Editor's Focus: July 2000

I have a confession to make, and this isn’t easy for me to admit. But the truth is that the landscape in front of our building has been somewhat lacking over the past few years. Unless, that is, you give us credit for the foot-tall dandelions and wide-spread oxalis that took up residence there.

Now, admittedly, we’re not exactly working with a potential-rich palette here. Our offices are two century homes that have been built together as our company has grown over the last two decades in a residential neighborhood. Our "yard," if you will, consists primarily of two 5-foot by 15-foot areas on each side of the walkway into the building, and that’s about it.

Well, this year we decided to get serious. After all, and as my grandmother likes to regularly point out whenever she sees our building, we do publish a landscape magazine. A logical assumption would be that we would at least have a landscape that we’re not embarrassed by.

We’ve got that landscape now, thanks to a team of industry professionals: Chris Meltzer, Yard Smart; Phil Fogarty, JP Horizons and Crowley’ Lawn Care; Rod Tyler, Grafton Nurseries; and Kurtz Brothers.

The experience even gave me a greater appreciation for the importance of customer communication, based on the number of co-workers who inquired why we didn’t install "nice big plants" instead of "those little tiny ones that don’t even take up all of the space."

In particular, this experience reinforced the importance of communicating ahead of time. Not doing so creates the opportunity for customers to get concerned about what they see going on. So tell them, "Yes, landscapes need time to grow and develop." As we’ve proven here, some may even need 20 years just to get planted.