What's Trending Up?

[JimLewis]

In our market, it's Paver Patios, Fire Pits, Synthetic Turf, and Outdoor Lighting. Everything else we sell or install is either flat or a little off. But those items have seen big increases this year.

[AGLA]

"Everything else we sell or install is either flat or a little off"

What are those other things that are flat?

[JimLewis]

What's been flat?

Irrigation System Installs, Bluestone Patios, Retaining Walls, Water Features, Sod Lawns, and Planting.

I'd also put landscape maintenance in the category of flat as well. We are growing that division very slowly. We're actually landing quite a lot of new maintenance accounts. But we're also losing accounts at a faster rate since the recession started than we ever did before. People losing jobs, people who already lost jobs 6-12 months ago but tried to keep us around as long as they could afford to, people downsizing and selling their home, people just cutting back on budget, etc. So we're landing new maintenance at about the same rate or sometimes slightly higher than we're losing them.

[SDLandscapes VT]

Maintenance is up here and planting installs to rehabilitate a home and/or office are up. We don't sell a ton of hardscapes but my masonry sub has had a solid summer

Lots of rehabilitation work

[Duekster]

I saw some positive trends last summer and had high hopes for this year but this year seems to be as bad or worse than any of the last 4.

[PaperCutter]

Pergolas are always big here. Been selling more small water features than usual this year.

[AGLA]

I'm not seeing any noticable shifts in features, but have noticed a trend toward blonde granite flagging instead of bluestone (cooler on the feet, tighter standard joint) and more people wanting Azek instead of wood (especially on the water front).