My Daily Landscape Adventures

2009-10-29T16:03:00.001-04:00

The mowing crew is now off of the regular weekly mowing schedule and are slowing down to do leaf clean up before they mow. This slows the crew crew done to a 2 week schedule and soon it will be down to a every 3 week schedule as the leaf drop will intensify the amount of work to be done. It's that time of the year when the lawns also start to slow down in their growth due to the cooler temps.

I had to take these 2 pictures at this property in Wellesley. The pic on the right is of the "Cinnamon Mums" that we planted in the wooden planters on the back patio. The one on the left is of the same Mum, it just has the Japanese Red Maple behind it. I envy the homeowner as she gets to look out onto this, from the picture window in her kitchen. The mums are a a hardy flower and can handle the much cooler nights. All of the annuals will freeze in these temps so they will be removed as we go to each property from now on. the perennials will be cut back almost to the ground, as their energy has gone back into the root ( bulbs) for the winter.

Overseeding and Lime and Gypsum application

2009-10-20T15:37:00.001-04:00

Today I have to go up to the John Deere/Lesco fertilizer store in Marlboro to pick up 8, 50 pound bags of Park and Athletic grass seed to do an over seeding at the 2 soccer fields at Olin College. The seed mix is good for this area as it is for the most part in the sun all day and by over seeding it the soccer players will put i into the turf with their spikes. This should be up and growing in a few days as the turf is still warm enough for the seed to germinate. The field is a bit on the wet side so we are hoping the seed does not rot before germinating.

I also picked up 8, 50 pound bags of a Pellitized, Gypsum and Lime combo for one property in Needham. The front lawn is a tuff one, as it is on a ledge and a hill which causes the lawn to heat up during the summer hot season and it also dries out quickly, because it is on a slope. the back lawn is almost all in the shade under pine trees, so it is a bit acidic.

I used the combination before at one home in Medfield quite a few years ago and the results were just unbelievable. The lawn went from yellowish and lifeless to a deep green and then over time became very healthy and a vigorous grower. what a change, hopefully this application will have the same effect. It's late in the year so we may not see any improvement until next season.

Getting Ready Fro Fall

2009-10-16T15:22:00.002-04:00

It appears that Fall is coming to us early this year. For the past month the trees have had a very yellow, dull, lifeless appearance and just look like they will be coming down early.

Because of the very wet spring season we had this year there is a "bumper crop" of pine cones and acorns. I have never seen acorns this large before.

Soon we will be removing the leaves from the lawn area's of most of our properties, the leaves in the beds can stay until final cleanup, if we make it that far into the season. It is important that there are no leaves on the lawn as this will kill the lawn area over the winter.

Guillerme and I will be spending a couple of days at the shop getting our dump trucks ready for the leaf vac's. We will be extending the height of the dump truck beds, in order for us to put a lot of leaves into them. It will take us about 6 hours per truck and after that we will do oil changes and tune up the 2 leaf vac's we have.
( which do not weigh that much )

Last round of Lawn Fertilizer

2009-10-12T16:37:00.005-04:00

Today, I started the last application of lawn fertilizer, that we do in the season. The leaves are coming down and we have to get it on the lawns before all of the leaves are down and ready to be picked up.

I am using a fertilizer from LESCO, 13-0-6, which means that there is 13% Nitrogen, 6% Potash and the rest is lime. This is a fertilizer lime mix, that we have been using the last few seasons. It saves us time as we used to apply the fertilizer and then apply the lime. now it is just one application for both.

Guillerme is helping me out today and will be helping me out again when I go to Olin College to fertilize their campus and soccer fields. the rest of the time I will be going "solo" as Guillerme is needed on the other crew to help out.

Rain is forecast for tomorrow and again this weekend, with this weekend having a "Nor Easter". that is when the winds come in from the North and East over the ocean. This produces a lot of wind and chilly temps.

This time it should take me over a week to do all of the lawns and the college. Going "solo", slows the process down and this will be the last time I see some of the properties this season.

Late season Flowers

2009-10-09T17:02:00.002-04:00

I noticed these flowers when the guys were mowing and weed whacking. Most of the flowers have faded, so it was a surprise to find these guys. The pansy is next to the driveway, and must have planted itself, the warm pavement must be keeping it warm enough to survive. the blue flower was planted in an area next to the driveway also, again it must be the warmth of the driveway pavement that is keeping it in bloom.

It seems like the season is coming to a very quick end this year. For the past month the leaves have been yellowish and faded. Now that the colors are coming out, they too are not as bright as usual. It seems to be cooling off much earlier than the past few years, when we had extended growing seasons. Oh well, it all seems to average out over the long term, maybe it was all due to the cool and wet season we had this year.

Helping out the mowing Crew

2009-10-08T16:50:00.002-04:00

Due to some upcoming rain for the next 2 days I had to take Fabio and Guillerme out on a mowing route to help out the other crew. We had to get the complete route done for the week today so both crews were in action.

Fabio is on the Stander 52 inch mower while Guillerme is using the weed whacker to do some late season trimming. The season is winding down and there is not that much left to weed whack but we want the walks and driveways to look nice and neat.

The pictures are of a property in Southborough, that is in direct sun for most of the day and the lawn just keeps growing like crazy. Luckily Fabio gets it done with one pass of the mower, usually it takes 2 passes.

Overseeding a Soccer Field

2009-10-06T16:30:00.003-04:00

Today, I went with Guillerme to fertilize over seed and spray broad leaf weeds at college we take care of.

Guillerme was going to go and re-visit areas that we had just sprayed for broad leaf weeds a week ago and spray again. Sometimes the broad leaf, especially the ground ivy and clover need a couple of applications to knock them out. He went around on foot with a back pack sprayer and re-sprayed. There are 2 soccer fields, covering one large playing area and while Guillerme was off doing his spraying I used the Permagreen power spreader. It is a lot easier to use the power spreader when you have a large area to cover. I have to apply 500 pounds of fertilizer to both soccer fields and after that over seed 350 pounds of Lesco "Park and Athletic" grass seed.

The year is winding down, as far as growing grass from seed and this was the last chance to get some grass up and going before the cold weather sets in. The Park and Athletic has a good mix of 33% Perennial Rye grass, 33% Kentucky Bluegrass and 33% Red Fescue. Its a little chilly for the bluegrass, so we are hoping for some warm sunny days to heat up the turf area. The Rye grass and Fescue like the cooler weather so there will be no problem with them. the blue grass will come up and the rest will be in the ground ready to go come those warm spring days next year.

Late season trim job

2009-09-18T12:29:00.005-04:00

Guillerme and I had to return to this property in Southborough to day to trim and fluff it up for an Open house on Sunday. We had been there early in the spring for the same reason. From what I can get from Rob, is that the house was supposedly sold and then the financing fell apart, so now the home is back on the market.

For the past 6 weeks the property had no maintenance at all from us including cutting the lawn. Guillerme did the shearing with a power trimmer and I did all of the hand clipping and we both weeded as needed. you can see Guillerme in the back of the house next to the water fountain, ready to go to work.

Grubs............

2009-09-17T12:10:00.002-04:00

The other day when I was at this property, in Wellesley I noticed a brown dead area of lawn. I went to investigate and after pulling up some of the dead turf I found the dreaded grubs. We have not seen any damage caused by grubs on our properties for many years now that we have been using a product from Bayer named Merit.

I notified Rob, who notified the head grounds keeper and it was decided that I would come back and spread Dursban over the entire back yard. Dursban is a quick kill product that needs to be watered in right after the application. We have had great success with it.

After that project I went with Guillerme to the home used by the President of Olin college. The presidents wife really enjoys her flower gardens and wanted to have us transplant and plant some new bushes she had purchased. She also wanted us to pull all of the weeds in her annual and perennial gardens. It is very enjoyable to come here and work because the owner really enjoys her gardens and it makes her happy when we show up. She knows it will look just beautiful after we leave, and that is a good thing.

Spraying Nutsedge

2009-09-16T11:52:00.009-04:00

Guillerme and I went to a property in Needham, ( pic on bottom ) because the owner wanted us to get ride of the Nut sedge growing in his lawn. This happens every year and the owner just loves having a beautiful lawn. The week before I went over by myself to spray the broad leaf weeds. This lawn is usually the best one we take care off. It is because the owner is very much involved in the maintenance of it.

After we took care of the Nut sedge, we went over to another home in Wellesley, ( pic on top ) to finish up some work I had started a few weeks ago. Guillerme weeded a rubble rock hill and then sprayed Round Up on what was left over. I finished trimming the trees that were overgrown by the tennis court, finished trimming a weeping cherry, that I did not finish when we came to trim this year, because a mother cardinal had a nest in it. Guillerme also used the weed whacker to clear out an area that had become overgrown with weeds.

Replace Bushes - Weed & Mulch

2009-09-15T20:57:00.003-04:00

Today I went with Guillerme to a property in Holliston to remove a Magnolia tree that had been devastated by Scale and replace it with a new yellow Cyprus.

When we got there and looked at the tree which we had sprayed in the spring, the branches were all black. The surrounding bushes, flowers and even the air conditioning unit all had the same black stuff on them. I did not even want to touch the branches with bare hands.

After we removed and planted that one we went into the back yard and removed 2 hydrangea trees that just did not fit in the small area that they were planted in. We replaced them with 2 small cone shaped Ilex.

After that Guillerme and I weeded the entire property. I went to Framingham to dump the material we had collected from the tree removal and then went back to the shop where we had enough red pine bark mulch to use around the new plantings, about one yard. We have a skid steer that we use for construction projects and it was available that day for me to load the truck.
We finished up around 5 PM and headed back to the shop.

Fluff up a home in Needham

2009-09-11T17:38:00.004-04:00

Today I went with Guillerme to a property over in Needham, to weed, do some hand trimming and as we would find out later trim up a few Yews. This is a very large property, you can see part of the back yard in the picture on the above left. It is around 7 acres and had not had any attention to it since the spring and needed a little fluff up to look nice. This is also the home of the grandmother of the boy who is getting married that I posted about last week.

When we got there I noticed that the large yews in the front of the property for some reason had not been trimmed this year. I called Rob, who was at a property close by and he brought over the power shears for Guillerme top trim them up. I went around hand clipping the smaller bushes and continued with the weeding of all of the beds going around the house and a few more in the back yard.

We finished up a bit early and headed back to the shop. It was a good idea as now that the kids are back in school the traffic has increased dramatically, which just makes for a longer day. Oh well its the weekend.

Bluestone Stepping Stone Path

2009-09-10T17:19:00.006-04:00

Today, I went with Guillerme, to a property in Wellesley to do a quick trim job. The owner did not want us spending a lot of time there, so along with Rob, we did what we could do in 2 hours.

Next Guilleme and I went over to a property in Wellesley and removed a dogwood tree, that was planted in the spring but had the leaves on the bottom half of the tree wilt and turn brown. This was due to a lack of water, as we dug out the tree roots, the loam was like talcum powder, very, very dry. When the upper part of the tree was cut, we could see that the branches still had life in them. After removing the tree we planted the new dogwood in the same location.

