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Garden Column for the Salisbury Post Darrell Blackwelder September 19, 2006
Attendance at lawn care classes and short courses have been steadily declining since 1999. It seems lawn care companies are increasing. I get steady number of inquiries each week for those wanting commercial pesticide licenses for turf and landscape. Lawn care and landscape maintenance is big business in Rowan County. In 1979, Rowan County had only a scattering of lawn care companies. Today there are well over 50 established lawn care and landscape companies-and the number is increasing. Increased popularity of this service can be attributed to any number of reasons. Many just don’t have time and prefer to hire a company. Baby Boomers have more disposable income, while many are just getting older with limiting their ability to take care of landscapes. Others don’t understand fertilization and weed control and prefer someone else do the work. In some instances, it’s more cost effective to hire a lawn maintenance company and not invest in the tools needed for proper upkeep. Regardless of your situation, many will take time during the winter and ponder hiring a lawn maintenance company. There are basically three different types of service: partial lawn care, total lawn care and those that offer full lawn and landscaping services. Below are a few tips in selecting a lawn care company. **Determine which level of service you need. Some only want weed control and fertilizer application. They opt to cut grass themselves. Others will want a total package handling everything from lawn care to keeping bird feeders stocked. Part-time workers often fit the bill for those that only need their lawn mowed once in a while, but keep in mind that these companies are limited. Those that apply pesticides must have and maintain a commercial pesticide license. This requires 10 hours of training every 5 years. **Make sure the company follows proper lawn care procedures as recommended by Cooperative Extension. Do these companies offer soil testing? Do they follow accepted recommendations when applying seed and fertilizer? Lawn care and landscape companies should be able to outline their maintenance program in detail to give customers assurance of their capabilities. **Lawn care companies should provide some guarantee of their work unless of course there are extenuating circumstances such as bad weather, insects or disease problems. Customers must realize that some problems take time to resolve and also realize that if they impose certain restrictions, problems may still exist. For example, some want a weed free lawn without the use of herbicides. Unfortunately, this is quite difficult bordering on impossible in most situations. **Obviously, another important method of choosing a lawn maintenance company is to review their work. Most lawn maintenance companies are conscious of their work regarding well maintained landscape as a living billboard for advertisement. A personal inquiry from friends and homeowners is a key factor in choosing company that will meet your expectations.
Darrell Blackwelder is an agricultural agent in charge of horticulture with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service in Rowan County. For archived garden columns or other information, visit the Rowan County Master Gardener web site at www.rowanmastergardener.com , e-mail Darrell_Blackwelder@ncsu.edu
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