Most of the time beginners in the lawn care business don’t worry about having contracts with their clients.  Indeed if you have just started out in your own landscaping business you might not even have thought about using them at all.

In truth a lot of newbies don’t have them.  But this is a good time to start exploring contracts and what they mean for you and your client.  A lot of people don’t even know where to start with such a document, but luckily there are a lot of resources online that will help you in this respect.

The first thing to consider is the advantage of having more than one form of paperwork to use.  You will certainly want to have an estimate form to send out or hand to customers which tells them exactly what will be included for the price of a particular job.  Both you and they keep a copy, so if there are any disagreements you can refer back to it for confirmation at any point in the future.

You then need an actual contract which states what you will be doing, how often and for how much.  This should ideally be something fairly standard in nature, so you can then attach the estimate or agreed work order to it.  This saves having to customize every single contract you ever use depending on the customer you are working for and what you are doing for them.

Some lawn care experts use contracts to set up monthly payment plans for their customers.  This can be easier for both parties as you can be sure of a regular payment without having to ask them for cash all the time.  It will certainly help you to plan your business more effectively in advance, particularly when it comes to investing in new equipment.

When you need a contract to start up with, go onto Google and do a search for ‘free lawn care contract sample’ or something similar.  People have created and uploaded sample contracts for you to use without payment.  You can either use them as they are, or you can tweak them for your own use.  For instance you could put your own name, contact details and logo at the top, to help brand your business and make it more appealing to the client as well.

There is no doubt that life will be made much easier if you can use a lawn care contract in your work.  Starting with a sample will enable you to ensure all the important details are there, and you can then carry a supply of them with you in case you should need one at short notice.  All you have to do is fill in your client’s details, the payment amounts and dates and attach the agreed estimate of services to the contract.

Just remember to keep a copy for yourself as well as handing one to the customer.  This will ensure you both have full details of what is expected from each contract.

You have to look way back to the early Thirties to find the beginnings of the Arien mower.  Everyone needs a mower to help them keep their lawn trim.  But you will struggle to choose one if you become overwhelmed by all the makes and models there are out there.  Arien is just one of the major names you will come across.

So what can you expect to see when you take a look at a mower of this make?

Well one good thing is that this company develops mowers for everyone.  And by everyone I mean people who mow their own private lawns as well as people who work in the lawn care business for a living.  This means that whatever kind of lawn mower you are looking for, you’ll be sure to find something in the Arien range that really suits you.

Another good thing to remember with the Arien brand is that it stands for excellent quality.  These may not be the cheapest mowers you will ever come across.  But you will certainly see that the quality is outstanding.  This is worth thinking about if you want something that will last and give you many years of good service.

The good thing is that you will spot lots of different types of mower as you explore the Arien brand.  For instance there is the walk behind mower that will be fine for the average smaller garden where there is no room for a ride on to be used.  These come in a range of machines built for different reasons, and some of them have a grass collector added to the rear to make life easier if you don’t like picking up all the grass afterwards!

There is also the ride on mower which comes as part of the Zoom series.  These are also known as the zero turn mowers.  If you have ever tried a ride on before you’ll know they generally have a wide turning circle, but that isn’t the case with these.  They have been specifically designed to reduce that particular problem, making these ride ons more useful for slightly smaller gardens.  They are also good for large lawns where you simply want the best performance out of your ride on mower.

You’ll find seven models in the current ride on range, which have engines of between 344ccs and 726ccs.  There are also a couple of yard tractors which are solidly built with chunky tires but they will have larger turning circles than the Zoom series does.

The good news is you can get the odd additional product to go alongside your Arien mower as well, no matter what type you decide to invest in.  For instance they also sell a precision edger.  While it looks bulky it does the job perfectly and anyone wanting the ideal lawn will be tempted by it.  Alternatively you could go for a strimmer instead.

So choose your Arien product carefully, because it should give you many years of good use and make your garden look terrific as well.