Next we had to go to the side of the house and install (20) 18 inch by 24 inch Blue Stone paver's to create a pathway from the front yard to the back. When we had finished I went and dumped all of the trimmings from the first job and the old dogwood at the re-cycling facility in Framingham and returned with 2 yards of loam to fill in the low spots around the Blue Stone. I had to then go back to the shop and get 1 1/2 yards of matching pine bark mulch to finish up the job. You can see the birthday boy, Guillerme washing down the stones, in the picture above.

Solo - Odds and Ends Work

2009-09-09T16:51:00.006-04:00

It is the beginning of the month so it is time for me to do some "odds and ends" solo work. These are all relatively small projects that customers call and request help with. The first job I did, was to go over to a property in Framingham and re-trim the bushes because the customer wanted more of his bushes trimmed away that had been done earlier.

Next, I went to a property in Holliston to weed the beds, weed whack the front walk and back patio. I then had to spray "round up" on the patio and walkway to hopefully take care of the weeds for this year. the customer is also hoping that it is the last time we have to come over and weed his beds. We are getting close to the end of the season, in fact it looks like we are going to have an early fall. The leaves on the trees are already turning yellowish and appear to be life less.

Next, I went to a property in Sherborn to finish trimming one bush along the side of the house. We had encountered a very large hornets nest and Guillerme got stung, when we were there working on the property earlier in the season. Even after we had sprayed the nest and physically removed it, the very unhappy returning bees were not happy to find there home gone.

I ended up both Tuesday and Wednesday at a property in Wellesley, to finish up what had been requested by the owner earlier in the season. He also requested that I come over after 10 AM so as not to disturb the guys playing tennis on the courts in the back yard. The 2 pictures above, are of the gardens at the back of the house and around the indoor pool. the courts are behind the gardens.

I had to "tip back" the white pines that grow in a row, along the tennis court fence, on one side, and then remove the top spire that had some evidence of the "Pine borer" in it. I then
"up-limbed" the trees that are growing along the fence, in back of the courts. The tree branches are growing over the courts and needed to be cut back.

As I was working the owner came home and added some more work to my project list so I will not finish today and will have to return next week. More weed whacking, hand weeding and spraying Round up in those areas. Oh well back next week with some of the guys for some help.

Clean up and Mulch for a Wedding Reception

2009-09-04T18:02:00.004-04:00

We had to go over to this home in Dover Massachusetts because one of the son's is getting married and the property needed to be cleaned up for the wedding reception that is going to be held there. the work was a lot more than Rob anticipated for some reason. He thought it could all be weeded, re-edged and mulched all in one day with a 3 man crew. I explained to Rob, that it was a 2 day job for a 3 man crew and that it was going to be about 20 yards of mulch.

It is a beautiful property, that is kinda like a peninsula and is surrounded by the infamous Charles River. (you all remember that song) It is large about 6 acres and it has some large beds that needed to be weeded before we could start mulching.

Here again, we had to dead head flowers, cut off the flower shoots on the hosta's and remove yellow leaves from the Lilly's. Guillerme and I worked on just weeding from 8 AM to 5:15 PM. Rich who came with us went and got some mulch after lunch and mulched some of the beds for the afternoon by himself. We are using a brown pine mulch and it will look very nice around all of the flowers and shrubs when we are done on Tuesday. I will have to get some better pictures to show the size of the property. I will do another post next week when we have finished this up.

What a wicked "web"

2009-09-03T18:00:00.005-04:00

Fabio, Guillerme and I went to this home in Wellesley to continue weeding and fluffing up properties. We all were working on the rock garden in the front of the house and I noticed this beautiful, very symmetrical spiders web. I had to hide under one bush to take the picture because the sun was shinning in the wrong direction to get a head on shot.

Another sign that fall is quickly coming, was the apple tree's out back had nice red Macintosh apples ready to pick and eat. I think the guys had an apple each time they passed the tree. They left quite a few on the ground for the deer that frequent the back yard. If the guys did not eat them they would have gone to waste and that would have been a shame.

Some of the bushes that had been planted early in the spring had died and rob went to Lovell's nursery to get replacements. It appears that the irrigation system has been shut off for some reason. the owner was not home so we did not have access to the control panel for the irrigation system to check out what was going on. We finished up at 5 PM and headed back to the shop.

Fluffing up a few properties

2009-09-02T17:58:00.005-04:00

Guillerme and I started to work on this property yesterday, but we were only there for a few hours. Today I have Guillerme and Fabio to help me out. Fabio is another guy who is turning out to be a very good "detail" worker, again they are hard to find.

As we were about 2 hours into the job of wedding and fluffing up the beds, the mowing crew showed up and mowed the property. They also mow 5 other properties that are off campus but used by Babson higher ups.

Here as in the other properties we are starting the process of dead heading the flowers and removing the yellow leaves, especially from the Lilly's and Iris's. Some of the annuals here needed to be completely removed, especially from the planters.

The Presidents wife wanted new Chrysanthemums, planted for some upcoming gatherings, that are going to be held at the property. This part of the project was handed over to Rob, who seems to be the pot planter this season.

Late Season Trim Job

2009-09-01T16:30:00.004-04:00

The season is starting to wind down. The leaves on the Chestnut Trees are curling up, the Swamp Maples are starting to turn red and orange. I think we are in for a early fall this season.

We went to this property to trim the bushes and weed and make it look nice. The property had nothing done to it since the beginning of the season when it was cleaned up and mulched.

Guillerme helped me out on this and he is turning into a very good "detail" worker which is hard to find.

As we went along doing our work, we started the process of dead heading all of the flower blooms and removing the yellow branches from the flowers. The season is coming to an end and the flowers and tress are telling us that. Most everything, lawns, bushes, trees and flowers are starting to look lifeless and a bit yellow.

We finished this up around 2:30 PM and then headed over to to the same type of work at the property used by the President of Babson College

Mowing before storm

2009-08-29T12:30:00.003-04:00

A hurricane named Danny is predicted to come close enough to Massachusetts that we will be experiencing heavy rain on Saturday and Sunday.
So Rob, has decided that he wants a second mowing crew to go out and finish up all of the mowing for the week by Friday.

I have not gone on a mowing route in many many years and it was like being in a time warp all day.
I used this day to train Guillerme on using both of the mowing machines we had with us. A walk behind hydro 36 inch mower and a hydro 52 inch stand on mower. Fabio, who was also with us was already familiar with both machines.

It ended up being a fun day, where I could share stories with the guys about how it was when I first started and all of the mowing machines were walk behind and were belt driven. We were finished around 4:40 and went back to the shop and the guys washed the trucks and mowers
before the rain came in.

The picture above is of what the sky looked like at 4:00 pm from the last house we mowed.

Getting Babson ready for the start of the year

2009-08-26T12:29:00.003-04:00

We went to Babson College today to continue with the weeding of area's that had been neglected during the year so the college would look its best when the fall semester begins this weekend.

Guillerme, Fabio, Ceillo, Rob and I went from building to building weeding and cleaning up the areas close to the buildings and parking lot areas.

Some of the kids had already arrived and you could feel the buzz starting to grow on campus. It is fun being here although it is very warm and humid this week.

The picture is of the entrance with the "mums" that were planted last year. The nurseries and store's seem to get the mums in earlier and earlier every year. We remove annuals that were planted in the spring and can not tolerate the colder temperature that will be arriving soon and plant mums, which are hardier.

Back from my Vacation

2009-08-24T12:08:00.003-04:00

I am back from a week off, which I needed. I have found that a week off during the summer refreshes my attitude, work and gets me ready for the colder part of the season. We use a large part of our energy doing our work and when it gets colder our bodies start to use more and more of that energy. So this was a very beneficial break for me.

It is hard for me to come up with current pic's to add to the post as the season is winding down and most of the flowers are no longer in full bloom and are rather dull looking.

When I came back I had to finish the feritlizer route, which Guillerme and I worked on before I left. I finished up the 4 properties on the route and then went to Babson College to meet up with Rob and the guys. The had spent the entire week while I was gone, getting the college ready for the fall semester.

Vacation.....................

2009-08-20T22:21:00.001-04:00

This week I am on a much needed vacation. The warm summer season is almost over and the cooler fall and winter season are on the way. I just needed to recharge the old batteries. I will be back next week.

Pete

Trimming the Olin college home

2009-08-07T20:50:00.004-04:00

We went to the home that is used by the President of Olin College today to trim and weed the property because there was going to be a party on Monday. I had Fabio and Guillerme with me.

Before we even started the guy who is in charge of the Olin College campus showed up to mow the lawn. So we had to have a small break to have a chat with him. Then he was off to mow while we started to weed the beds.

I enjoy coming to this property as well, because the lady of the house loves her flower gardens. She enjoys having us come over and always brings us coffee and homemade blueberry muffins for our 10AM break. she just came back from Paris and had a lot to tell us about her trip and even brought us out some books on Notre Dam and the Louve, great pictures and great stories.

We finished up just about 5 pm, and had to work a little bit harder and faster at the end because we knew we had to be done by the end of the day.

The Neighbors house

2009-08-05T20:29:00.001-04:00

Today we are the property right next door to the one we were working on for 2 days that I posted about yesterday. I really enjoy both of these properties because the owners are very , very nice people, they love their yards and the nature that is found in them. they always look great when we have finished and that takes a lot of time. We will be here for a day and a half.

Before we started working I gave the neighbor some SUNJING, because the day before he told me he was having a therapist come over to help him work out some soreness he was experiencing. When I was talking to him the owner of the property we were working on came out to talk to us and she showed us how she had twisted her ankle. she had gone on a trip to Brazil and on the return flight dropped her bag on her foot, so I gave her a bottle of SUNJING to rub on the soreness.

I only had Guillerme with me tody and it was another hot one, so we worked on the rock garden out front early in the morning to avoid the mid day sum and heat. After that we stayed on the perimeter beds which for the most part are in the shade.

As I was working at hand clipping the holly bushes the homeowner drove into the driveway and rolled down the window and said "wow, what is that stuff it reeally works great", so I gave her my card with the website on it so she could buy some. It is great stuff for sore muscles.

Large Trin job in Wellesley

2009-08-03T20:01:00.003-04:00

Today I was with Guillerme and Fabio, at a large property in Wellesley to trim up the bushes, weed every where and a few odd projects here and there. We are under pressure though to be finished up by the end of the day tomorrow. The owner is expecting some VIP's as he says, his children and grandchildren are coming for a visit. This is the same property that had the mother turkey in the springtime that I wrote a post about.

Monday we will have the front yard finished, even though this is one of the few days we are having this summer that is in the 90's and very, very humid. After we went around and weeded all of the beds both Guillerme and Fabio got the power shears and sheared up all of the bushes. This is one of the few properties around that still has a lot of yews to trim. Newer landscapes have moved away from that style of bush. We went till 5 pm and then it was time to go back to the shop, it was a hot day for the guys.

Tuesday was another hot and humid day. We were off to the back yard and the owner pointed out a mother robin that had made a nest in a bush, and told us to skip it for now. Later in the day I was trimming a tall weeping cherry and kept seeing a cardinal flying by and then I began to hear the cardinal chirping and I looked up and saw the nest. Another tree that will not be completed until after the babies have left the nest. We still have about 3/4 of a day's work to do here but it will have to be after the VIPs leave.

Southborough trim job continued.........

2009-07-29T12:37:00.003-04:00

Guillerme and I went back to the property in Southborough, to finish up the pruning and weeding job, we had started yesterday.

