Ready to spaz...Need to vent

[BRIAN GALLO]

I apologize in advance, but I need to vent today. I am going absolutly nuts this spring here in western PA. It rains every other day, its warm, and in three days time my customer's grass is 6" tall! I'm working everyday till dark, trying to cut in the rain, and getting some help whenever I can - and still can't keep up or make the lawns look good! Today I had to go over everyone's lawn at least 4 times with the mower, plus blow off the whole yard with the backpack. Everyday I get farther behind because of the extra time I have to spend on each lawn. I wasn't neglecting these lawns, most are only a week out - they are growing 2" a day and are soaked! I'm not getting any extra $$$ for all the effort, and am getting snyde remarks from my customers about the way the lawn looks after the cut. On top of all this a lot of my customers are getting Chem Lawn to come out and dump a ton of nitrogen (after I told them I would do the fertilizing)! I am showing up with thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and can't make the lawn look good. Any pointers would be definately appreciated. :(

[clipfert]

Brian,

Don't give up. Were all in the same boat after the 90 Degree weather last week. I guess it is better to have major growth instead of no growth. I spoke with most of my customers today and recommended going to a cut every five days instead of every seven. I also recommended vacumm/bagging clippings on the next cut. All were in agreement.:D

[Toroguy]

Brian,

I think we all have been in a similar state of weather. Its called sheety weather. Try to look past it and towards the nice days of low humidity and clear skies.

Those Chem'bomb blues. Try your best to explain about N and three inches of standing water to your customers.

[Albemarle Lawn]

I tow a trac vac behind my ZTR sometimes.

I bought it for leaf season, but it gobbles an amazing amount of grass, since the impeller blades also mulch it down.

Charge a little extra if you can.

Go through with the vac once and you should be back on schedule in no time, and the yards will look incredible.

Ken

[GreenQuest Lawn]

I do the same with the trac vac on my lazer. If I am way behind, the grass is wet, and long I put it on and just bag them up. Saves alot of mess, and time.

[HOMER]

Do the best you can, who they gonna call..................somebody else that's in the same shape you are?

It'll dry up soon, like it did down south. No rain in sight now!

[TJLC]

Can we please have some of that rain down here. It's very dry here. LOL. I understand how you feel. It won't be too much longer before we will be going through the same thing. It seems like sometimes it's either too dry or too wet. Hang in there and good luck.

[David Haggerty]

Not so much for the money, but to get the finger of blame pointed back where it should be. The weather's to blame and if you "document" that fact by charging another buck or two it'll take the pressure off of you.

Dave

[jeffyr]

Brian,

Why don't you hire temporary labor to help you get caught up ? If you find someone you work well with you can arrange to hire them until you get caught up.

jeffyr

[awm]

this situation is one area that having a ztr changed a lot for
me . now if i run full throttle[my throttle vnot the zs] i can double work production.
just a thought.

[Barkleymut]

Explain to them that Chemlawn has a bunch of inadequately trained applicators and that too much spring fert will only encourage top growth and not root development. Therefore it looks very healthy now but in late summer it will look like crap. Chemlawn is a very successful marketing company and that is what they are best at marketing. There are many small local fert guys that know more than every Chemlawn employee in the state.

[Barkleymut]

What I was trying to say with the previous post is sub out your apps to a good local guy unless you have the knowledge and resources to do it yourself. You have to do like Chemlawn and sell sell sell those customers.

[jeffex]

Hang in there we are all in the same boat. I tried to give 7 lawns away to a friend in the business and he wanted to give me 20. I told him we may have to partner up and pool our resources . He is full time and I work part time. People are asking me to cut thier lawns because "thier guy" can't keep up. I told them to stick with "thier guy" and give him a chance because we are all playing catch up. I am going to ask my customers who have chem lawn for a 5th cut this month or I'm going to charge for double tripple cutting. Who they gonna' call everyone is booked

[Lawn-Scapes]

My advice is to cut as high as possible (3.5+). Go over the entire property once (avoid the temptation to double cut the front and move to back) in one direction.. then go back to where you started... raise the deck (at least 1" higher) and go over again in a crossing pattern. This will usually disperse the clippings pretty well. Give it a try.

Then get the heck onto the next job. Forget triple cutting. Stay on schedule best you can!

In my opinion customers will tolerate a few clippings on the lawn.. rather than not showing up.........

[naturescape]

You can do as TSG recommended, it works pretty well. If you don't want to change the cutting height on each job, cut at 4" until growth has slowed down a bit. Use sharp blades, and at 4" you'll get a great looking cut. Explain to your customers that every real pro knows you aren't supposed to cut more than a third of the grass with each cutting. 6" x 1/3 = 2". 6" - 2" = 4" cut.

Also, I state in my contract that no outside fertilization companies are allowed. I use only organic fertilizer, provides more natural even growth, and is far healthier for the lawn, and for me. Artificial products are a joke. I use an 8-2-6. These other clowns are using stuff like 25-2-6. At one pound of nitrogen per thousand sq. ft", obviously there will be potassium deficiencies with those products, plus they have very quick release nitrogen (makes the lawn green up quick, but provides a stressed out lawn as a result).

My experience is that a company that provides lawn spray only, and doesn't have to keep up with the growth, is almost always going to overdo it.

[SIG]

Tom,
Good advice , that is exactly what I do. You can't spend all day cutting one lawn only to be back there in 4 or 5 days!!! If a homeowner thinks they can do better, it will only take a week or 2 to realize they cannot.

[kerr lawn]

i finally was able to catch up yesterday and get 23 lawns done, but now it is raining again so i will be behind probably through the weekend. I got this easy mulching job to do and i want it done this weekend. Please stop the rain. The funny thing is that i know we are behind in the rain in inches for the month and everyone is prasing when the rain comes. I want it to stay away.
bryan

[LAWNS AND MOWER]

Brian,
I'm in the same boat as you. Quite a few of my accounts are on a 5 day schedule and the grass is still a$$ deep when it's time to mow. I went to double blades 2 weeks ago and can't believe the difference!! I havn't had to double cut a single yard. Tom's advice is correct. If you must go over the yard twice, raise the deck up so that you are only cutting the clippings/hairballs. Give double blades a try. You won't be disappointed!!! Look at it this way. Come July, the yards will burn up and you won't be able to see where you're mowing. Good luck!!!!

LAWNS AND MOWER

[swn]

It is the same way here in western KY, with the rain and warm weather. I would have to agree with Tom on the double cut. Just be sure and raise your deck height at least one inch on the second cut.