What Do Lawn Care Businesses Do In The Winter

You Control The World They Play In

There arenât many phrases scarier for a parent than âin-app purchases available.â Thankfully, you can add layers of purchasing restrictions to make sure your kid doesnât convert your life savings into video game currency.

Once you have your pocketbook protected, most apps and services also have filters you can apply to serve up only age-appropriate content. Video platforms get better every day at creating a digital world with training wheels for pre-teens. Most games restrict chat functions for younger kids so you donât have to worry about strangers trying to make small talk with your second grader who simply wants to feed a pretend horse in an open-world environment.

Most importantly, keeping kids aware of your screen time rules â and enforcing them â will go a long way to keeping their digital habit a healthy one.

What Do You Do In The Winter

Clay, N.Y.: Other than snowplowing, what do you guys do in the winter? I know most people in the Northeast plow, but I am interested in seeing other ways to make money in the winter. Lets get a list going of other ways to make money in the winter.

Southwest: Landscaping is year-round for us, as well as most of our maintenance accounts. We do a lot of hauling and delivery-type stuff, as well. We only have January where we dont do anything with our weekly mowing accounts. Come January 1, were back doing our spring prep , that will take us up to May, then we start back full go with mowing.

Ocean County, N.J.: I do a whole lot of nothing, except for prepping for next season.

Conshohocken, Pa.: There is plenty of work in the Northeast during the winter months. You just have to go get it. It is a great time of year to cut shrubs back hard, meaning reduce the size by more then half. If you drive around, you can see this issue from the street. Just knock on the door give them a price and boom, you have $100 in your pocket in no time. Five quick jobs a day will make your week. Go out and hustle up some winter work, and it will turn into spring work. If you have a good winter, you will have a better-than-good year.

Hampton, Va.: Still doing leaf removal, got two landscaping jobs to do and pruning. Before I know it, it will be spring. Really no downtime here.

Waggaman, La.: Repair equipment and get ready for the spring.

Aerating Your Lawn In Winter

During the fall, your lawn is preparing for winter, which means its enhancing its roots. Aerating will help your lawn increase root growth, allow it to breathe and minimize thatch build up. Minimizing build up is important because thatch makes your lawn susceptible to diseases and insects and reduces its tolerance to drought. Aerating your lawn will help contribute to a fuller and thicker lawn in the spring, giving you more time to enjoy a greener lawn throughout the summer.

Core aerators remove small plugs of soil allowing air, water, and nutrients to penetrate through to the roots. When these are more available to grass plants, your lawn will naturally be greener and healthier. Before you begin to aerate, make sure the soil is moist, but not wet. Its best to wait until the day after a rain shower or watering your lawn. Once youve aerated your lawn, leave the soil plugs on the lawn and let them decompose naturally.

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Pitch In With Differentiated Services

With proper planning and differentiation, you can transform a seasonal landscaping business into a year-round-business.

• Provide differential and innovative services to shorten the off-season window: Offer clean-up services for falling leaves. People who maintain gardens and lawns will invariably require someone to pluck up the leaves as well. Also try to offer connected diversification, such as service to mulch flower beds.
• Offer to install raised garden beds: Provide custom designs depending on space availability and the customers taste. Many homeowners love raising their vegetables and flowers, but the hard set-up puts them away.
• Support to care for indoor plants: Offer support for greenhouses during the winter. Many people travel during the winter holidays. They need someone to take care of their greenhouses and indoor plants.
• Snow removal and salting services: Consider reaching out to local businesses with snow removal and salting services. Offer services to take care of the hardscape in the environment, such as clearing sidewalks, stairs, and patios.

Offering Winterization Services Gives Cold

As proud Midwesterners, the Smart Service team definitely understands that not all regions have continuously warm weather. For a lawn care business, winter often means a downturn in work or the services they can realistically offer clients. This could mean a loss of revenue/profits for a period of time, but it doesnt have to. A good way to extend your profitable season? Prepping clients for winterization.

As a lawn care provider, you know the devastation freezing can bring to a sprinkler system. You may already offer some form of winterization, but if you find it difficult getting your clients on board, you can try these things to improve sales for winterization services.