Today, it is not sunny and that is a blessing as this property is out in the open sun and yesterday, it was hot and humid.

As, I have written about in earlier posts, this years lillies have really deep, rich colors and they are very large, 2-3 feet in height and very healthy. They must have enjoyed our 2 months of cool rainy weather, unlike me and the guys who had to endure working in it.

Southborough Trim Job

2009-07-28T12:19:00.001-04:00

Guillerme and I are in Southborough today to start a 2 day weed and prune job. I have been taking care of this property for over 15 years and the owner is very, very nice. we have installed all of the plantings at this home over the many years we have been taking care of it. When I first came to the property there was not a pool in the back yard only a small swingset. The property is in the direct sun all day long and everything just loves growing and getting bigger every year.

We start off in the front yard and as we do, the owner comes out and talks to us before she goes golfing for the day. She wants to know if it is OK, to leave her dog out while she is gone and of course we agree. We enjoy having dogs around while we work, they break up the routine and are fun to be with. It is so warm and humid todat that the dog decides laying down on the cool garage floor is more enjoyable than hanging out with us.

Crabgrass spraying

2009-07-27T12:08:00.003-04:00

Today, I went with Guillerme and Rich to spray the crabgrass at Olin College. Crabgrass loves to grow in warm sunny areas and there are plenty of those areas at the college. Along roadways, parking areas and along all of the sidewalks.

We concentrate on the "hot spots" and do a visual check of the interior areas and spot spray any crabgrass we see. I will be using the Permagreen power spreader and the guys will be using backpack tank sprayers.

This year, with all of the cool weather we are having has, reduced the amount of crabgrass and the size of the crabgrass. Usually at this time of year it is quite large, approximately 7-8 inches in diameter and requires multiple spraying to eradicate it. This year we are seeing the crabgrass to be only about 3 inches in diameter max., which is good thing, because it will require only 2 applications to kill it off.

It takes us the full day to cover the entire campus, and we will be back in a few weeks anyways with the next fertilizer application.

Walpole trim job

2009-07-23T20:35:00.002-04:00

Today, I went with Guillerme and Wagner to the entrance to a housing development in Holliston and trimmed what was there and weeded. Just neatened it up a bit. There are a lot of dead "Blue Rug Spruce" there that have been damaged due to the winter chemicals put down. That is another job at another time, when finances are available.

Next, we went over to a property in Walpole to trim and weed. The owner was having a party on the weekend for his son who had just graduated from college. this property needed a lot of weeding before we could even get to the bushes. So we spent the rest of the day just weeding and took out about 4 yards of weeds from 2 1/2 beds. Needles to say, we will be returning to complete the job.

The pictures are of some more Lillies, I just can't get over their color this year.

We had rain on Friday morning and did not get over to finish this job until around lunch time. I had Guillerme and Fabio with me. We worked very hard to complete the front yard and side yards by 5:00 PM. We ended up taking an additional 4 yards of weeds and trimmings from the property, but the owner was very pleased and that is what it is all about.

Continue trim job and plant Stella Dora's

2009-07-22T20:18:00.007-04:00

Tuesday it rained so I went to the shop and worked on the Permagreen power spreader, because the plan is to go to Olin college on Friday and spray the crabgrass there and also to fertilize the soccer fields. The Permagreen Spreader is the key piece of equipment for that job. It needed to be tuned up, cleaned and have the transmission and oil changed.

Today, Wednesday, I went back to the property that is used by the President of Babson College, to continue with the weeding and trimming of the property. It was decided yesterday that we would plant Stella Dora day Lillie's in the back yard. There are 3 mulch beds surrounding very large "landscape rocks" where there are tulip's in the spring and then nothing for the rest of the year. Rob, showed up with the entire back of his pickup loaded with Stella Dora's. Guillerme and Wagner spent the next 2 1/2 hours digging holes and planting them. Hopefully there will still be time for some of them to bloom this year.

As I mentioned in the last post for some reason this year the Lillie's are vibrant in their color and it seems that all of them are close to 4 feet high. I took the pictures of these 2, that are in the perennial bed in the back of the property.

We still have not finished the entire property by the end of the day, but that is alright, because Rob, wants to send another crew there to mulch the Stella Dora beds and do a severe trim job on a large Crab Apple tree across the street.

Trim Job with Bee's

2009-07-20T18:41:00.001-04:00

I went with Guillerme and Wagner to trim the property that is used by the President of Babson College today. This is a big trim job and we will be there for 2 days plus. The property always has to look, well "presidential", no weeds in the beds, everything trimmed nicely, nice looking lawn with no weeds in it.

I have been noticing this year, that the Astillbe's in every one's yard have very strong colors and most of them are about 4 feet in height. I have never seen them this way before, maybe it is the rain and cool weather. The pictures are of the Astillbe that is in the perennial garden on this property. In the picture on the right, you can see how they are towering over the Yew Hedge.

Out by the carriage house the guys found a large bee hive the size of a small basketball and boys being boys, got out the bee spray. They each took turns going in as close as possible, spraying and then running as fast as they could. I just watched and enjoyed their activities.

Needham trim job

2009-07-17T18:17:00.001-04:00

Today Wagner decided he would come and join us at work today and we all went to a property in Needham. The picture in the upper left is of the home. The other 2 pictures are of some blue hydrangea's, that the owner takes good care off with a application of Holly Tone every week. This year the flowers are just brilliant and very large compared to the others we see as we drive around.

This trim project takes all day even though it is a small property, which surprised Guillerme, who thought we would be done early. There is a lot of hand clipping that has to be done. The owner just loves his yard and plants ornamental bushes were ever he can, he is really "into"his landscape. He is also a very nice guy and always wants to give us water and best of all, he is always walking by complimenting the guys on the great job they are doing. He really appreciates our work.

3 Trim jobs, no Wagner

2009-07-16T18:00:00.006-04:00

The picture on the right is the last home we worked on, This is a property were we had done the complete installation many, many years ago. Now the bushes have grown so much it is time to think about moving some around to give the others some air and room to expand. The picture on the right is of a yellow, Coreopsis Flower.

Wagner was a no show this morning, as had, had a nose bleed yesterday and when he was playing soccer last night it started to bleed again. So he decided to give it a rest for a day with some ice on it. That left Guillerme and I to work on 3 trim projects today. They are all smaller properties and they are all close to each other in Wellesley.

Guillerme and I worked until 6 PM and did manage to get them all done. I did have a CRAVE energy drink which gave me more than enough energy to finish the day. I am really enjoying having those to make it through the day, I just need that energy boost. CRAVE allows me to get a good night's sleep. I used to drink an afternoon coffee, but then I would pay for it by not being able to sleep at night.

Sherborn Trim job- and the Police visit us

2009-07-15T17:43:00.002-04:00

We went to a home in Sherborn, Massachusetts today to do a trim and weed job. We had worked at installing all of the bushes, trees, sod and blue stone patio quite a few years ago and that is when these pictures were taken. Most all of the plantings are at least twice a high and a lot fuller.

Wagner came up to me when Guillerme and I were in the back of the property and asked me to come and help one of the ladies who was cleaning the home. As I walked around to the front of the home the police arrived. They asked me what was going on and I explained that I did not know, but then Wagner told us that the cleaning lady had used some kind of chemical to clean the rugs and it had set off the alarm. A few minutes later the fire engine cam down the road but was waved off by the police.

We went back to work, after all of the excitement and the man who owns the property, showed up, about an hour latter, after he had been called at work. He at least knows, now, that his alarm system, does in fact work the way it is supposed too.

Condo Trim Job

2009-07-13T17:29:00.003-04:00

Today, I am with Guillerme and Wagner doing a big 3 day trim job at a condo complex in Millis, Massachusetts. The picture above on the left, is just part of the complex, after it was trimmed and the other picture, is of a cone flower, with a Bee getting some nectar.

This is a good project for Guillerme to work on as it has many different varieties of shrubs for him to practice his shearing skills on. We tackle this project one building at a time. We weed all of the beds first, rake them out and then do all of the hand clipping and the shearing of the shrubs. Doing it this way makes it easier to clean up and is a lot easier on Wagner who is doing the majority of the clean up work.

This will take us a total of 3 days to complete, but it is well worth it, as we get a lot of compliments from the ladies who live there. That is what is so great about landscaping, making customers happy with your work.

Finish one condo and off to the next one.

2009-07-09T17:47:00.004-04:00

We went back to the condo complex in Medfield and started to work on our trim job there. The lady who is in charge wanted all of the bushes to be hand trimmed instead of using the power shears as we had done last year. She did not like that "lolli pop" look. So I ended up having to hand clipp all of the ornamentals. This is a good way to trim, but in a few years, the bushes will have out grown the area they are now in. The custome is always right, in these cases.

Guillerme, Wagner and I finished up the condo complex in Medfield around 2:30 PM and headed over to our next Condo Complex in Millis. This complex will take the 3 of us 2 1/2 to 3 days to finish weeding and trimming. The picture was taken this spring and is showing one, of the seven units that we will be trimming.

Finish the job in Dover and off to a Condo to trim

2009-07-08T17:28:00.008-04:00

The flower picture on the left, is a "Lace wing Hydrangea", which I like, more than the "pom-pom type", which most people associate with hydrangeas. To me this it is, a more eloquent, variety.

We finished up the trimming in Dover around 2 PM and headed over to a small Condominium in Medfield, that was close by. We only had time to do some weeding and up branching of the trees on the perimeter of the parking area before we had another very strong thunder storm, which ended our day around 4 PM.

We were lucky we only had thunder, lightening and heavy rains, the other crew was experiencing hail the size of dimes. At on point they had to pull over it, because the hail was coming down so hard. On my way home I drove through that area and it had hailed so much it looked like it had just snowed.

We are now officially, in Trimming Season

2009-07-07T16:15:00.003-04:00

The trimming season has now started for us. We try to wait, until the ornamental's have pushed out, the "new growth" for the season and for the flowering to have stopped, before we start trimming. As I mentioned in an earlier post sometimes people want this done early.

I went with Guillerme and Wagner to a property in Dover, Massachusetts, to start the trimming. First, we go through all of the beds and do the weeding and rake that all out. I have found this to be a much easier way to do the job, instead of doing the trimming first.

Guillerme will be doing any of the shearing and I will be doing the hand clipping and "up branching" of the trees on the perimeter of the property and any that are on the inside as well. Wagner for the most part will be doing the "picking up" of all of the weed and trim debris. At this property we have a compost area, in the woods that we can use, instead of putting it in the truck and hauling it away for a fee.

We experienced another day of, off and on rain showers and then around 4 PM, a thunder storm came and ended our day.

Finish weed Job, Cut down some Ivy and Start a Trim Job

2009-07-06T15:49:00.004-04:00

The picture on the left, was taken by Rob, who went up on some scaffolding a few years back when we did a lot of work at this property. I made the blue stone, walkway in the "Rose Garden" at that time. This is the same property that had the deer in it last week. In the upper left hand corner you can see the man made fish pond, that has a water fall, but it is hidden by the Blue Spruce.

Any way's, Guillerme and Wagner came with me today and we had to finish weeding the back part of this property, which took us until around 3 PM.

