by Bill Marshall
As a landscape contractor I am always amazed at what some people consider work and others consider play. One would think that this would be an easy one. To some, anything done outside near 'dirt' is work and nothing else. To others (like myself and the readers of this publication) those same activities done in and around the 'soil' can be pure pleasure and food for the soul. A good contractor has to be able to satisfy both personalities if they are going to stay in business long enough to call it a career. It's only through good communication with a client that one can start to discern which type they are.
I can't count the number of times that a prospective client has started out our first meeting with, "I want a really nice landscape, but very low maintenance". Sometimes they will even say "NO maintenance"! Still, it seems like an easy problem to solve--just reduce the size of the lawn and design more hardscape and permanent trees and shrubs into the landscape, right? WRONG, sodbuster's breath! You've just made the mistake of assuming that a lawn is HIGH maintenance to this person. Now this potential customer is having doubts that you know what you're talking about at all and is wishing they had gone ahead and called Peat's Mow-It-All like they wanted to do in the first place. But don't despair, you've seen that look of disdain and distrust before. So quickly you ask, "Unless you enjoy caring for a lawn?" And then the truth comes out... they do enjoy mowing, watering, fertilizing and spraying in the endless pursuit of the perfect lawn (and I do mean endless).
A good contractor must have an open mind about such things and refrain from preaching their own philosophy of work versus play. Personally, mowing 40 to 50 weeks a year, by itself, is more work than I want to do. Here we are in the "grass seed capital of the world" so be careful what you say about lawns. The truth is that grass will grow on asphalt if it gets enough water and fertilizer. It may not look that great but it will survive for a time. A lawn uses more water, more fertilizer, and more pesticides to look its best than any other landscape element. And if you really wanted it to be perfect you would end up replacing it every three years or so to keep the variety of grasses true. But if a person just wanted to mow it once a week while it was vigorously growing in the spring, with no water or fertilizer in the summer, it would still return in the spring, green again.
Why is it considered the lowest maintenance landscape by so many? I think the reasons are as varied as the people who like to mow. I can't help but think that some of the reasons are cultural. We grow up around the weekly sound of the lawn mower on a Saturday in the summer. It is somehow comforting in its routine and 'neighborly' in its result. The look of well-kept lawn can give a great deal of satisfaction to its owner and to the surrounding neighbors. Also, you can use it. You can walk on it, play on it, have a picnic on it... it's a carpet for an outdoor room, or a place to hone your short game (golf). When something is that tangibly useful, it somehow justifies all the attention it demands and people "just do it" without giving it another thought. I personally like lawns as design elements that can move you around a landscape and contrast with the textures and colors of the trees and shrubs around them. A beautiful lawn can bring out the best in the bordering plants and invite one into the landscape, but low maintenance? NO WAY!
I'd be interested in reading any opinions or comments on this subject. Feel free to email me at the address below.
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