Most lawn care and maintenance companies use a contract of some sort for their services. The purpose of the contract is to summarize for both parties what is expected. It outlines what your services include, how often you will work for them and for how long. It reassures the customer that they will be taken care of and reminds them how much and when they are expected to pay. This way everyone is clear on the terms of your relationship and no confusion will arise in the future. Everyone creates this type of agreement differently, but I would like to share with you my favorite, the proposal for landscape maintenance, which has all the elements of a contract presented neatly and professionally.

The proposal for landscape maintenance contains the following information:

* Both parties involved (your company and the name/address of the customer)

* Terms for service- the aspects of maintenance you will provide

* The period of service- start date and finish date

* The price for your service

* Both parties sign to accept

* Date of the agreement

Although this form could be construed as a legal document and might very well be legally binding, I am not a lawyer and encourage you to seek out a lawyer in contract matters.

At the acceptance of this agreement I let my customers know that neither they nor I am bound to it and that they may cancel service at any time. Likewise I am free to cancel service as well for any reason. This puts them at ease and makes them feel less obligated, and if you do a good job odds are they will not fire you. And although the contract has a start date and an end date specified, I have never had to recreate a new one for the following year. I simply continue service on a month to month basis.

A sample contract, or proposal for landsacape maintenance, can be viewed at http://www.maintenance-business.com/htmlcontract.htm in your browser window. It is also available for download in .pdf format at our website http://www.maintenance-business.com.

Looking after a garden is a year round job for some. If you get a brief break because there is snow on the ground, then there maybe some things you might want to research before Spring.

Spring isn’t the only nor always the best time to do prep work. If you need to re-seed patches where the lawn looks bare, just before the snow comes is a good time of the year to start. The seeds will get worked into the soil as the snow falls and lay dormant during the winter months.

Once spring and the first melt arrive then the seeds will be in good mud and the early stages of germination will begin. Once they start getting the sun then good, fresh grass should follown in a couple of weeks.

Crabgrass and its relatives don’t thrive in the Fall or Winter and this means that you have a head start on that kind of weed control. As the new lawn grass starts to spread, it has a good chance of stopping the crabgrass, and with any luck it won’t develop at all.

Start applying the Spring fertilizer at the earliest possible time. This will help give the young shoots a good start and, if you use fertilizer that also controls weeds, you may solve two problems in one go.

As that snow continues to melt off there will be areas where the grass has become thatched – this is a condition in which the blades get lain over one another, then compressed from the snow pack on top. Some of these may die over the winter and this can leave you with a kind of straw-like covering, hence the name ‘thatch’.

Doing something about this is easy. Just cut the grass a little later in Fall than you need to so that the length is controlled. This restricts the height and helps keep thatching to a minimum.

In Spring give the grass a good raking. Of course, if you raked in the Fall, there won’t be any leaves to get rid of but the extra raking helps pull up thatched areas and allows air to get to the soil.

If the ground has become hard, or the soil is easily compacted, you can follow that up with an aeration. This can be done either by using a special attachment on a riding lawnmower and running it over the grass, or using special large-drum rollers with spikes poking out.

An inexpensive way is to use special shoes which are like golf shoes with spikes on the bottom. You just put them on then walk around the area you want to aerate. The tiny holes made by the shoes allow air to penetrate the soil more easily. At the same time, it makes channels for solid fertilizer pellets to fall into.

After de-thatching and aerating, your lawn will be ready for you to carry out any weed control and to start seeding, fertilizer application and regular mowing.

Lawn care may not be easy but it is worthwhile.

Broadleaf Plantain, also know by the scientific name Plantago majo, is a short, leafy plant that loves to grow in thin and weakened sections of your lawn.

There is one problem with this pest, It forms large spreading colonies, suffocating the grass around it.

I’ve seen lawns absolutely covered with this stuff.

Here is some basic information about this weed:

It grows everywhere in the United States, southern Canada, most of Europe, and northern and central Asia. Grows well in full sun or partial shade. Its rosette of leaves is 5-10 inches across, with each leaf being 2-8 inches long, and 1-4 inches wide. The leaves hug the ground, and crowd out healthy grass. The main advantage that this plant has is that it grows better than others where the soil is compacted. So if your lawn has a small gap it can easly grow there even if the soil is firm, choking out the grass around it.

Early summer through September you will see the seed stalks rising. It spreads from seeds and also re-sprouts roots below the ground. If Broadleaf Plantain is appearing, it can be an indication that you are mowing your grass too low.

If you want to try removing this plant yourself, the only way is to dig them out. You will need to do this repeatedly over several months in order to effectively control the plants. Removing the plants before they produce seed also helps to speed up the process.

If you try pulling the plants out by grasping the leaves, they tend to break off, allowing the roots to continue spreading beneath the ground, forming new plants. Mowing does not work because of how low the leaves lie. Additionally, seeds and plant parts can contaminate your lawn mower and other equipment, so mowing will just spread the plants to new areas.

Herbacides can be effective to control plantain seedlings, and can also reduce the vigor of established plantain plants. Please ask your lawn care company for help in applying the correct herbacides for this weed.

Trying to stay true to the principles of organic and natural living is not as easy as you think it should be. In our culture we have become acclimated to certain conditions that have only been achieved through the use of chemicals. From doing the laundry, to washing cars and tending our yards, we have invented a chemical for nearly every task. If you want to live more green and be in harmony with the environment with your lawn care, you will need to give it some planning and forethought. 

One bit of thinking we may need to change is our perception of what makes a weed. Many of the “pests” that we are being sold chemicals for are actually our native plants and rather beautiful in their own right. An example of this is the dandelion that has a pretty yellow flower during one stage of its growth and wispy and delicate heads during its seed stage. We have all enjoyed blowing the seeds to the wind and watching the “parachutes” gracefully float away. 

Notwithstanding your newfound definition of a weed, you may still want to discourage some types of plant life in your lawn. Here are some ways to do that in as natural a way as possible. First, give the desirable grasses as much support and nutrition as possible. You can find organic fertilizer recipes and get on a schedule of feeding your lawn the nutrients it needs to make it as strong as possible. 

Grass is naturally an aggressive, thriving plant. Do your part to keep it healthy and it will make no room for the weeds. Keep your yard on a regular mowing plan so that the plants are at a good height for the grass only. This way your grass will receive more of the soil, water and sunlight than the weeds. Grass loves to be mowed, whereas weeds are damaged by it. The act of mowing keeps the yard looking good in more ways than one. 

Here is one other method for weed control that has been all but forgotten. We are so inclined these days to gravitate to the solutions that take no time and no effort. This forgotten method I am talking about can become an activity for quality family time together. It can get you out into the fresh air and give you great exercise. This method is simply going out into your yard and pulling the weeds by hand or with digging tools. 

The hand pulling of weeds is very efficacious in weed removal because nothing kills a weed like removing its roots from the soil. The weed can then be removed from your yard and you expend some calories and use your muscles like they should be, too. There is nothing that can be said to be more natural and environmentally “green” than this good old-fashioned method, and it is truly effective, also.