After, that we went to a property a few streets away ( pictured on the right, which I also did the bluestone patio a few years ago ) and trimmed the ivy from around the doorways and windows. The lady who owns the property was home and explained to me that she dislikes the Ivy and would like to see it all removed but her husband, loves it and even planted some new Ivy when she wasn't looking. So we did our best to make both of them happy and next year, they will have to make a decision on the Ivy staying or going................hmmmmm.........wonder who will win that one?

We finished up the day at another home, where we only had time to hand trim a few bushes. I need a new "Trimming Ladder", to get all of the large Burning Bush on the property and I think this year, Rob will finally allow me to get on. I have only been asking for this ladder for about 3 years.

Finish weeding and then off to another weed job

2009-07-03T20:17:00.002-04:00

Thursday was a complete wash out and we did not have any work, the sky is just very, very dark and it is raining like crazy, again. Friday, the weather forecast is for the sun to show up, heat up all of this moisture, so we can have thunderstorms this afternoon. Well, we will have a little sunshine today anyway.

We are back at the house of the President of Olin college to finish up the weeding there. Guillerme and I had it all done by 10:30 Am and then it was off to a property in Wellesley to do some more weeding. All of this rain has developed a healthy crop of weeds and once the sun returns there are going to be even more.

At the house in Wellesley, we looked out in the back yard and there was a deer, munching on some green apples that had fallen down from the rain. I was lucky enough to get my camera and get this picture.

Dark and dreary morning......rain is coming soon

2009-07-01T20:06:00.001-04:00

This morning it is so dark, that you know it is going to rain any minute. Guillerme and I went to the home occupied by the President of Olin College, because the Presidents wife, just loves her flower gardens and wants them to always look nice........that means weeded on a regular basis.

Guillerme and I could only weed one of the beds in front of the house before the heavens opened up and that was it for today. Mother nature is not being nice to us landscapers this June. Oh, well time for some CRAVE energy drink and then I am off to work on my home biz, thank goodness for that.

Finish the trim job in Southboro

2009-06-30T19:34:00.003-04:00

I went with Guillerme and Kessio to finish up the trim job we started a week ago, but due to the rain we have not had a chance to get back to it. I had to train Guillerme on how to trim using the power shears we have. My patience is tested to the limit during these period, as mistakes will happen. I just have to be calm and use the mistakes as tools to teach what is the correct way and what is not.

We just had to trim up the bushes in the front of the house and the one way out back. The picture shows our finished work there. Guillerme did a pretty decent job for his first time shearing. He needs practice and it will soon be trimming season and he will get a LOT of practice.

When we finished there, we headed over to the home occupied by the President of Babson College to do some weeding as, we had not been there for awhile due to the rain. As I was working in one perennial flower bed, something moved, I thought it was a snake, but it turned out to be a baby bunny, which I took a picture of. I did not bother him and continued weeding and then I came across his 2 other siblings. Well that was it, I stopped my work because we never bother animals we find out in nature. They were just so little and so cute, and the other guys took pics with their camera phones.

Rain Day ....... again

2009-06-29T19:12:00.001-04:00

Well it rained again, this is the worst rainy period I have ever experienced. The end is not in sight either, the weather forecasters have rain penciled in for every day this week.

So I am leaving you with a few pictures, Pink Astilbe's, Salmon Astilbe's and a pink Azalea bush.

I am off to work on facebook and do some home biz work. I am so very thankful, that I have that to look forward to, on these rain days.

Rain again..........

2009-06-25T15:48:00.001-04:00

Wednesday, as soon as I got up and looked out it, was raining again, this time I called Rob and asked if we were going to be working, no need to spend all that time driving and also, spending on the gas and it was his decision to not work. The reason for all of this is due to the economic condition's we are in now, in past years we would have been working.

Thursday, Guillerme and I are off to get some fungicide, at the John Deere/LESCO distributor in Marlborough. We will be applying this to a lawn latter in the day. But we start off in Southborough at Rob's house as he wanted us to spray round up on his crushed stone driveway, there is always weeds in it. The picture on the left is of Rob's pool that I did all of the brick masonry a few years ago.

We, then went to quite a few properties, to spray for different bugs, that were attacking bushes, roses and trees. The customers had noticed these and requested that they be erradicated. The place we went to around noon time to put down the fungicide on the red thread fungus, in the yard is pictured on the right. It is a tough lawn to work on as it has a very high water table and is always having some kind of problem wth the lawn. Grass just does not like growing, in those conditions and as I have been mentioning in the post's it has been raining more than usual here. the weatherman put a chart up showing that we have had 22 days of below temperatures and the last 16 have had some sort of persipitation. Very unusuall weather for this neck of the woods.

Babson project

2009-06-23T15:27:00.005-04:00

Today, I went with Guillerme and Rich to work on a project for Babson College, by one of the dormitories. It was a large brick building and on the backside of the building was an entrance area that had just gotten old in appearance and function. This happens quite a bit in landscaping, bushes and trees outgrow the area the have been in after awhile and we have to remove the old and plant some new to freshen up the appearance of the area.

The first thing we did was to remove about 18 old Juniper bushes, that were planted in the front of some PJM's. We first cut off all of the branches, then used a chainsaw to cut the stumps down a bit, leaving about 6 inches above ground. Guillerme and Rich then dug up the stump's. We loaded all of this onto a dump truck and Rich took off to dump the brush at a place in Framingham, where we can dump stuff and he also brought back 2 yards of very wet loam. The place in Framingham, recycles brush into mulch, any composted material is turned into compost, nothing much is left for dumps, it is always recycled, even the pavement, concrete, blue stone, brick and pallets, that we return there.

Rich made 2 more trips to that place, in Framingham, for a total of 6 yards of loam, which for the most part Guillerme and I spread in the area's that will be planted with Rhody,s 40 or so Stella Dora Lilly's, some hosta's and assorted plants to fill in the new area. I thought I was going to come back the next day and would take picture's of the completed project but it rained the next day.

So I will leave you with some more pictures of flowers. A pink Mountain Laurel and a very red geranium.

More Rain, this is getting depressing.....

2009-06-22T15:12:00.001-04:00

Well it is raining again today, so I went in to the shop first thing this morning to do some maintenance on the PERMAGREEN spreader, it was in desperate need of it, because of it being used for more than 40 hours and it was all done in moist conditions and of course Guillerme, flipped it over twice. No one was at the shop except Rob, and he made the decision that there would be no work for the day. So, it was back to my place to work on my home business. I had some CRAVE energy drink, so I would have plenty of energy. When I got home, I worked for about 8 hours straight, which is a good thing, I needed to get caught up on some Computer work.

So for my pictures for today, I am leaving you with some White Astillbe, Pink Mountain Laurel and a beautiful red/pink/yellow flower.

Rain again.....

2009-06-18T16:32:00.002-04:00

Today the forecast is for rain, so I am going solo, to finish up the route and just put down fertilizer and not spray anything due to the weather. Guillerme is going off with the other guys to help get a lawn sodded before the rain arrives. I only had 3 houses to finish and the one I went to in Holliston, had these very interesting wild flowers, so I stopped to take a picture of the field, in front of the property, I was working on and a close up of these beautiful, wild flowers. Don't know what they are, but they caught my attention.

When I was done, it was raining so I went to Wellesley to look for Rob. When I found him he wanted me to go back to the shop and get the lareger trailor, and go to Framingham and pick up one of the mowers that was "supposed" to be repaired and bring it to another repair guy to get it worked on. Well this turned into a long afternoon. The first mechanic for some reason waas very reluctant to let me have it ( it took me over 1 1/2 hours to get out of there). I did not mention it was going to another repair place. It was then another 45 minutes to get to hte new place and another hour to get bcak to the shop. What an afternoon of driving around in the rain.

Baby Deer sighting......

2009-06-17T16:23:00.001-04:00

Guillerme and I were off in pursuit of finishing up the fertilization route today as we had our best day of the week, a "little sunshine". We worked in Holliston, Sherborn and Wellesley. When we were in Holliston we went down the driveway to the property and a young, white tail deer, was in the field having a bite to eat. Guillerme told me to take a picture and I snapped this one before he headed over to the woods on the left. We finished up the day there as we put down 9 bags of fertilizer and about 40 gallons of weed spray. Its a very large lawn area.

At one of the properties I was able to take the other picture which is a Stella Dora day Lilly, which are my favorite flowers this time of year. This one is a light yellow, but my favorite is the ones that have some orange in them, hopefully I will get a chance to take a picture of that variety this coming week.

Dumping the PERMAGREEN spreader......ouch

2009-06-16T16:05:00.001-04:00

Today, Guillerme and I continued on with the fertilization route, which is taking a long time to complete due to bad weather and also because Rob, keeps giving us side projects to work on.

I had to call Rob, who was working with another crew in Wellesley to ask about this one property he had left off of the fertilizing list. When I got ahold of him he told me that he was at a house, where the lady who owned the property came out and told him her daughter had the Swine Flu and was being quarintined in the house. Rob, laughed because the lady was trying to be nice and brought out some drinks for the guys, but they would not go near them. hopefully no one contacted anything form that job.

We were going along smoothly when we came to the property picture here and as you can see on the left side there is a steep hill. Before Guillerme, started I walked him over to the hill and explained how to use the machine on it. But as we all know, young guys just don't listen. So, as I was watching him, with the spreader, all of a sudden he flipped it over and over, spilling all of the fertilizer onto the lawn. I walked over to check on Guillerme, a bit shaken to say the least, and to get the machine up righted. I then had him clean up all of the fertilizer and use a back pack blower to blow off the area before it killed the lawn. I started up the machine and smoke just billowed out of it, for about 10 minutes but everything else seemed to be working, so I completed the job.

We went to the next property a condo complex in Millis and when I went to use the machine it was hard to start and the engine would conk out after a few minutes. So I had to call the guy who does the maintenance on it and he walked me through how to repair it. That save Rob, quite a bit of money. What a day......

Clouds, Rain, Mist all week

2009-06-15T15:15:00.006-04:00

Here in New England we have been in a very cloudy, misty, foggy, rainy period for the last 3 weeks and it looks like it is going o continue this week as well. So my picture for the post's this week will reflect the weather conditions. The weather pattern's usually last for about 6 weeks, hope it is wrong because as I write this it is the first day of Summer.

Our first task of the day, is to go over to a very long time customer and transplant some bushes and weed out a large perennial flower bed. This was a request from the wife, as a gift, for her husbands 88th birthday. Guillerme and I started with the transplanting first and as we dug the first hole we found some 10 turtle eggs, we were very careful and did not break any of them. We showed them to the lady who lived there and she took them to show to her grandchildren who were coming over and to her daughter who is a veternarian. (You can see them in the photo on the right) We went through one rain shower, where we had to wait it out, by sitting in the truck until it was over. this seems to be a daily activity lately.

We finished up around 2 pm and then went back to the shop to load up the trailor and what fertilizer we had along with some broadleaf pray as we were still on out fertilization route. Our first stop was at the John Deere/LESCO store to get another pallet (40 bags) of 24-5-11, fertilizer and some more boadleaf weed spray and a bottle of SYTHE. I had not seen the SYTHE for a few years so I bought some. We were only able to finish 5 properties before we finished up at around 6:30pm. One of the properties in Southborough is pictured on the left.

