Mowing Season Started Today

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And I had two University staff start back early so I sent them on a chipping job and took my new helper to our largest client, 7 homes, 9 acres. We cut the grass, swept the lawns to remove thatch, trimmed and blew in just over 7 hours which I thought was excellent. Everything worked perfect, it was a very long day mowing, man this is a lot of grass, now we will start spraying Monday and the spring wheight restrictions are off so we can start landscaping and drains next week. Here is a pic of one of the set up's we use, I use the X500 for pulling the Agri Fab sweeper, the X749 sips fuel, 7 hours and 1/3 of a tank of diesel.

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Andy
Halifax, Nova Scotia

[CHEESE2009]

Lawn care business tips

That set up is so cool. I can't wait to start mowing! I wanna get out there! I'm at the point where I'm just taking calls & scheduling customers. Though as soon as the weather is nice, for once... I can start some dethatching jobs. I'm gonna look into that sweeper, I bet it's a lot cheaper to rent. (Kinda don't wanna spend anymore money right now, so buying is out of the question) A dethatcher is what, 2K to purchase? I have considered it but spring cleanups aren't really my best interest. It gets way to hectic to book clients, the weather is such a drag. How well do dethatchers/sweepers work on wet grass? You answer is important to me :P

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Keeper of Peace
Security Officer Cheese2009
Gopher Security Central (G.S.C)
4th Floor, office 112

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I am not really sure what a dethacher costs, I looked at them last April and what I didn't care for is we had to clean up piles of dead grass, I like thinks quick, easy and as little manual work as possible, I had used the Deere sweeper on my own yard and it worked good, they I read a review on these smart sweeps and bought one, we now have three, they work very good.

When it comes to wet grass I don't know that anything works great, yes the sweeper will work but you may have to take two or three pass's and empty when half full or so.

I am surpsised you are not mowing yet, Montreal is generally two or three weeks ahead of us, the grass for the most part where we were today was 4 to 5", now we did start treating these lawns in September last year with our Organic products, almost all of the clients calling asking us to start are on our spray program.

Very few other lawns that I have seen need mowing yet, I still haven't seen any other companies out and about yet except today, the company we took this contract from stopped by and watched us for half an hour.

[CHEESE2009]

what I didn't care for is we had to clean up piles of dead grass

Yeah that was one of my concerns also. Though I suppose a quick pass with the back pack blower might make an interesting pile... hmmm...


I am surpsised you are not mowing yet, Montreal is generally two or three weeks ahead of us

The grass is just turning green now. Unfortunatly the snow melted away too early & the weather was still freezing... The lawns in my city are all destroyed. Lol, it's tragic! That's why I'm starting to focus on spring work now, the money is there.

the company we took this contract from stopped by and watched us for half an hour.

Don't you love it? Hahaha!!! I saw a few companies out giving estimates today, though I'll probably go to the exact same homes & hand out my flyers.

If I see an interested homeowner, mind as well take a shot at them myself.

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I haven't received one flyer in the mail yet which I find strange. We hand out post cards as we drive by properties, it has proven to be the best way to get new clients, well other than referrals. I don't have a marketing plan for this year as I can barely keep up with what is coming in, I think we will just coast, I am afraid to start anything as we won't be full staff until May and even at our current pace it's desperate hard to keep up, now that landscaping can begin, well I have to be very selective what I take on.

As for the other company stopping by, this has to hurt, we took three private communities from them on this road so far and I haven't even started.

I was shocked today at the stripes the X749 was leaving as I haven't put the striping kit on and based on what I saw there is no need to, the homeowners at this site are all retired and were home, it was a beautiful day, short sleeves. Anyhow they kept commenting on how great the lawns looked, loved the trailer and a couple of the older guys wanted to sit on the tractors The one condition when I was receiving feedback was they didn't want to see machines flying across their lawn, they pay big bucks to have us so for us to slow everything down is fine.

I have a ZTR (997 Deere) but she doesn't have the traction to do 80% of this location, I am trading it next week for a third X749, they are the best all around machine for lawn care there is in my experience, they will run everything from a tiller to a sprayer, One house has a 30 degree incline, covers about 1/2 an acre, the X749 plays with this stuff and no worries of spinning or sliding, it's all wheel drive all wheel steer, hydro motor on each wheel, it is shocking where this thing will climb and never offer to spin. The air ride seats are amazing, it's like you are floating on air, you never feel a bump.

[CHEESE2009]

That is fantastic to hear!

I hope this other company doesn't hold a grudge :P

You have the support from the gopher guild, hahaha!

Oakridge, you have brains!

[justin_time]

Crazy, we has snow/rain/ice pellets.. all crap. We had like 15 to 20 degree weather and now barely staying above 0 today, I was just getting started for cleanups and now this. Suppose to be +10 Saturday, hope all this crap goes away. Should be a couple weeks before my grass starts growing over here

[CHEESE2009]

Originally Posted by justin_time

Crazy, we has snow/rain/ice pellets.. all crap. We had like 15 to 20 degree weather and now barely staying above 0 today, I was just getting started for cleanups and now this. Suppose to be +10 Saturday, hope all this crap goes away. Should be a couple weeks before my grass starts growing over here

HAHAHAHA I SAW THAT!!!!!

I checked the weather for Montreal & on the page it says you guys got hit with winterrrrr, that SUCKS!!!

Blame Toronto, they passed their bad luck to you!

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Originally Posted by justin_time

Crazy, we has snow/rain/ice pellets.. all crap. We had like 15 to 20 degree weather and now barely staying above 0 today, I was just getting started for cleanups and now this. Suppose to be +10 Saturday, hope all this crap goes away. Should be a couple weeks before my grass starts growing over here

I guess we are having the weather you are supposed to be enjoying, we have smashed three records in the past week, +26 some days C, for our friends in the states that is 80's and unherd of for this time of the year. The evenings might cool to +10 (52F), grass here is growing like no tomorrow, I would guess we are 4 to 6 weeks ahead of anything I have seen.

[Steve]

review on these smart sweeps and bought one

What's the difference between a smart sweeper and other sweepers?

The one condition when I was receiving feedback was they didn't want to see machines flying across their lawn, they pay big bucks to have us so for us to slow everything down is fine.

This is fascinating! So it might actually work against a lawn care business to have a fast ztr! Does the customer's desire to slow the cutting down have anything to do with the cut quality or is this simply a mental issue where they feel a rushed job is a bad job?