Every garden needs a few choice plants to help it stand out among its neighbors.  One typical plant that will definitely help you achieve this aim is the Carolina jasmine.

This is actually a vine and it has many benefits to it that you will love when you seriously consider adding one to your yard.  For starters it can grow to great heights if it has the right spot to make its home in, so think carefully before you plant it out anywhere.  Twenty feet high is not uncommon if it has the best conditions conducive to it growing steadily.

You can limit the growth of it though if you don’t like the idea of it taking over an area of your garden like this.  The trick is in whether you relegate it to a shady spot or not.  If you do and the roots do not receive much in the way of sun, you will soon see that it can grow and grow and take over the area it has been placed in.

If you would prefer it to stay in a smaller size you can make this happen by choosing a warm sunny spot to plant it in.  While it will still grow it will not reach the great heights it could otherwise.

As such it is important to think about what else is nearby if you are going to plant it and let it take over that area.  For instance if you have a lovely tree of some kind the Carolina jasmine won’t worry too much about growing all over it!  You may not be bothered by this but the tree might, so think carefully before choosing a nice spot for it to grow unencumbered.

But it is perhaps the color you will get from the Carolina jasmine that makes it such a delightful addition to have in any garden.  The colors all seem to have been deepened so they show up more readily, and it is a delightful plant to have in the garden during the winter, as this is when you will see it in full bloom.

Watch out for the deep green leaves as it develops and the bright yellow flowers as a counterpoint to those leaves.  The two colors together make for a plant that really catches the eye.  Indeed many people who don’t initially know what a Carolina jasmine is will never forget it once they have been shown one for the first time.

As such it can be the focal plant you are looking for that will brighten up your garden during the winter.  They don’t survive and thrive in all gardens though – as the name might suggest the Carolina jasmine is a good plant that thrives in the South, whereas other areas will not be able to grow it at all.  Coastal areas around there do well with it, and as you come inland it gets rarer as a result.

We’ve reached a stage where people are rightly demanding more from their gardens than they did in the past.  A lot of people also like to be able to use their gardens more often, not just when the sun is out and it’s warm and sunny.

To this end, fire pits and outdoor fireplaces are things you may find yourself being asked to create for clients more and more.  In fact you might want to suggest a fire pit if you have been asked to landscape someone’s garden for them.  Some people won’t even think of it unless it is suggested to them – but as soon as it is they’ll love the idea!

An outdoor fireplace can be just as good as well.  It all depends on what the client is after.  For instance some people may prefer a permanent feature made from fireproof bricks.  Other people – particularly those with children – might prefer a portable fireplace that can be moved and put away safely when not in use.  You can buy bowls that sit inside a frame for this purpose, and they sit happily on the patio and can be moved around whenever they are needed elsewhere.

You’ll need to ascertain whether the client wants something portable and what kind of style they want as well.  Also, do they want something they can cook some burgers over during the summer months when a BBQ is called for?

If they want portable and versatile, a chiminea with the appropriate accessories would be good.  If they want something permanent and big, you’ll need to consider building a focal point into the garden design.  Some gardens are big enough to benefit from a large stone built fireplace for example, so make sure you scale the finished item to the size of the garden.  If you don’t think along these lines the finished fireplace or pit could look out of place.

If you design a large fireplace that needs to be built, think about adding some climbing plants to it to help it blend in with its surroundings.  Just be sure to bear in mind that the heat will need to escape, so any plants should be well away from the direct sources of heat.

Fire pits can be bought to sit in a specific area, or you can build one out of brick or stone to fit in with the overall design of the patio area.  Always come up with several sketches and ideas based on the client’s preferences and then see which one they prefer out of all of them.  Minimalist designs can work equally as well as more elaborate ones, and oftentimes the garden space itself will help to dictate what will look best in any particular situation.

There are any number of ideas and suggestions you can use for fire pits and outdoor fireplaces.  In the end you will need to adhere to what the client wants, but the more ideas you can come up with the more likely it is they will be delighted with the results.