Quick Trim for a graduation party in Southborough

2009-06-12T16:12:00.004-04:00

It was raining to hard in the morning to go out and do fertilizing and spraying of the broad leaf weeds, so I slept in and went into the shop around 10:30 AM. I went in because, the Permagreen power Spreader needed some maintenance done to it and also because I was out of fertilizer and needed to make a trip up to LESCO in Marlboro to get more.

But when I called Rob, he told me that a property owner in Southborough, was having a graduation party, for their daughter on Saturday and it needed to be trimmed up and weeded to look nice for the occassion. So he was happy that I came in and he called Guillerme and Fabio to come in and help me out.

This property takes a full day with 3 guys to trim and weed. So I explained this to the owner and he just wanted us to work out in the backyard, because that is where they had a tent set up, for the occasion and that was where everyone would be hanging out during the party. Good thing I had some of my CRAVE energy drink, to give me the energy for the afternoon workload. It just keeps me going all afternoon and there is no "crash or jitters" like I would have with coffee.

So we spent about 5 hours "fluffing up" the back beds, by weeding and trimming the bushes and then raking out the mulch so it looked like it was just ut down. Fabio did a little shearing of some bushes and I did the majority of the hand clipping that is required on the other ornamental bushes. The owners were very happy that we came and did a great job for them and they asked that we return as soon as we could to finish the job.

2 days of Fertilizing, at Olin College

2009-06-10T15:42:00.003-04:00

Guillerme and I are off to Olin College with a pallet of fertilizer ( 40 Bags ) and 3 gallons of Confront Herbicide, 2 gallons of "Sticker", and 4 bottles of DRIVE. We will not be able to finish the entire college grounds in one day.

The problem we have is that our sources of water to mix the herbicide and sticker with are a good distance from where we are working.

I will be using the Permagreen Ride On spreader which applies herbicide at the same time as I am fertilizing and Guillerme will be using the walk behind commercial spreader to put down the fertilizer on the small, hilly areas that I can not get to with the machine. Guillerme will then have to go over the same areas with a back pack sprayer and spray for broad leaf weeds. After he has done that he will have to use a different back pack sprayer and go along the edges of the walks and pavement and spray the young crabgrass that is just emerging in the hot spots of the lawn. It is better to get them when they are young as the spray is more effective.

We will finish only the upper portion of the college and return tomorrow to finish up the lower portion of the campus.

Planning for a rain day

2009-06-09T15:30:00.003-04:00

Today the forecast, is for heavy rain, to be coming in the afternoon so we will be staying on a route that is close to the shop in Holliston. So Guillerme and I went and fertilized to 2 commercial buildings and then two homes in Holliston.

You can see in the pictures what the weather was threatening at the last property. It is a large property and it took 9 bags of fertilizer to complete. We have plastic covers, that we put over the spreaders to keep the rain off of the fertilizer but the problem is when the lawn becomes wet the tires kick the moisture "up" and this gums up the holes the allow the fertilizer to come out of the hopper. We were lucky to finish up this property before it rained.

We returned to the shop and Guillerme went home and I went up to get a pallet of fertilizer from LESCO so that we could be off early in the morning to fertilize and spray at Olin College.

Fertilization Application Number 2

2009-06-08T13:56:00.004-04:00

We have been a very cloudy, damp rainy period here in the New England. I can't remember when we saw the sun the last time. These conditions are showing up in the lawns that we are fertilizing. There is a lot of "red thread" and other signs of dampness and lack of nitrogen. The lawns are looking lifeless and are turning a bit yellow.

Good thing we are doing this application now. I have noticed that the majority of lawns are being mowed at a shorter length than is optimum for the health of the lawn. I have discussed this with Rob and he has asked the mowing crew to raise the cut from now on. We have Northern grass here and it is recommended to cut it at 2 1/2 to 3 inches. If it is cut lower it allows weeds to develop in the lawn and the lawn becomes stressed and turns yellow. The longer length of cut will keep the lawn cool, and there will be a reduction in weeds.

I was also informed by John Deere/LESCO, that the broad leaf weed herbicide we were using is now in the "Restrictive Use" category and we will be trying out a new herbicide for broad leaf weed prevention. I will let you know how it works out.

Today I received my order of Diet Cookies, that I have been taking for the past 3 month's and I was excited about that. I had been out of them for about a week and a half. These cookies are great I have one in the morning and one on my ride home from work and by the time I am home I really have no hunger at all. So far I have lost 9 pounds by using them. I am being very pro-active with my health these days.

Second Lawn Fertilizing Application

2009-06-05T16:59:00.004-04:00

Guillerme will be accompanying me on the second round of lawn fertilization this time. I will be training him how to apply the fertilizer and also how to use the back pack sprayers to spray crabgrass, which has just started to grow and also to spray the broad leaf weeds in the lawn area.

This is a good trip around our properties because now I can see the fruits of all of our labor during the spring time. All of the grass seed should have come up in the lawns and the new bushes should be growing along with all of the flowers we planted. I will be making notes and reporting back all that I see to Rob.

This year for some reason we are seeing a lot of "Red Thread" in the lawns and this is an indication of a lack of Nitrogen and also too much moisture being present in the lawn. We have been experiencing a lot of rainy days and also a lot of the days there has been no sunshine to dry out the lawn. I am applying a fertilizer 25-0-5 , with 1% iron which should clear up the problem as far as the nitrogen is concerned but Mother Nature will have to supply the sun and warmth.

Plant, Weed and Trim in Wellesley

2009-06-04T16:43:00.005-04:00

Today, Guillerme and Wagner came with me as we had a good size project to take care of in Needham. We had to meet Rob there, as he was going to show us, what had to be done. This is one of the first customers of the company and we take good care of her.

Rob had Guillerme and Wagner dig up 2 bushes which did not make it through the winter and plant 2 new Azalea's in their place. They then weeded the bed and planted ..........perry winkle through out the bed for a ground cover.

I was busy trimming the large "weeping cherry" tree by the front walk. This is a beautiful tree and is the center view point of the front yard. This is all hand trimmed in a mushroom shape. After that I went around and hand trimmed every bush in the front yard except for the Rhody's and Yews. Those will be trimmed again later in the season.

Due to the large amount of weeds this project took us all day to finish. Tomorrow Rich and 2 other guys will be finishing up the project with about 6 yards of red pine bark mulch.

Trimming Project in Holliston

2009-06-03T16:30:00.003-04:00

I went with Guillerme to trim and weed a property in Holliston today. The property had just been cleaned up and mulched by another landscape company but the owners have us do the other work there.

It is about 4-8 weeks too early to be trimming but that is what this customer wanted to have done so we are making them happy. We wait until most of the new growth for the year has pushed out and also we wait for the bushes to stop their flowering for the year.

Guillerme is new to this process and I am teaching him how to do the trimming as he will be the one to do the "shearing" work when we are in that time of the season. I will be doing all of the hand clipping, which these days is most of the job along with the weeding of the beds.

Working "solo" on "odds and ends" projects today.

2009-06-02T15:50:00.004-04:00

Today, I had to do some "solo" work because the other guys were needed on other projects. I went to quite a few properties, that needed to have their bushes and ornamental tree's sprayed with Malathion, because they were being "munched", on by tent caterpillar's. I also was spraying the Illex, Hollies and Boxwood's for the small white flies that appear this time of year. I will have to return to these properties in a couple of weeks and repeat this process.

I also fertilized a few lawns due to the fact that these people had forgotten to ask for it to be done at the beginning of the year. Next week I will be applying the second application of fertilizer to all of our properties.

"Fluff Up", the Property of the President of Olin College

2009-06-01T15:15:00.006-04:00

We were off to "Fluff up" the property owned by Olin college and used by the President and his family. They were not home when we arrived around 7:30 AM. This property has to always look it's best because of the people visiting the property to see the President and his wife. His Wife is really into gardening and always has plants or bushes she wants planted.

Rich, Guillerme and I started right in, on the weeding, which at this time of year can get out of control. As the guy's did the weeding around the flowers and bushes by hand, I would trim back any long "flyer's" that had grown on the bushes. We hand weed around, the flowers and bushes and when we get to the larger mulched area's, we use the weed whacker. After it is raked up we spray "Round Up" in the large area's, but nothing is sprayed any where close to the flowers or bushes. We have a special attachment we use on the backpack sprayers that is shaped like a funnel to prevent the "Round Up" from drifting over onto bushes or flowers.

We were just about finished around 4PM when the President and his wife arrived home from a weekend vacation. They were happy to see us and really liked what we had done to the property. And that is all that counts as far as I am concerned. We finished up the weeding and then sprayed the lawn for broad leaf weeds with "Speed Zone", which we have found to be very effective on clover and most broad leaf weeds in the lawn.

Fungicide and Holly Tone...

2009-05-30T20:20:00.005-04:00

These pictures are of the various colors of the Rhododendron's that are all around the property.
I really like these bushes and the are a very popular here in New England.

Today, I went with Rich to the home used by the President of Babson College. We had to weed all of the beds, as this home, has to always look "Presidential", for all of it's visitors.

Nick, the guy in charge of the grounds for the campus had, called Rob, and wanted us to put down a fungicide, on the lawn because it had "red thread". This usually goes away by itself if you lighten up on the water you are applying to the lawn. Red Thread, is caused by a lack of Nitrogen and because it has more moisture than it needs. We have been in a rainy stretch here and that is more than likely what caused it. We will be doing our second application of fertilizer next week.

Rich and I spent the morning weeding and in the afternoon, Rich put down 20 pounds of Holly Tone on a bed that has pachysandra, that had a hard time recovering from this past winter. The Holly Tone will bring it back to life and will get it to fill out the bed.

After, that I put down the fungicide and sprayed the weeds in the lawn with SPEED ZONE. As I was doing this, Rich was going around with a bag of grass seed and throwing some down in any weak parts of the lawn. When we had everything packed up and we were not going to be on the lawn any more I went around to the walks and patio and sprayed Round up on the weeds in the cracks.

Doctor visit and more Rain

2009-05-29T18:13:00.002-04:00

I had a Doctor's appointment this morning and it was just as well, because it was pouring rain again this morning. I called Rob and at first he said to come in and go and put some fungicide down at the home used by the President of Babson college, but then he changed his mind and told me to come in on Saturday and we would do it then.

So it was back home to work to have some CRAVE energy drink and get going on my home biz some more. Did a lot on Facebook and Entrecard again.

More Bushes planted in Wellesley

2009-05-28T17:51:00.004-04:00

Today it is threatening rain and it is very foggy and very dark almost like it is late in the evening, also very humid. Rich, Guillerme and I are going to the home in Wellesley (next to the turkey house) that we worked at last week and will meet Rob there later in the morning.

Rich and Guillerme went over and removed all of the stumps from the forsythia, that we cut back last week, the homeowners daughter did not like the stumps. While the guys were doing that I went over to a bed, next to the home and dug up about 15 Hosta's, of different varieties and saved them, to be transplanted later.

Rob showed up with about 25 new bushes, trees and flowers for us to plant. that is why I had to remove the Hosta's, so he would have a clean palette to work with when he arrived. The main focal point of the design was a beautiful Red Maple. There were 2 varieties of Astilbe's, 3 Pinxterbloom Rhododendron's and even, 3 "Brunnera named "Mr. Morse", made me laugh as that is my last name.