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How Often Should I Water My Lawn

• You need to water your lawn to supply the right amount of moisture, cool down the soil temperature and wash fertilisersinto the soil. As clay soils hold moisture for longer than sandy soils, youll need to water grass planted in sandy soils more frequently. However, clay may hold onto water more intensely, preventing your lawn from utilising that high moisture content. Loam is the ideal soil mix and will retain just the right amount of water, while still releasing enough moisture.
• If you have loamy soil with a warm season grass, give your lawn a good soaking of water once a week, and perhaps just cool it off if the grass is under stress from extreme heat. The norm is 25mm of water per week. Place a container in each of the sprinkler zones and determine how long it takes to fill the container up to 25mm. This is the amount of time youll have to irrigate each zone once a week. Its better to give more water in one session to force the roots to grow down to a deeper level, than giving a little water every day.
• Cool season lawns need more frequent, shallower watering, as their root systems are not as deep as some of the warm season lawns.
• Water early in the morning as this is the coolest time of the day and there will be less evaporation. Youll lessen the chances of your lawn contracting a disease if it dries before nightfall.
• Water spots where pets have urinated immediately, or at least more frequently, using a watering can or hose.

The Job Of Raking And Other Lawn Maintenance

The very thought of property owners having to grab a rake and gather up piles and piles of leaves loses its ability to charm the minute backs ache start.

Since it is far easier to work smarter and not harder, this is a job that can be done by professional landscapers in half the time and with state-of-the-art equipment.

In the blink of an eye, your landscaping company saves lawns and gardens from the fate of burial in piles of foliage that cause root rot and plant death.

Meanwhile, your landscaping experts tend to the job of protecting lawns and gardens with the best type of mulch to make the landscape look neat and attractive.

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Fertilizing Your Lawn During Winter

Healthy lawns need three major nutrients: Nitrogen , for dense green top growth, phosphorus for root growth, and potassium for general health. Lawns also need micronutrients and fertilizers can help supply these nutrients. When buying lawn fertilizer, you will see three numbers showing the N-P-K values . The numbers represent the percentage of each nutrient however, they do not add up to 100 percent. The other ingredients are inert material.

Warm-season lawns respond best to fertilization when the grass is actively growing, the temperature is warm, and the days are long. In southern states with mild winters, fertilize in spring when the growing season is in full swing. Also, wait until you have mowed once or twice. If you fertilize too early, youre promoting top growth of the lawn at the expense of healthy root growth. Youre also encouraging weeds.

Cool-season lawns should be fertilized in fall, when temperatures are cooling off but the grass is still growing. Fertilizing in fall, when temperatures are still in the 50s, will help grass plants keep their green color into the winter. More importantly, it will promote healthy root growth, which helps grass get off to a good start in spring. Never fertilize when the soil is frozen as it serves no purpose, and most of the fertilizer will wash away.

Whenever you use fertilizer, follow the directions on the label. More is not better.

Indoor Services For Hotels Business Complexes & More

Not all plant care and landscaping are done outside. Greenhouses, indoor botanical garden centers, plant nurseries, and businesses like hotels with a multitude of indoor greenery all need maintenance. Finding sites that require gardening year-round is tough in small rural areas, but in large cities, there are plenty of opportunities.

A great place to look for winter business is social media. Whether on the Facebook Marketplace or through posts from your followers, youre sure to find some need during the winter. You can also use social media to post your latest winter services and offer promotional prices to the first ten clients who respond.

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Power Washing And Sealing: Decks Gutters Trash Cans And Driveways

For deck, driveway and gutter cleanings, you dont need much more than a pressure washer and a ladder.

Due to the relatively low cost of a pressure washer and ladder, these are relatively simple fall lawn maintenance services to tap into.

In other words, if youre hurting for cash and want to keep your team active, these are great services to try out.

However, trash can cleaning is actually a very serious fall maintenance service.

Some landscaping businesses attach rigs to the back of their trucks or rent out an entirely new vehicle.

In general, your goal here is to provide a fresh and new feeling for clients.

For example, sanding down rough spots on decks and pulling out the rotted wood, or removing the built-up grime that accumulates on their driveway are all profitable fall landscaping services.

Fall is the perfect time to sell these landscaping services. After all, youre the perfect person to do it because your clients already recognize you as their outdoor expert.

Dedicate Time For Introspection

Regardless of the marketing outreach or business diversification, winter essentially remains an off-season for landscapers. Make sure that your workforce understands the need for letting them go off during the lean period. Promise to re-hire the dedicated and skilled staff back, once things get busy at your end. Here are a few things that you can do prior to taking up a busy schedule in the new year:

• Catch up with the administrative tasks.
• Update pending paperwork.
• Brush up the tools of the trade.
• Repair and service tools, vehicles, and machinery.

Check if business processes are customer-centric. If not, work on changing it, to serve customers better. Benchmark existing performance against industry best practices, and roadmap any changes. Invest in training and development tasks. Offer employees an opportunity to gain new skills.

Check Out the tips to boost your business growth & efficiency:

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Groom The Grass At The Beginning Of The Season

Dont be surprised if your grass looks sad and worn down when the snow clears. The winter is a harsh challenge for any lawn. In the early spring, lightly rake the lawn to help perk up the turf ahead of the growing season. As soon as the soil dries out a bit, carefully clear away leaves and dead grass using a regular leaf rake. This will break up any matted areas and improve airflow the surface of the blades.