Some people love nothing better than a real grass lawn.  But it doesn’t always present the best and most versatile surface in every single garden.  It pays to know something about outdoor carpet tiles and grass carpeting when you have a lawn care business.  Sooner or later you will find you have a client who might benefit from using this rather than real grass in their garden.

One little known benefit of using these products rather than having real grass concerns swimming pools.  When these are heavily used the grass around them suffers as a result.  With water containing chemicals slopping onto the lawn regularly during the summer months, you’ll have a hard time keeping up the maintenance on it.  Grass carpeting works well and you can always restrict it to a separate area which borders the pool itself.  It’ll stay looking good the whole time.

If your client wants to create a feature of a pond, carpet tiles and grass carpeting can be put to good use here as well.  Not everyone wants a rockery or excessive planting around their pond, and if your clients want grass nearby this is the best bet to keep it looking good all year round.

Another good idea is to bear these items in mind when you are landscaping a whole garden.  Sometimes certain areas are habitually muddy and just won’t withstand an actual lawn.  With some good planning and an eye to these weak areas you can transform them with grass carpeting and still give your client the real grass lawn they want for the rest of the area.

The trick is not to try and fit the carpeting into the rest of the lawn like a patch.  Instead, make sure you focus on making this area deliberately stand out, perhaps by building it up into a higher area and creating flowerbeds around the edges for instance.  There are lots of ideas and solutions like this that you can use to solve a problem in a garden.

Outdoor carpet tiles are also good for extending the living space onto the patio.  Since they are largely waterproof (always make sure of this before buying anything) you can use them to create an area that brings the outdoors inside, and vice versa.  In a sense you can use them to create another room in the garden.

Carpet tiles of two colors could also be used to create a giant games area if a garden is big enough to take it.  All the client needs to do is to buy the giant garden games to use on them.  It’s an easy area to maintain and it gives the whole family something different and more exciting to do in the garden as well.

As you can see, artificial grass carpeting and carpet tiles for the outdoors offer far more than just freedom from mowing.  They also offer versatile uses that many clients will love and request.

If you run your own lawn care business and you build it up successfully enough, the chances are good that you will eventually come up against a lack of time.  It’s a good position to be in to find that you don’t have time to fit all your clients in and you are never short of work.  But on the other hand it means you could miss out on taking on some new clients – and that could mean letting them go to your competition instead.

This is the point where you need to seriously consider the idea of taking on one or more new employees.  But it’s not just a case of taking on one person full time.  You need to sit down and take a long hard look at your business to see exactly when and where you need the help.

Some major lawn care operations have several full time employees working for them.  But the chances are you won’t have to launch into having lots of people working for you right from the start like this.  Instead you will probably find you have slightly more work than you can handle, which one employee would suffice to cope with, at least for starters.

Remember that to begin with you will have your new employee working with you, as you will want to see how good they are and train them on various aspects of your business.  If it’s just you in the business and you take on a couple of people at the same time, you’ll need to find the time to train them both.  You can see why slowly but surely is the best route forward here can’t you?

You could also benefit from taking someone on part time to begin with instead of full time.  It all depends on your workload but if you don’t always have enough work yet for two people you will end up paying someone a full time wage when you don’t have enough work for them to do.  This is why you should sit down and plan ahead before taking anyone on, so you can ascertain when you need them and what the best move is.

There is no doubt that bringing new employees on board is by far the best move if you want to get the best from your business.  For instance there is only so much you can earn as one worker when you are tending people’s lawns full time. The only way you can earn more money beyond that is to focus on bringing new people on board.

Let’s say for example you earn $500 a day and a full time worker would cost you $150 a day (just for example).  This would mean you could earn an additional $350 for your business – and you – without putting any additional hours in.  This is why expanding your lawn care business is such a good idea – but only when you are ready for it.

We all want to have a lush green lawn with perfect stripes on it, but making that into a reality is difficult if your grass happens to be more yellow than green.