Once Rob, had it all arranged, we had to wait to plant, because the home owner, has to OK, the design layout. While we were waiting Rich and Guillerme, planted some new Forsythia bushes out in the bed, we just removed the "old" forsythia from. It was now, getting close to lunch, so I sent Rich, back to our shop, to get a load of dark brown mulch, for us to use, after we did our planting.

We finished up the day planting and mulching the property. Rob and I went and looked at next week's project at the same property where we will remove about 40 old Canadian Hemlock's that are growing next to the driveway and replant the area with new Arborvitae's.

Rain day......day to wok on my home biz

2009-05-27T17:43:00.002-04:00

When I got up in the Morning it was pouring rain out and the forecast was for continued rain for the day, so I called and left Rob a message that I would not be in. We can't do much when it rains, sometimes we work on equipment or go to nurseries for supplies, but today there was none of that that needed to be done.

So I took some CRAVE energy Drink to get me going and then took advantage of the time off by spend time working on Facebook and spent a lot of time on Entrecard, dropping on other people's blogs and commenting on the ones I enjoy. I also got to finish up reading, the book I just bought " The Secret" really enjoyed it. See what the CRAVE will do for you, lots of energy to get stuff done.

Back to work....more slice seeding

2009-05-26T17:26:00.002-04:00

I just had to show the Turkey Mm again, hopefully you can see the 2 chicks beside her, she is sitting on the other 6.

Today, was a very confusing day at work and we are off to a home that I have not visited in more than 7 years. I have been trying to remember what we did on my last visit and can only remember planting bushes, doing a clean up and mulching.

Rich, Guillerme and I went to Wrentham, Massachusetts today to do put some loam down in some low spots in the lawn and also to slice seed (lawn renovation), and airate the whole yard. The family has a large family of young boys and the yard is there playground and is tired and worn out from them playing on it. The lawn is also very compacted from this and rain just runs off of the lawn instead of being absorbed. That is why we are airating it, to open the lawn up for air, water and fertilizer to get into the root system of the grass. The slice seeding will also "dethatch" the lawn as we go along.

We used 160 pounds of lime, 100 pounds of starter fertilizer (18-6-8), 100 pounds of regular fertilizer ( 25-0-5 with 1% iron), 100 pounds of Lovell's New England grass seed and 100 pounds of Lovells Shade grass seed. We use the fertilizer with the iron it to "green up" the existing lawn and give a kick start to the new seed. This took us most of the day to finish, which was a good thing because the rest of the week is calling for rain.

Memorial Day

2009-05-25T17:11:00.001-04:00

Today is Memorial Day so my post is just going to be these pictures of wonderful, colorful flowers.

Wild Turkey Chick's

2009-05-22T16:56:00.005-04:00

Today, was one of those days, that you just truly love and totally enjoy, as a Landscaper. We went back to the property, we were at yesterday and to start the day off, the neighbor comes over all excited, because the Wild turkeys eggs had all hatched. 8 baby turkey chicks, were safely born. So there was a lot of activity, going on next door, I don't know who was happier, the wild turkey mom or the neighbor.

I had 3 guys with me today, because I needed extra muscle, from the young guys, to pop the White Birch trees out and then transport and transplant them in their new location. I am always amazed at what those guys can do. They had them popped out and transported and in their new holes and watered in by 10AM. These are large ( 4 foot diameter ) root balls, that are composed mostly of clay and they retain the moisture, so they are very heavy.

After that, the rest of the day consists of weeding, raking out beds and planting, all of the remaining annuals. Good thing we did the hard part of the day first, it was the second day, this year it was in the 90's.

As the afternoon comes to a close, the woman who owns the property, goes out and gets us some treats, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and oatmeal raisin cookies at a bakery in town. When she comes back, she has us all sit down, for a very nice chat, with the cookies and some soda and sparkling water. This is a great way, for us to end the day.

But it is not over, the neighbor with the turkeys, is having a hard time, the baby chicks have crawled under the fence, put up to protect them, from the mother. So, we go to the rescue and help remove the fence, to get the chicks and the mom reunited. (the picture above is just after we removed the fence). Then the woman, we are working for, and Rob come over to see the new baby chicks and it becomes a very happy, social activity in the neighborhood.

These are the days I just love being a Landscaper, made one customer happy with our work, had some treats at the end of the day and then rescued some wild life. Could not be any better.

Annuals and Birch Tree's, to be moved in Wellesley

2009-05-21T16:19:00.003-04:00

We are planting many annual flowers on this property, located in Wellesley today. We will also will be getting 4 White Birch Tree clumps, ready to be moved to a new location on the property tomorrow.

I have Rich and Guillerme, assisting me today and we first go to an area of the property, that has very old, overgrown Forsythia bushes, which are about 8 feet high and covering an area about 150 square feet. The owner wants them cut down to about 6 inches high, so that she will have new growth for next year. Also, this is an area where we will be moving 4, White Birch Tree clumps, that are about 20 feet high.

The Rhododendron's are in full bloom along with the azalea's and the perennials. We will only be planting half of the flowers today. We will also be digging out around the root balls of the 4 White Birch trees that will be moved. We want them to be loose in their holes so tomorrow we can just pop them out and move them.

The Neighbor, who is also a customer of ours, came by and told me, that she had a female wild turkey, sitting on 8 eggs and that I was to tell, all of the guys, not to disturb her, with our back pack blowers. She is very much into the animals, that visit her yard. Last year, she had a sign, telling everyone to not bother her "pet garden snake". I went over to look at the mother turkey, but it was hard to see her, as she was nestled under a Holly Tree, by her back steps. Of course there were signs and netting put up to protect her and I was not even allowed to take a picture, in case I disturbed her.

Finishing up in Southborough

2009-05-20T16:00:00.003-04:00

We, went back to the home we started on Monday, to spray Round Up the second time and to finish up with the mulching. We finished up around 10 AM and went to a property three houses down the street to do a clean up and to mulch, with dark brown mulch.

We had cleaned this property up early in the spring and had edged all of the beds and now the annuals were in full bloom around the property. This makes mulching a bit of tricky, because you do not want to bury, any part of the flowers, in mulch.

This property is up a long winding driveway and it is surrounded by a tree forest. In the winter the deer herd, just loves to "munch" on the Rhododendron's, but they are rebounding very well at this point. Sometimes in the spring, when you look at the bushes, it looks like they will never recover from the damage, done by the deer, but nature always surprises us. I also noticed, a large brown toad, on the grass, so I helped him, by moving him into an area, next to the stone wall. We work with nature all of the time and we always respect, the animals we come across, except BUGS.

Bushes and Annuals in Wellesley

2009-05-19T15:39:00.001-04:00

We went to Wellesley today, to work on an yearly job of planting many flats, of annual flowers and this year a new weeping red Japanese maple, as can be seen in the upper left picture. This property owner is very particular about the arrangement of the flowers, their color and variety. She goes to the nursery and pics them out and has them delivered. When we arrived I did not notice them, so I went and knocked on the door to see what was going on. The owner came out and said that all of the flowers were in the garage because of the frost warning the night before.

Wow, when she opened the garage door the entire floor area of one parking space was completely loaded with an assortment of very, very healthy flowers. Red, white and pink geraniums, white, purple and 2 shades of pink Impatient's and many, many others.

I had 3 workers with me today, because of the amount of work that had to be done, in one day. First, they weeded out the beds, then they planted the Japanese Weeper, as Rob and I went around placing the flowers, in the exact locations, the property owner wanted them. We did not finish planting the flowers until around 1:30PM. Then it was time for the guys, to mulch the entire property. I had to make a trip back to our shop in Holliston, to get another load of mulch, we ended up finishing up around 6PM, but we got it done. The owner called Rob, to thank him for the great deal of work we did and how wonderful her property looked. And that's what it is all about, making the customer happy. I will post another picture once the flowers have grown a bit more and are happy in their new home.

Soutborough Cleanup and Mulch

2009-05-18T15:18:00.002-04:00

Today, we are doing a clean up at a property in Southborough, Massachusetts. The owner was not pleased with the work done last year, by another crew of ours and requested that I, come and do the clean up this year.

Rich and Guillerme are assisting me with this clean up. We also have to put down loam and seed the damaged lawn areas from the snowplows. The owners have us come once a year, for the cleanup and also to do the trimming/pruning of the bushes. Usually we do not do any pruning until the bushes have pushed out their new growth for the season and the flowering has stopped for the year.

Going up the very long driveway, in the picture above, you only see a small portion of it, we have to apply Round Up to the weeds in the mulch bed. We are going to apply the Round Up twice as we will not finish this project today. We only brought one truck load of mulch and this property requires two loads.

Planting Impatients at the President's house

2009-05-16T17:54:00.003-04:00

I had to go to the home that is used by the President of Olin College today to plant Inmpatient,s and about 8 new ornamental bushes. The wife of the President just loves her flowers and gardens and we go on a regular basis to do plantings for her. We enjoy doing this very much because she gets us coffee from Dunkin donuts and makes us homemade blueberry muffins for our morning break. Of course we totally enjoy this and just work that much harder for her.

First we had to remove 4 old very tired looking Yews and replace them with new bushes. One of the ornamental bushes we planted is the one, in the picture at the left. A rhododendron, with yellow blossom's, which I had never seen before. I will have to find out from her what the name
is. We also planted 6 flats of pure white Impatients all around her house. In a few weeks we will be back to weed all of her beds and I will be able to post a picture of how it all looks for you.

Finishing up the Olin Campus

2009-05-15T17:45:00.001-04:00

We returned to the Olin College campus to continue weeding the beds, a new guy, worked with me today, his name is Ceilo, and he is a very good worker.

The head grounds keeper at the college wanted us to go through a bed that contained blue rug juniper bushes, and trim out any of the brown dead branches that are in there. The junipers had some plow damage and some normal winter die back. This took us a good part of the morning to finish, but it looked much more presentable when we were finished.

Next Ceilo and I spent the rest of the day weeding every tree bed along the road that leads to the campus itself. Very high visibility area's, that everyone would be traveling by on Sunday and Monday and they had to be looking their best. It's all in the presentation.

Getting Ready for Graduation Ceremonies at Olin College

2009-05-14T17:32:00.001-04:00

Today it is very cold for this time of year with a good steady wind blowing and it is going to start raining this afternoon.

We are at Olin college where we have been asked to come and assist the grounds crew there to weed out all of the beds that are in the high visibility areas. There will be a lot of foot traffic passing by during the graduation ceremonies this weekend.

The picture is of one, of the 2 tents set up on campus for the graduation activities. Guillerme and I had to go through, all of the mulched beds along the walkways by this tent area and by the other one, which is located at the entrance to the campus itself. We quit a bit early because the rain came along with a good stiff wind. The rain was coming down horizontally, not a good condition to weed in.

Loam and seeding

2009-05-13T17:17:00.002-04:00

Rich and I are at a condo complex in Medfield, Massachusetts today. We have to repair a damaged lawn area in front of 2 of the units because they are selling the condo's and want to have the front look better.

Rich had to make 2 trips over to Lovell's nursery in Medfield for the loam. We used 3 yards and our truck will only hold 2 at a time.

After we finished, we were off to Wellesley to Babson College, to put down some loam in areas that had been washed away by rain. These were in areas where there were going to be a lot of traffic later in the week at the graduation ceremonies.

