Landscape Management, May 2014

CONTENTS DEPARTMENTS 6 News Views MAY 2014 VOL 53 ISSUE 5 16 DIRECTION PLANET Day of Service 12 Weed Watch Smutgrass stinkgrass 33 Market Watch IRRIGATION Approaches to fair service pricing for firms clients MAINTENANCE How a marketing overhaul boosts business DESIGN BUILD Independent design firms speak up on subcontracting LAWN CARE Five application tips for landscape bed weed control 49 Add on Biz York Landscape veers toward verticutting for thatch removal BY CASEY PAYTON 52 LM Reports Postemergent herbicides handheld equipment 56 1 Minute Mentor Tom Canete Canete Snow Management BY SARAH PFLEDDERER COLUMNS 4 Editors Note BY MARISA PALMIERI 8 Best Practices BY BRUCE WILSON 10 The Benchmark BY KEVIN KEHOE 48 Profiting from Design BY JODY SHILAN IN EVERY ISSUE 55 Classifieds Resources FEATURES 16 New direction Three executives share how strategies from former careers at a pharmaceutical company shipping enterprise and retail store steer their success today in the Green Industry BY MARISA PALMIERI ONTHE COVER Illustrations istock com ZargonDesign wildpixel 38 SPECIAL SECTION 23 SNOW ICE GUIDE Suppliers experts quell contractors concerns over what appeared to be a salt shortage this winter MAY 2014 A SPECIAL SECTION OF LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT SNOW ICE Cargills salt mines like this one in Cleveland werent shy of supply this year An unprecedented dilemma OUR MISSION Landscape Management shares new ideas to inspire and empower readers to run more efficient profitable businesses Were the leading information resource for lawn care landscape maintenance design build and irrigation professionals 1 MAY 2014 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET GUIDE 23 MAY 2014 LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET PHOTO CARGILL Salt suppliers experts quell snow removal contractors concerns over what appeared to be a salt shortage this winter BY SARAH PFLEDDERER C ASE SNOW MANAGEMENT staff made a 16 hour round trip to Maine to pick up an order of rock salt this winter All the while there were piles upon piles of the deicer at the companys local supplier right down the road from its headquarters in Attleboro Falls Mass Case Account Executive Neal Glatt says seeing the surplus through rearview mirrors not only rubbed salt in the companys wound but it convinced him the snow management industry was not in fact facing a salt shortage as some news headlines read He identified the problem as a supply chain issue Its not like the salt industry fell on its face Glatt says The problem was everybody needed the same thing at the same time on a more frequent basis His viewpoint aligns with what many experts and suppliers say created an apparent salt shortage this winter The root causes Lori Roman president of the Salt Institute confirms there is a sufficient amount of salt available for mining and it was being mined this winter The problem was the severe winter increased the demand for ice melts and the extreme cold that came with it affected suppliers transportation methods for those products The modes of transportation we used were challenged by the same weather causing the demand says Mark Klein director of communication at Cargill For example the supplier has salt mines in Lansing N Y Cleveland and Avery Island La The latter generally transports product on barges up the Mississippi River these vessels can move the equivalent of 15 rail cars or 60 to 70 tractor trailers Klein says The cold froze parts of the river though requiring the supplier to resort to ground transportation which held equal challenges Rail cars had to travel at slower speeds to be cautious of the colds effect on the air brakes Klein says and when transporting by truck Cargill faced the same winter roadway conditions as commuters Martin Tirado CEO of the Snow Ice Management Association SIMA says this isnt the first time the industry has encountered a supply and demand issue thanks to severe weather He recalls a similar situation in the 2008 2009 winter and says it happens every four to five years What added to the dilemma this year Tirado says is contractors had no notion there would be extreme snowfall given they prepare for average winters Because there were relatively mild winters for the past two years contractors underestimated how much salt to order at the start of the season The government sector and the private sector prepurchase based on averages for the past three to five years Tirado says The reality is this winter the snowfall was much