Plow damage repair

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

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.

Back to the Olin President's House

Today, just two guy's, came to help me finish up the cleanup at the President's house in Needham. We went through all of the mulched beds, hand raking the winter debris out, clipping any dead branches on the ornamental bushes.

People get carried away with pruning this time of year and that is a major mistake. It is too early in the growing season to determine what needs to be trimmed. Some leaves, on the Rhododendron's turn brown over the winter and should not be pruned at all. The spring growth will push these brown leaves off in a few month's. So it is best to just prune branches that have been broken from the weight of the snow and leave all pruning until this years growth spurt has ended, usually in July and August.

I had Rich, cut down a Dogwood tree, in the perennial garden, that had been dying the past few seasons. In the same perennial bed, after we cleaned it out we put down some "organic lobster manure" to improve the soil and growing conditions. Before we left we edged all of the beds.

Due to the poor economy my landscape compnay will not be mowing the lawn here this year, but we will mulch all of the beds, fertilize the bushes, tree's and lawn area along with planting annuals and monthly weeding of the flower beds.

Rainy Monday

The rain is due to come later today and when it does that will be it for the day as the storm will last overnight.

We went over to the President of Olin College's house, in Needham, Massachusetts, to do a spring cleanup. The wife of the President, always greets us with coffee from Dunkin Donuts and homemade muffins. This makes our day and we just work that much harder for her. It's a "win-win" for us both.

There were 3 other guys with me and we only had time to use back packs to blow off the lawn, and rake out a couple of beds, before the rain came. We all went home around noon time. The cool rainy weather had my joints aching and my muscles sore so I was happy to go home and put some SUNJING on it.

Going home early used to bother me, but it does not anymore, because I can now go home and work on the home based business, that I started during the winter months. I market health and nutritional products and SUNJING is one of them. About 5 minutes after applying it to my knees and leg muscles the aching and soreness is no longer noticed. I love that stuff.

Bad Economic Conditions Affecting Landscapers

The bad economic times are having a major affect, on the Landscaping company, that I have been working at for the past 16 seasons. Today I went in to work as usual, spring time is the busiest time of the year, and no-one was at the shop. Last year, 2008, we started to cut back on Saturday work, starting the first week in June and never had any Saturday work for the rest of the year.

If we do not have work in the beginning of the season, our busiest time of the season, it does not look good for this year. I have not spoken to the owner yet, that will take place on Monday.

A trip to see my daughter and grandkids.

Today I took a trip to be with my grandchildren and daughter and husband. Had to get this visit in before the season gets underway and I am working 10-12 hours per day including Saturday. It was raining which was too bad. They had put an addition on and this was the first time I had seen it. They also had hired a stone mason to come over and build some field stone walls and steps, Brett is a stone mason we use all of the time for our projects. His work is just beautiful, and they look like the old New England stone walls that all around here. Unfortunately because of the rain I did not get a picture of those walls. The picture here is from a job we worked on with Brett and you can see his work. We did the surrounding landscaping and back brick patio. My daughter, Holly, wants to find out if my company can help out in her backyard, which is the way the contractors left it after they finished the addition.

Day 2 of the cleanup

Usually, I have a guy named Rich, work with me everyday, but today Rob, needed him to work on the other crew, who is cleaning up sand in the parking lot of a Commercial Property in Natick, Massachusetts. This is alright, because most of the guys we have are interchangeable. We are fortunate to have had the same crew members working at the company for the last 4-5 seasons, and they have all been trained in the same way.
This is a big blessing that we do not have to be training new people every year.

We came back to the property in the picture and continued with the clean up, this time we worked in the back yard. There were 6 deer in the back yard and we went to get a close up look at them. They were not afraid of us in anyway, in fact as we left to return to work they started to follow us. We did the same work out back cleaning off the lawn area, raking out he beds and edgeing them. We also have to rake out the fish pond every time we work there. The leaves collect, in the pond, which creates algae, which has an oder and the pond is not clear. A pair of Mallard ducks is enjoying it this early spring. Usually one of the guys has to put on "hip wadder boots" and climb into the pond to fake out the middle of the pond, but we could not locate the "wadders" this time.

Wellesley Hills, Spring Clean up

Today, we went to another property to do a "spring cleanup", This time the home is located in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. This is another beautiful, older property and landscape, complete with waterfall and fish pond in the back yard.

The owner has been rehabbing the home and property for the last 4 years. We did a lot of renovation to the property, as can bee seen in the picture of the "Rose Garden". We relandscaped almost the entire yard two years ago.

This is a large cleanup and it will take me and the two guys with me 2 days to complete. We will use backpacks to blow off the debris on the lawn area, that comes down during the winter months, rake out the mulched beds, trim away and broken limbs on the ornamental bushes and trees and edge the same beds. We are getting it ready to be mulched at a later time, about 2-3 weeks from now.

The owner had wanted us to come over early, because the town plows had taken a large chunk of her front lawn away during the winter. We raked it up and swept up the stuff out in the raod and will come back in a few weeks when things have warmed up a bit to put down some loam and to re-seed that area.

Spring Cleanup's begin.

I went with the two guy's who work with me to do a "Spring Cleanup" at a house in Needham, Massachusetts. This is one of Rob's first customers, so we pay, special attention to this property. I love working on these "old landscapes", they have so much character.

She had asked us to come over to work on her property early, because she wanted the sand, that was put down on her driveway, during the snowy winter months cleanup up, from her driveway. she is fussy about things. We also took down the "Deer Fence" that we put up in the fall around her Rhody's, Holly Bushes, Yews and what ever ornamental's the deer just love to eat and destroy during the winter. Unfortunately the fence had fallen over in one area and the deer got in and devoured some bushes, they will come back in time, with some TLC.

There are some really large trees out in her back yard. These are referred to as "Wolf Trees", due to them being planted out in the open backyard, with plenty of room to grow, and with plenty of sun. These trees have branches, that as large as most trees main trunk. Just beautiful to look at. Her property, was once part of a large property that was owned by a very wealthy business man, William Baker, who manufactured sewing machine's in Boston. He was quite a character, and on her property there is the remains of an old foundation that used to be a large barn that held exotic animals.

My Winter Story

During the past 4 winters, I decided I would not plow anymore. Too cold, in the middle of the night, no restaurants or stores are open to get something warm to eat, all by your self, hard to see driveways at night(most people forget to turn the lights on), no markers to see where the driveway is etc.

So, because I had all this time on my hands, I read a lot of books on self improvement and did a lot of work on me. I also, became very interested in starting my own home business, hey, I had the winter off, and needed additional income, to replace what I used to make plowing. So I went online, looking for a home based business to run last year during the winter.

You know how a lot of people are always dieting, drinking energy drinks like Red Bull and a lot of people take vitamins are interested in natural health these days. Well, I found this company that sells cool versions of these products, that people really like. they have some cookies, that dieters love to eat to manage their weight, an energy drink about 1/3 the cost of Red Bull, but gives a better buzz and lots of vitamins and healthy things people really like and buy from them all the time.

So, I found out I need about 150 people using these products, to more than, replace my plowing income. So I started this winter learning how to get those users. Hey, I learned to be a landscaper, a parent, how to use a computer and do email so I new I could learn how to get these users.

So I got thinking, "whats going to easier" going back to plowing on cold winter nights or learning a system to get 150 people using these products.

What do you think?