The waiting game

Dealing with weather is the nature of the landscaping business. Rain makes grass grow – but in excess, precipitation keeps crews from working and businesses from pushing productivity. This year all over the country, landscape firms dealt with erratic weather: record rainfall or drought, unusually cool temperatures and scorching heat. All of this makes getting any job done outdoors a real challenge.

This month, Lawn & Landscape spoke with three firms to find out how they handle weather delays.

Mindful mowing

Properties that generally take 20 minutes to a half-hour to mow have been consuming up to an hour of time this year because of the excessive rainfall that dumped on Northeastern Ohio through mid-July.

“We had to double-cut yards,” says Christopher Failor, president of C&M Landscaping in Avon, Ohio. “The company definitely takes a hit when you do that because you are spending more man-hours on a property than you should. It’s a time management thing,” he says.

Meanwhile, a handful of properties C&M cares for were flooded for two weeks in June. “We couldn’t cut those for two weeks because of standing water,” Failor says.

Then when the ground was finally stable enough to support a mower running across the turf, Failor and crew dedicated a Saturday to playing catch-up – and they filled a dump truck full of clippings from those few lawns.

When grass is still growing strong in mid-summer, collecting grass clippings might be necessary on some properties, Failor says. “Normally at that time of year, the grass should be so thin that we are not collecting it, but because we were getting so much rain, we had to start throwing catchers on our mowers.” That, plus double-cutting some lawns, adds man-hours.

But Failor wasn’t completely eating the cost of those extra hours because customers are billed per cut. The weather did, however, create some scheduling backup for C&M with its maintenance jobs, “Instead of cutting properties five days per week, we were cutting them in six days,” he says, relating how the extra time spent double cutting lawns created an extra day’s work.

Aside from more labor, running mowers over properties two times in a single service call also requires more fuel, Failor says. “We try to watch the radar, and we don’t put mowers on properties when there is a lot of rain,” he says. “You can’t put a 5,000-pound machine on wet turf. It will tear up the grass.”

During light rain that does not persist, high-quality and safe mowing is still possible with lighter equipment, such as a walk-behind mower. “But that takes twice as long when you’re walking a property,” Failor points out. At least that way he can keep the mowing crew moving – but never at the expense of damaging grass. “We’d rather skip mowing and wait until the ground is dry,” Failor says.

Flexing to the forecast

From sopping wet to desert dry – that’s the weather Michael McDowell is dealing with in Concord, N.C., where he runs TurfLife with his daughter. “We were getting rain every day through May, but the last two months there has been virtually no rain whatsoever,” McDowell reported in early August.

The extremes cause crews to scramble. “We work as far into the day as possible when it’s nice out because there were days when we couldn’t even go out because yards were so wet,” McDowell says.

In general, McDowell picks up where he leaves off on mowing routes if the ground is too wet to support equipment. This season, when rain was so persistent that McDowell couldn’t visit customers for four days in a row, he called clients to let them know his crews would be on their properties as soon as possible.

Spring was tough because on the limited dry days, McDowell was running to make up for all the rain-outs. And this summer, all of the dry weather has resulted in less frequent mowing. “During summer months, we mow every other week,” he says, adding he may instead trim or prune to assure clients their landscapes are top of mind.

Shifty weather can impact the bottom line. McDowell’s mowing accounts are invoiced the first of the month. Most clients go month-to-month and some are on annual contracts that promise 36 cuts throughout the year. So when weather acts up and clients question whether they’re getting their money’s worth, McDowell is sure to explain that they’ll get cuts through fall and it all evens out.

“You have to let customers know what’s going on, whether leaving a note on their door, a voicemail or a text message,” he says.

McDowell started TurfLife in March of 2015, but he has worked in the industry since 1982, beginning at a large lawn care firm in Florida where he ran the lawn care division for nearly a decade.

He moved on to positions at the former Lesco and Verdicon before starting a company with a partner. Earlier this year, the firm dissolved and McDowell launched TurfLife. So, McDowell is all too familiar with the way unpredictable weather impacts green industry businesses.

“You have to roll with the punches,” he says.

Dealing with downpour

Every time an irrigation installation was on the calendar, it rained. That was just the way the weather worked out this year. It was hotter, more humid and rainier than last season in Christiana, Tenn., where Exterior Designs is based.

“You’re making promises and breaking promises, which is frustrating,” says Jonathan Dow, owner, relating that customers were understanding, but ongoing delays (mainly with installation) created scheduling backlog. “Labor overtime will eat you alive with the expense,” he adds.

“The rain affects our drainage work, topsoil and landscaping crew more than anything, because when you’re working with topsoil it takes a long time for it to dry out compared to established turf, which you can get on in a matter of hours,” Dow says.

When a yard is trenched out for an irrigation install and a thunderstorm delivers an inch or two of rain within a couple of hours, the project is immediately at a standstill – until the trenches drain. “That can eat into your profit because you spend more labor – moving mud around by hand rather than dry topsoil is more work,” Dow says.

And there’s the irony of it all: Installing an irrigation system to water plants while the rain’s falling. “That’s frustrating,” Dow adds.

But planning for weather delays does keep costs and workflow under control. And that’s not easy because the ongoing rain required more mowing and pruning activity on properties. Usually, Exterior Designs plans on 30 to 32 mowings per season for clients, and cutting is usually bi-weekly in hot July and August when non-irrigated lawns get crispy and grow slower. But not this year. And because 60 to 70 percent of maintenance clients pay per visit (as opposed to seasonal contracts), these customers are paying more this year.

That means more income for Exterior Designs – and more labor expense, too. “Shrubs and trees have been growing so fast that when we trim them, several weeks later they need to be trimmed again,” Dow says. He’s adding an extra trimming into a schedule that usually involves three pruning times per property, per year.

For contract customers, Exterior Designs is losing a bit of profit because of extra mowing, but Dow figures it all evens out with more income from pay-per-visit clients.

As for handling mowing and rain, Dow watches the weather radar on his smart phone and keeps in contact with crews in the field. If he knows a storm is coming, the crews will start on properties farther away from the office and work their way in so they’re closer to home base when the clouds break. And, the next day when crews pick back up with mowing, they can start where they left off (closer to the office).

“Instead of having one mowing crew, I might divide up the equipment and split up crews to catch up on mowing, which helped us a lot his year,” Dow says.

During rain days, Dow assigns staff to tasks like sharpening mower blades, changing oil and other equipment upkeep needs. “When we are limited in what we can do outside, we try to stay as productive as possible,” he says.