Managing your lawn man
is critical to the success
of your landscape

Wrong:

Ask your lawn man to
"stick in some plants" that will look nice

Lawn Man Landscaper

Often home owners put pressure on their lawn man to do landscaping work. Although often cheaper than hiring a professional landscaper, the results are usually akin to disaster

Quite frankly, a lawn man specializes in cutting. He cuts grass, hedges, edges and blows off your leaves and grass clippings. Lawn men rarely have any expertise in tropical plants

We see lawn men shopping for plants at Home Depot or K-Mart. We see them asking clueless clerks for plant advice. You see the results all over Ft. Lauderdale .....a mish mosh of this and that plant material with no knowledge or regard of proper plant selection

On the other hand, your lawn man is critical to your landscape's success. You just have to "control and monitor" his actions

Weed Whackers

Never let your lawn man use a weed whacker that strikes the base of any of your trees or shrubs

Over time the weed whacker will sever the bark and kill your trees. Have your lawn man hand pull a wide circle of grass away from the base of all trees. He should then use a product like ROUNDUP herbicide (environmentally pretty good product) to keep grass and weeds from growing anywhere close to the base of your important shrubs, trees and palms. This tactic will (normally) keep his weed whacker under control

Pruning

Typical lawn men don't prune. Lawn men HEDGE everything; one tool, one technique

Master Gardener is asked every week "why doesn't my XYZ shrub flower?" and the answer is always the same

The tips of flowering shrubs have been cut off during your lawn man's hedging process. It is ONLY the tips of plants which produce flower stems. When your lawn man hedges your hibiscus, for example, you loose 95% of your flowers

The solution is what we call "proper pruning" and this work must be done by hand clippers on shrubs

Master Gardener hand prunes all the longest stems back close to the main trunk stem. We leave the other stems to grow further and produce flower tips. This type of pruning every 4-6 weeks will result in a glorious abundance of blooms in 2-3 months

Never ask a typical lawn man to prune trees. Trees are the foundation of your landscape and require professional work. Much permanent damage can be done with improper pruning. Hire a professional tree company or professional Arborist (Yellow Pages)

Sprinklers

Lawn men often break sprinkler heads during the course of their work. This damage is not intentional

Ask your lawn man to manually turn on each sprinkler zone before he leaves your home to certify the system is operational and that all heads are operational. Ask him to fix broken heads or at least report breaks and leaks to you for your action. Also, make sure he leaves your sprinkler system on "automatic" before he leaves your home

Fertilization

If you ask your lawn man to fertilize your landscape, he will likely go to Home Depot and pick out the cheapest fertilizer on sale. He will then randomly broadcast the fertilizer on every plant and tree and palm with no knowledge of what plant should receive what fertilizer, how much nor how often

Fertilization is critical to a quality landscape. The truth is the best fertilizers cost 3X or 4X the cheap brands and types. The cheap fertilizers are instantly water soluble so with the next rain they may be all washed away into the sewer, into the ground water, into our water supply

Proper fertilization often involves 3 to 5 types of fertilizers applied 4 to 6 times per year. For South Florida zone 10, Master Gardener recommends the first fertilization after the last full moon in February. The last fertilization of the year should be no later than October

A full landscape fertilization can (should) cost $75-$150 for a typical average lot. Some large homes and landscapes can (should) run several hundred dollars per application. We've done many over $600 per application

Your lawn man does not have the expertise to do a proper fertilization. If you ask your lawn man to fertilize, YOU should purchase the fertilizers and guide him as to what fertilizers to use on what plants

Need someone you can trust to go a great job maintaining your landscape?

click pic to enlarge

My son Greg owns and manages a professional landscape and maintenance service in Ft. Lauderdale called The Flower Guys.  Of course, I think he's the best there is.  Please call Greg at 954-567-4141 to arrange for an appraisal of your needs. Call now ...he or his answering service is always working