Wait to begin raking until the ground has dried out and firmed up in the spring. If the soil is muddy, you risk damaging the grass by walking and working on it. Also remember to be gentle. The old grass and new growth are fragile, plus moist soil makes it easier to pull the blades out of the ground.

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Dont Walk On Your Lawn

Avoid walking on your lawn, especially if you live in an area with severe winters marked by low temperatures and abundant snowfall such as the Midwest or Northeast. Stepping on dormant grass can damage the turfgrass crown the stem from which the rest of the grass grows, and continued foot traffic can lead to bare spots and compaction by spring. Instead, avoid damaging the grass by walking on paved walkways. Mark walkable areas with reflectors, and be sure to keep paved walkways clear of snow to reduce chance of injury.

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What Do Lawn Care Companies Do In The Winter

When the snow flies, it might seem like the services of a lawn care company are no longer needed. For many homeowners and business owners, its the perfect time to consider the available options from a local provider.

Here are some of the services you can use during the winter months when working with a local lawn care company.

Prepaid Renewals With Discounts

If youre worried about keeping the cash flowing during the down season, consider a prepaid option for current customers. Offering a discount on prepaid services for spring will help pad your pockets until the busy season picks up, and youve got more accounts to even the bank books. Just be wary as you schedule these prepaid services that youll wind up performing them without further pay come spring. Prepare for this by seeking new leads during the winter.

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Why Should You Aerate

An aerated lawn has multiple benefits. To begin, you already know that plants need oxygen. Those holes also allow better drainage during rain and snow. This not only brings water to your grass roots, it also helps avoid standing or pooling water. As an added bonus, it also helps with your next stepâ¦

Mowing Your Lawn For Winter

As the weather becomes cooler, continue to mow your lawn until it stops growing. For both cool- and warm-season lawns, you may be mowing into the late fall. When leaves fall from the trees during this time of year, feel-free to mow over them as they will decompose quickly and add organic matter to the soil. This will also stop them from forming a mat that smothers grass plants.

As youre getting ready for winter, cutting the grass shorter than usual is normal. However, reducing the height of your mower should not be something reserved for the last mowing. If the lawn has been kept at about 2.5-3.0 inches during the growing season, decrease that to two inches gradually two or three mowings prior to the very last cutting. Be careful to not cut your lawn too short because that can encourage weeds and diseases, causing bare patches.

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The Winter Life Of Professional Landscapers

Even when all the leaves are gone and the ground is covered in snow, there is still work for landscapers to do. Professional landscapers know as soon as temperatures drop it is time to prepare for winter. Usually, their first task is to maintain their summer landscaping equipment so it can be stored and ready for use in spring. When that job is done, winter work schedules begin.

Planning For The Next Year

The slow winter months are the perfect time for you to reflect and prepare for upcoming seasons. There are two important things to do during winter to ensure the coming year goes smoothly:

• Review your inventory and consider whether you need additional equipment for the coming year.
• Evaluate your teams performance and hire new people or schedule extra training if needed. Check out our guide on increasing productivity to further improve your lawn care business.

Image credit: Fabian Mardi via

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How To Keep Your Lawn Mowing Company Busy In The Winter

Its a struggle many lawn mowing companies face after being so busy in the spring and summer seasons, how do you sustain a strong business model throughout winter? As all good gardeners know, the hard work doesnt stop, no matter what the season. Firstly, its a good idea to keep customers aware of your winter offerings, offer promotions and discounts, and it may even be worth investing in some new equipment to take on new tasks. Here are some of our top suggestions for keeping business lucrative throughout the colder months.

Treat Your Snow Carefully

When managing snow, there are two things to keep in mind: How long snow piles will sit on your lawn and what youâre using on hard surfaces to melt the snow. If your neighborhood plows the street and you end up with snow piled on the easement, it might be worth getting out the shovel and moving it elsewhere. Piled up road slush carries a lot of weight⦠and harmful chemicals from cars. Leaving snow berms sitting on your grass can actually cause mold, too. Another way harmful chemicals seep into your grass? The chemicals in the âsaltâ used to melt the snow and ice off your walkways.

This is hard, right? If you have a pet, you might already be buying a special ice melt thatâs less painful for your pooch. Is it safe for your lawn, too? Thereâs a ton of products out there. In the long run, it might be a matter of choosing the lesser of two evils. If youâre only worried about your lawn, calcium chloride is the best option. And if you must use straight rock salt? Use it as a pretreatment before the ice and snow arrive instead of using it after the fact. Why? You can use a lot less if you use it before instead of after.

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