More lawn renovations

2009-05-12T17:06:00.001-04:00

We are continuing our lawn renovation activities at a property I posted about earlier. This is the one where we spent a few days cleaning it up and trimming the bushes because the property was recently purchased by new owners.

The front yard, as you can see has some weak lawn areas. Rich will be aerating the entire yard and I will slice seed the front half of the yard.

We did not get here until around noontime, because we started at another property in Wellesley where we had to put loam down on some weak area's and then over seed that one.
I had problems with the slice seeder machine, the pull cord to start the engine would not recoil so I had to pack it up on the trailer and go back to the shop to get the right tools to fix it.

Rich and I finished up the job late, around 6:30PM, but we finished it. We used about 50 pounds of starter fertilizer and 50 pounds of sun seed. Rich used a bit too much on one area of the lawn, so I will have to return tomorrow and finish up fertilizing the slice seeded area. This property does have an irrigation system, and the homeowner called her company to come and make sure it is functioning correctly. Because it has just been seeded and is out in the sun it needs to be watered twice a day.

Slice Seeding

2009-05-11T15:32:00.001-04:00

I am going to a property in Dover, Massachusetts today with Rich and Guillerme, to aerate and "slice seed" the yard and to spread some loam down, on some weaker area's and then over seed it. This property has a large lawn area that is mostly out in the sun on one half, mostly shady on the other half and has no irrigation. There will be a large social event at the property in the fall when one of the son's gets married.

Rich will aerate the area first and then Guillerme will follow with the slice seeder. The slice seeder is a special machine that dethatches the lawn, slices the lawn with steel knives and drops seed down all in one operation. The slice seededing is done twice, in two different directions. We used 100 pounds of Sun seed and 100 pounds os shade seed. After that we used 75 pounds of starter fertilizer and used 200 pounds of regular fertilizer over the entire yard. Hopefully we will have conditions suitable to get the seed up and going before the big event. Like I said there is no irrigation system so the owners will have to water and also hope for rain.

More "Odds and Ends"

2009-05-09T19:12:00.003-04:00

Friday, Rich, Guillerme and I went back to the property in Needham, where we had started the large cleanup and trim job before it rained. We finished the cleanup and trimming and finally got around to edging the beds and putting down 10 yards of brown mulch. It was not enough to finish the yard so we will be back on Saturday to finish up and then next week, we will "slice seed the entire front lawn.

Saturday, my plans changed and I had to go with Guillerme, to mow the lawn at the property that is in the above picture. (Those are the wolf tree's, I spoke about in a prior post, you can see how their size, just dwarfs the Dogwood that is in full bloom.) Rich and another guy went back to finish the mulch job.

Guillerme and I, then headed over to the home that is used by the President of Babson College. We had to mow the lawn and go through all of the beds and weed and trim so everything looked very nice for this week's activities. This is a big week at Babson, and there is going to be a large tent, in the area of the blue stone patio, which is in the first picture on the left.

Odds and Ends Day

2009-05-07T17:12:00.003-04:00

Today it is very overcast and misting out. A lot of the guys did not show up for work today so I am off doing "odds and ends" project solo.

The first thing, I did was go to a property and remove the Deer Fence, we installed last year at a property in Holliston. We had put this up around a lot of Canadian Hemlocks, that the deer just love to munch on during the winter.

Next, I to the President of Olin College's home to reset some bricks in the side walk. They had fallen into a hole, a mouse had made over the winter.

After that, I went to a home in Holliston to remove the mold that was growing between the blue stone walkway and put in some new stone dust. You can see the picture above and you can also see the weeping cherry in the background, that I had posted pictures of earlier, but now the flowers have fallen off of it.

I called Rich at noontime and he and I went and finished up the day by starting to mulch a condominium complex in Medfield.

Trip to renew my Driver's License

2009-05-06T16:28:00.002-04:00

Well, today it was raining in the morning, so I decided to come to work a bit late because I had to renew my drivers license. Not a fun thing to do here in Massachusetts's, but I needed to get it done before my birthday this month. I tried to do it online, but I received a message, from the RMV, that my pic was taken more than 9 years ago and needed to have a new one taken at their office.

The Registry of Motor Vehicle's used to send out a letter informing you that it was time to renew but the state no longer does this. Why? So they can charge you a fine, for not doing so. The also do not notify you any longer when your plate registration is in need of renewing.

I am finding out more and more about how the state of Massachusetts is taxing it's residents to death, raising taxes, not notifying you, going after small businesses (like landscapers) every day. I guess we are back to being TAXACHUSETTS, but now they are being very sneaky about it. The police are out in force stopping everyone, so that they can have more money for the cities and towns in Massachusetts.

The trip to the RMV, was a lot more enjoyable than my last trip. New technology has sped up the process and I was in and out in 20 minutes. I also was able to sign up to Vote, what a great trip.

Landscape update of New Customer Property

2009-05-05T16:53:00.001-04:00

We are redo the landscape at a new property today in Needham. It is also going to be raining soon, so we will not finish today. Rich and Guillerme are assisting me on this project. The property is next to the home the President of Olin College occupies.

The new owners moved in at the end of last year and we very busy getting settled in and put off this project until now. It is a big redo of the landscape, which the previous owners had let go for a few years.

Before it rains we are going to start the job by blowing off the lawn of winter debris as we are going to be "slice seeding" the entire front yard next week. Next, I started to trim back the ornamental bushes at the front of the house. Once Rich and Guillerme caught up with me they followed behind me and raked out the beds, cut down 3 trees that had fallen over due to the snow and lack of proper maintenance. We only have time to do the front bed and part of the side beds when the rain comes. The guys will only work for so long and then it is time to call it quits for the day. We will be back soon to continue.

Getting Ready for Graduation Ceremonies

2009-05-04T16:13:00.005-04:00

The college graduation ceremonies, are going to be occurring next week on the 2 college campuses we take care off. So, today we had to go and spray a herbicide at the campus at Olin College. There are to be NO dandelions visible during the graduation ceremonies as they are very proud of their campus and want to show it off to the families of the graduating students.

We used a product that we buy at LESCO called "Speed Zone". We use this because it has the "2-4-d" herbicide chemical in it. It is very effective on dandelions and clover and broad leaf weeds that are in Lawns. We are also going to be adding "sticker" to the tank mixes, which is a product that makes the Speed Zone mixture a bit sticky, and adheres better to the waxy leaf's of the weeds.

This is going to be an all day job for 2 guys and myself. It takes a long time because we are always mixing the tanks with water and sometimes the location of the water is far away from where we are working. I will be riding the Permagren, sprayer and Rich and Guillerme will be using 3 gallon backpack sprayers.

Sod and overseed at Babson College property.

2009-05-02T14:55:00.001-04:00

I had a new kid helping me today, Guillerme, at the Babson College property that is used by the President of the college.

We are going to be sodding an area along the front driveway, along the back driveway and the section between the 2 perenial beds which you can see in the pic at the left. We will also be spreading loam and seed behind the perenial gardens.

Hopefully this seed will be up and growing by May 15th. That is, when the graduation party is held, at this home. There will be a large outdoor tent, put over the blue stone patio area, for refreshments for the graduating class. This is a yearly project for us.

Large Mulching project in Sherborn

2009-05-01T15:17:00.003-04:00

Today, I am with Rich and Guillerme putting down a large amount of mulch on a property that the other crew had been doing a lot of planting on. this property is in Sherborn and last year the owner was rehabbing the house. they had a circular driveway installed and a new planting was done in the bed on the inside of the driveway. (picture, is from last summer)

We will be using a dark brown pine bark mulch and it ended up that we used 37 yards of mulch here. It was a rainy cool day and my back acted up again, and again my SUNJING came to the rescue. It was a lot of work and we finished up around 5:30 PM.

There is more work to be done here by the other crew, a lawn area has to be loamed and seeded next week.

Southborough property finished up

2009-04-29T14:31:00.001-04:00

Well we had to come back and finish up the property in Southboro to day. Rich helped me to put another 2 yards of loam down and seed it and roll it. We were finally finished with this project, sometimes it is easier to keep up with the yard maintenance on a yearly basis as opposed to bi-yearly.

I take Rich over to 2 more properties in Southborough, where he over seeds one and fertilizes the other. The last property for the day, is one that has large snowplow damaged that needs to be loamed and seeded. This will take us the rest of the day. My back started to act up again so I was happy that I had my Sunjing with me to apply to it. And lke magic the pain was gone in a few minutes, can't say enough about this fabulous product. I decided to start advertising here on my blog so other people can try it out.

Southborough cleanup continued......

2009-04-28T14:33:00.006-04:00

Today, I am back at the property in Southborough, but this time there is only Rich with me. Rich will be mulching, while I repair some bricks that were torn up by the plows during the winter. I will also be trimming the Crabapple tree's in the front of the property and "tipping" back the White Pines going up the driveway.

(pic is close up of weeping cherry)

Once I am finished, I will leave Rich to continue mulching and go to Framingham to pick up 2 yards of loam, so that we can fill in the area's damaged by the snow plows this winter. We will be putting down some seed also. What we are using to day is Shade Seed from Lesco. It is comprised of; 44.2% Lacrosse Chewing Fescue, 34.65% FoxFire Creeping, 9.92% Shamrock Kentucky Bluegrass and 9.88% Gotham Hard Fescue.

Hopefully the owner will water this in every day so that she has a chance of seeing some growth before the house is put up for sale. Still kinda cool around here, though. We ended up not having enough to finish the job and will return once again, tomorrow to finsh this project.

Soutborough property going on the Market

2009-04-27T14:20:00.002-04:00

I am with a different crew today, the crew that does the mowing, which starts tomorrow. We are at a property in Southborough, that is going to be put up for sale the first week in May. We will be doing a major clean up here, as not much was done to the property last year and the owner wants it to look nice for prospective buyers.

First we will be cleaning up the yard, by blowing off all of the debris from the past winter. Next the other guys will be raking out the beds and edging them. While they are doing that I will be trimming all of the bushes and trees.

We will start to mulch the property today, but we only brought 6 yards of mulch with us and that is not enough to finish the job. This will take us all day to accomplish. I will return on Tuesday to finish the job. The property is the one in the picture.

Large Mulching Job

2009-04-25T11:01:00.002-04:00

Ceillo, Fabio, Rich and I went to a property located in Wellesley Hills, to mulch today. We are using a dark brown, pine mulch.

While, the guys started the mulching, I had a few things to work on before they mulched certain beds.

First, I had to trim back some roses, in the rose garden out back. It was not done, during the spring cleanup, as Rob, wanted to talk to the nursery, where he purchased them, to make sure we trimmed them correctly.

Next, I had to go to the perennial rock garden and do some weeding before I sprayed "Round up" to kill off the small emerging weeds. This area was problematic last year and we wanted to get a good start this year at controlling them. It is to the left, of the beautiful weeping cherry, that you see in the picture on the left.

Wellesley Spring Clean ups

2009-04-24T10:57:00.004-04:00

Rich, Rodrigo and I went to do 2 more cleanups in Wellesley, today. On this road we have 4 customers. Last year we had 6 but due to the economic conditions of today, 2 have decided to do the work themselves this year.