If you find yourself in this situation what do you do?  How can you make sure your grass goes back to its normal color?

For starters it helps to know why the grass is going yellow in the first place.  Is it happening in one specific area or is it happening all over the lawn?  For instance if it hasn’t rained in weeks and it is very hot, you’ll notice the whole lawn going yellow because it isn’t getting enough water.

This is an obvious problem to spot and it has an obvious solution as well.  Water it when the sun isn’t on it and make sure the lawn is well aerated so you can let the water do more than just sit on the surface.  This is also the case if the soil underneath the lawn is very compact.  Once again this means the water cannot sink down to the roots to nourish and feed them and enable the grass to grow readily.

In other cases homeowners with dogs will notice their lawn is going yellow and patchy in certain places.  If the dog urinates on the grass regularly the acid in the urine will damage the grass and turn it green.  Make sure you don’t get this problem by training your dog to go elsewhere – ideally in a specific spot all the time.

Another good bet is to dethatch your lawn on a regular basis.  When it is mowed and grass clippings are left behind, these contribute to thatch.  This means the grass is basically getting choked and cannot grow to its fullest extent.  Get all the moss and clippings out and mow it regularly to keep it healthy and short.  This also allows more sun to get to the grass.  While you don’t want the lawn to get scorched you can certainly aim to give it a certain amount of sun.

If you have lots of yellow patches and sections on your lawn you should also take a soil test.  Do this in several places and compare the results as they could indicate your soil is lacking in something.  Depending on what pH your results show you, you should add the appropriate fertilizer to ensure you get better results.  Lime or sulfur is ideal as they will bring your lawn’s pH back into balance.

As you can see it isn’t enough to pick a treatment and start working on your lawn without knowing why it is going yellow.  It could be going yellow all over or it might only be affected in one or two patches.  This information alone can be of great help, so make sure you work hard to find the solution you want.  Very soon your lawn will be turning back to a lush green once more.

If you are in the early stages of developing your own lawn care business, the chances are you will be focusing on adding plenty of private customers to your client list.  This makes perfect sense because they are for the most part easier to find – after all, they are in every street and road in your area and beyond.

But what about adding commercial clients to your list?  Once you have started to develop your business and you want to spread your wings a little, it could be time to think about commercial businesses as well as private individuals.  This is particularly the case when you reach the stage of employing helpers to work with you.  Indeed many businesses will only consider working with larger companies as only they are perceived to be big enough to handle the workload.

This sector of customers is not reached in the same way as private individuals though.  For instance you might put ads in local windows to attract the attention of private homeowners.  These same ads won’t reach a business audience though.

So how do you begin to target this area?

There are various ways you can do it but the one thing you will always need is persistence.  Firstly you should accept that a lot of businesses simply won’t have a need for a lawn care company at the moment.  They may already have a company they use, or they may simply not be interested in what you have to offer.

A professional image is always essential, no matter how you get in touch.  A good portfolio is a good idea, and you should be prepared to reveal how you can offer services that are designed to appeal to the commercial lawn care customer.  A lot of lawn care experts cold call various companies to see if they need any help in this area.  This can be demoralizing as you will get a lot of knock backs.  But on the other hand some may ask to see your portfolio and rates, and they may also put you on a shortlist if they like what they see.  You never know when these shortlists might pay dividends for you.

If you are trying to break into the commercial market for the first time, think about targeting smaller businesses to start with.  It doesn’t make sense to go straight for the big companies.  Take a look round your local area and see if you can spot any smaller businesses that seem to be in need of a lawn care expert or landscaper.  Sometimes they aren’t even aware of the positive impact it can make until you point it out to them!

A lot of companies hire the people they need towards fall time, so bear this in mind when you are calling or sending out flyers or brochures.  Timing can make a big difference when it comes to trying to get those first few commercial contracts, so make sure yours is spot on.

Sharpening lawn mower blades is something you will find yourself doing on a regular basis when you own a lawn care business.  If you don’t keep the blades nice and sharp you won’t get the best results when you are mowing your clients’ lawns.

