are not hard to kill but they require repeated applications to maintain control with foliar applications. If they are left untreated they will kill the plants. The best course of treatment is that with a systemic insecticide that actually makes its way into the plant tissue and kills the little critters when they start to feed. These treatments add cost to the maintenance of a landscape and many owners are just getting rid of the plants altogether.

I had a conversation today with a former colleague about the state of our industry (landscape industry) and a recent event with a former client in a past professional life.

It is in vogue now to diversify any business. Add services to grow your top line, your bottom line, your middle line, and any other line that you can think of. In this particular instance, a land clearing company had gone into the landscape maintenance business. I am sure their thought process went something like this………..

“I mean, its logical, business is slow and any idiot can maintain a landscape, right? Well of course they can! Its just a bunch of high school dropouts making huge coin doing something so simple and ripping people off and making huge money. I will go out and get some of their customers and only charge half what they charge and still make money. Stupid landscapers, I will show them.”

A vendor shared a conversation about this particular company buying flowers. “How many flowers did the other company buy last year? Really? Wow! They don’t need that many! Let’s just do half that many. They won’t notice. We will just stick them in the same holes we pull the others out of.”

I wasn’t surprised. You see this type of thing a lot. I could analyze this and ask obvious questions like “What the hell was their bid based on if they didn’t know how many flowers the job needed?” or ” Maybe they should learn how to properly prepare an annual bed.” But it really doesn’t matter. Most of the time these companies don’t last but you have to wonder what was going through the customer’s mind when they signed that agreement for 50% of what they were paying the other company. Did they really think the other guy was ripping them off?

How horrible of a job do we do(as an industry) of explaining to people the art of our business and what “good” landscaping is and what it costs to do it? Is it us or do people simply not care? Are people who make decisions like this the same ones that change their oil every 15 thousand miles because its cheaper? I am not sure. I know for a fact that proper maintenance costs a fraction more short term and an order of magnitude less long term. But we don’t always “sell” the customer that reality.

There are people who care about their landscaping and understand the value it holds to their property overall. Sometimes I think that percentage is getting smaller and smaller (these are our potential customers). There are companies who do a very good job of molding perception in their favor regardless of what the facts are. “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story” so to speak. We are huge XYZ and have XYZ so we are really good and you should use us. Or another classic, “We decided to do landscape maintenance because we suck at everything else we do and can’t stay busy.” Well, that last quote probably isn’t what they said word for word, but you get my drift.

Hire a professional. Hire HSG!