The picture on the left, is a home where we redid the complete front yard about 10 years ago and I made the brick patio in the back yard twice. Sometime I will show a picture of it. The reason it was done twice is that, there was a concrete wall holding up the back hill and it was getting old and falling down. The owner decide she wanted to have a New England field stone wall, built in it's place. When the wall was made, the patio had to be taken up, in order for the equipment to get up on the hill to build the wall. I also made the front brick walkway as you can see.

Spring Cleanups continue

2009-04-23T10:52:00.004-04:00

Rodrigo, Rich and I went to continue with spring cleanups and mulching in Wellesley. The first property we went to was new for me and was not sure what to expect. The owner met us as we arrived and he walked me around to show me what he wanted done.

He was very nice and even made us coffee and some egg and cheese sandwich's for our morning break. It is always a welcomed treat when a customer does that for us. We work a bit harder for them. It is a small property with a lot of beds to be cleaned out and edged before we mulch it with "red" pine mulch. After we are finished here around 2 PM, we are off to clean up 2 more properties in Wellesley.

Magnolia Tree and Mulching

2009-04-22T10:48:00.003-04:00

Rich and Rodrigo and Wagner, came with me today to mulch the property, that is used by the President of Olin College. It will take us all day to mulch, as it has a large amount of mulched beds. We used over 2 dump trucks full of "brown pine mulch"

The President's wife, had purchased a new "Virginia" Dogwood tree that she wanted us to plant. You can see Rich and Rodrigo digging the hole for it in the picture on the left.
The Healthy Start Fertilizer, is in the orange bucket and organic "blue mussel" compost is in the white bag next to it. She wants the tree to get off to a good start. She chose this particular variety because of it's late season blooming characteristic.

The President's wife is a sweetheart and always gets us coffee and something to eat from Dunkin Donuts. We reeally appreciate a treat like this on a very cool spring day. We were able to complete the whole job before it started to rain again.

I was glad to be going home a bit early today because it allowed me the time to go hame and shower, and change clothes. I had to go to a Network Marketing workshop in Marlboro, at 7 PM. It was given by Tom "Big Al" Scheiter. He is the Chairman of the Network Marketing Company, I work for.

Rain Day.......home biz work

2009-04-21T10:47:00.004-04:00

Today, it just poured outside and we did not have any Landscape work. So I was very glad to have a day to work on my new home business. Network Marketing is new to me and this day was welcome, because it allowed me to sign up with and start working with Facebook. I need to get my son or daughter to take some better pictures of me. You have to "brand" yourself with a picture of you, when using Facebook.

Facebook is a social networking website where you have a chance to meet new people to introduce to your business. Very interesting to me so far. Social networking is the "new wave" of marketing and even the larger companies are trying to figure out how to use it.

So now along with my blogging, I am now working with Facebook. Can't wait to see how it goes.

Finishing the Fertilization Route

2009-04-20T10:13:00.006-04:00

I am finishing up the Fertilization route today. Besides the Pre-Emergent herbicide plus fertilizer we, are also applying a new fertilizer to bushes, and flowers this year.

It is called "Healthy Start" and has beneficial Rhizosphere bacteria in it to boos Biological Soil Fertility. It also has 3% Nitrogen, 4% Phosphate and 3% Soluble Potash in it. We will have to wait a few weeks to see the results of this new product.

Because of the continueing cool weather we are having this spring, my back muscles started to ache, so I was glad to have brought my SUNJING with me. I just rolled it on my lower back and within minutes the pain was gone. Truly remarkable stuff.

Rich and I also finished the day out by doing 2 small clean ups in Framingham and in Sherborn.

Wellesley and Needham Fertilizing

2009-04-17T22:14:00.003-04:00

Today, we will be in Wellesley and Needham fertilizing our customer's properties. We will be doing all of the off-campus properties of Babson College and Olin College.

Here is a pic of Rich, using the power spreader to take care of a Babson House. You can see that spring, has not yet come around and there are no leaves on the trees. But in about 3-4 weeks it will be a completely different view. May is my favorite time of year, all of the ornamental tree's are in full bloom, and the other deciduous trees have there new leaves out.

The cool spring time weather, has had my back aching a bit, good thing I had some SUNJING with me today. All I have to do is rub it on my lower back and in a few minutes the ache is gone, amazing stuff and it is so easy to carry around with me.

Tomorrow, we will be continuing on the fertilization route, in Dover, Holliston and Sherborn, Massachusetts. I will not be finished but close to it.

Southborough and Framingham Lawn Fertilizing

2009-04-16T21:38:00.007-04:00

For the rest of the week I will be going on my fertilizing route in different towns that we have customers in. Today, I will start off in Marlborough, Massachusetts at an Animal Hospital. My route has been reduced quite a bit due to the tough economic conditions we are experiencing here in New England. Customers are cutting back on a lot of landscape expenses this year.

While I am doing the lawn fertilization Rich, is fertilizing the ornamental bushes and trees. He is using Holly Tone, which is an organic, acidic fertilizer, which we apply in the spring and at the end of the season. We have had great success with it, it takes a while for it to work, but the acid loving, ornamental become very health and full.

One of the properties I will be fertilizing today is the boss's, in Southborough, Massachusetts. The picture, on the left is of Rob's backyard which shows a blue stone patio I worked on with Rich a few years ago. Rob has excellent design experience as you can see. I also did the brick patio around his in ground pool, but I will have to show that pic on another blog post.

After we finish in Southborough, we will also be going to Framingham to fertilize the grounds of a commercial building. This will be a long work day for Rich and I, good thing I have my CRAVE energy drink to keep me energized for the afternoon. I am really getting to enjoy having, that much extra energy in the afternoon, with out the jitters, that coffee gives me.

First Application of lawn fertilizer, for the season.

2009-04-15T20:56:00.004-04:00

Today, I am at Olin College in Needham, Massachusetts, applying the first fertilizer application of the year. This is a large campus and I will be using forty, 50 pound bags of fertilizer to cover all of the lawn area's around the campus.

The fertilizer I am using is from LESCO and it is a Pre-Emergent herbicide, called Dimension. It contains 19% Nitrogen, 0 % Potash and 6% Sulphur along with 0.10% DIMENSION.

We use this to control new weeds from germinating, like, Dandelions, crabgrass and broad leaf weeds. This fertilizer forms a protective layer over the ground, to prevent germination, of the undesired weeds. After this application we have to wait about 10 weeks before we reseed those areas.

This will take Rich and I all day to finish. We will be fertilizing approximately 640,000 sg feet of turf. I will be using a "power spreader"made by PERMAGREEN and Rich will be doing the smaller area's with a walk behind spreader, made by LESCO.

Medfield Condominium, Seeding

2009-04-14T20:40:00.002-04:00

Today, I am off to repair the plow damage to a Condominium over in Medfield. I have to use a pick up truck today as the dump trucks are needed for other projects. This creates a problem because the pick up can only handle one yard of loam at a time, good thing Lovell's Nursery is just down the road.

There was quite a bit of damage to the property last winter and it was due to the fact that the ground, had not really frozen hard, before the snow came, so the plows dug up the lawns easily. We ended up using 3 1/2 yards of loam and 50 pounds of seed. this was quite a bit more than last years repair. This was 4 trips to Lovell's for the day, to get loam and some other supplies.

The lady, in who is in charge of the landscape activities at the property, spoke with me about getting a quote, to completely redo 2 of the front lawns, as the owners were in the process of selling them and wanted them to look nice, to attract buyers. This, will be a project for another day.

Repairing Winter Plow Damage

2009-04-13T20:25:00.007-04:00

I am going to be repairing, more properties, that have had damage done to them by the snowplows during the winter. Two of the properties belong to Babson College, they are homes owned by the college, and we are hired to do the landscape maintenance on them. Rich, will be helping me with this chore today.

We do this early in the season to take advantage of the spring rains, and of course to make the properties look better. However, the ground is not warm enough for the seed to germinate quickly and this year we are having a very cool spring. The seed will not germinate until the ground temperature is around 55 degrees, so we have a few weeks to go before we will see any growth. We are using Lovell's New England seed, (34.3% Creeping Red Fescue, 29.4% Laredo Perenial Rye, 24.5% AllaireII Perenial Rye and 9.8% Ken-Blue Kentucky Bluegrass) which is a very good seed and we have a lot of success using it.

Clean up of the, Babson College, Presidents Residence

2009-04-10T22:02:00.005-04:00

Today I went with 3 other guys to do a spring cleanup at the home of the President of Babson College, in Wellesley, Massachusetts. This is a very nice, older property, with a great landscape.

This is a large property with a lot of mulched beds that have to be raked out, the flowers cut back, and the beds edged, before we can mulch. We have to also make sure that we use backpacks and clean off the lawn area. We have to do an excellent job here, as Babson has many catered events at this home. So we always have to do our best work here.

This will take all four of us, working until 5:30 pm today to clean it up, and there will be another crew, spending another day, just mulching the property. Good thing I have my daily, afternoon CRAVE energy drink for this one.

Plow damage repair

2009-04-09T21:29:00.002-04:00

Rich is off to get a couple yards of loam, today, so we can go around and repair the snow plow damage from last winter, on a few of the properties, that we have cleaned up. This is a yearly ritual, where we first rake out the damaged area, then put down some new loam and then seed the area. We then use the bake of a spring rake to "plant" the seed in the loam before we roll it, with a push roller.

The first property is in Needham, where a retired Doctor and his wife live. He had quite a bit of snowplow damage on his front lawn. He had also removed an old wooden deck, that was surrounding a Red Maple Tree, out in the backyard. This used up all of the loam we had brought with us so we had to go to a local nursery and get 2 more yards of loam. I love going to Lovell's Nursery in Medfield, Massachusetts, the guys that work there, are all great guys and very helpful.

Next, we were off to the Olin College President's house, to repair the damage done to both sides of the driveway. This took about 2 yards of loam to reapir.

Next we went to a hose in Wellesley that had not been cleaned up yet and it was decided by Rob, (the boss), to skip it until it had been cleaned up. This propperty has a circular driveway made of crushed stone and the stone was all over the yard and it would have taken to long to cleanup. It was our mission to just be putting down loam and seed.

We finished up the day at the very first we cleaned up this spring. the property is in Needham, Massachusets. This took another 2 yards of loam to repair. We finished up around 6:30 PM.

During this week I had started to take a "CRAVE" energy drink, at noontime. Ususally I get a bit tired during the afternoon, but I can't have a coffee, after 10 AM or I will not get a good night's sleep. I market this energy drink and it is great, you just add it to 20 ounces of bottled water, shake it up, drink it and you are good to go for 6-7 hours. No "jitters or crash" like with coffee or the other energy drinks on the market. I gave one to Rich and he was going strong after 12 hours of hard work.

Newton, Needham and Wellesley Cleanups

2009-04-08T21:09:00.003-04:00

We are going to 3 smaller properties in different towns today to do spring cleanups.

The first property is in Newton, Massachusetts. I did the "bluestone" patio (see pic) and we also landscaped the back hill and sodded the small area in front of the patio last year. We were done with the cleanup here by noontime.

Next was a very small property in Needham, and the owner has decided to cut back on our services this year due to the economy and we will not be mulching her yard this year.

After that we went to a property in Wellesley that I had never been to before. The woman who owns the property is an editor of the Wellesley Weston, Magazine, that we advertise our landscaping service's in. Just a straight cleanup here, we will be back to mulch in a few weeks.