The process of sharpening the blades is quite a simple one, but you need to ensure you follow it through perfectly each and every time.  This will ensure your safety while handling the mower and the blades, and also a good result when you next come to trim a lawn.

For starters you need to drain all the gas out of your lawn mower.  This is because you’ll need to turn it over to undo the blade.  You also don’t want the mower starting up accidentally, so disconnect the spark plug to prevent this from happening.  Once those two tasks are done, you’re ready to take the blade off.

Make sure you wedge the blade in place before you unscrew the bolt holding it onto the mower.  You can do this with a specific blade locking tool or simply a good sized piece of wood.

Take off the bolt, remove the blade – being sure to handle it carefully as you do so – and then put it in a vise.  This is the easiest way to sharpen it as you don’t need to hold the blade while you are doing it.

You should have a good quality file to perform the job, but don’t just sharpen lawn mower blades by doing it any old way.  You need to keep count of the number of times you sharpen it on each side.  Think about how the blade cuts through the grass and you’ll see why this is the case.  If you sharpen one section more than the other you’ll notice the blade cuts unevenly the next time you take it onto a lawn.  So do a couple of swipes one side and then repeat the same number on the other side.  Keeping count by doing just a few at a time will ensure you get an evenly sharpened blade every time.

Once you’ve got a nice sharp blade back again, you’ll need to reattach it to the mower by reversing the instructions above.  Start inserting the bolt and manually tighten it, then finish it off with the wrench.  Put the spark plug back in place and replace the gas, then you’re all set to go.

Remember that whenever you take the blade off to sharpen it, you should check it thoroughly first on both sides to see what condition it is in.  Not all blades can be sharpened effectively every time, and the longer you’ve had it the less likely it will be that sharpening will do the job.  If it is very badly damaged you should think about buying a replacement one instead.

As a professional lawn care expert you will need to sharpen and replace the blade for your mower a lot more often than a regular home user would.  To this end it might pay to keep a spare handy at all times.

There is nothing quite like the look of a well kept lawn that has precise stripes running up and down it.  But getting this all important look isn’t always easy.  So how is it done – and how can you make sure you leave all your customer’s lawns with perfect stripes on them?

First of all it is vital to realize the effect is created by having the right equipment.  For instance if you have a hover mower and you use that to try and create stripes, you will be disappointed by the results.  The basic trick to getting stripes is to have something that is heavy enough to weigh down the grass and flatten it in one specific direction.  You can then go along the lawn in the opposite direction to flatten down the next section in the opposite way.

The trick to mowing the lawn and getting those stripes is to buy a lawn mower that has a roller attached to the rear.  When you mow the grass the roller goes along behind the mower and flattens it down after it has been cut.  As you go up and down the lawn you will gradually achieve the rolled striped look that we all know and love.

If you haven’t got this kind of mower you can always go for a rotary mower instead.  This is almost as good as it has wheels on it and these are enough to press down the grass to create the stripes you want.  The stripes will tend to be thinner than you would get if you had a mower with a roller on the back though.

Once you have the right mower you should always go along the edges of the lawn first.  If you don’t you will end up running out of room, and you will struggle to achieve the smartest stripes as you reach the outskirts of the lawn on each run.

Start by working out which way you want the stripes to go.  Once you have this straight in your mind, make sure you go along the outer edge of the lawn so you mow across the ends of where the stripes will eventually be.  Once you have gone around the edges you can start from the side you eventually finish up at, and start to put your stripes in.

Remember too that you need to overlap your stripes to a certain extent in order to get the best results.  If you try and match up the edges each time you will notice that there is a bigger chance of missing a strip and ending up with a tufty bit of grass sticking up just where you don’t want it!

As you work on different client’s lawns you will notice that some stripe more readily than others.  This is because the grass could well be different.  Not all grasses are the same; those which work better in this respect are those which lie down more easily than others.  But with the right mower you should still be able to get a pretty good result.