Problems piling on

With the lawn care season in full swing, there are more problems for LCOs than just troublesome weeds this year. An ongoing labor shortage compiled with inflation, rising fuel costs and supply chain disruptions has made this season tougher than most.

“The biggest nuisance we have right now is a tie between interest rates, gas prices and labor,” says Steve Middleton, owner of the Raleigh, N.C.-based Middleton Landscapes.

Middleton says  he’s adjusted his crew sizes to deal with the lack of labor.

“We’ve trimmed some of our crews down from five-man crews to four-man crews when someone leaves,” he says. “We just try and work with it.”

Middleton adds that a recent shift to a four-day workweek has also helped with employee retention and efficiency.

“We also went to a four-day work week and that’s worked out pretty well for us,” he says. “And now Friday becomes a makeup day if we’re rained out or something… but we try to give everyone Friday and Saturday to be with their families.”

But having enough manpower to stay on schedule isn’t the only challenge Middleton is facing. He says a lack of availability for some fertilizers, herbicides and other supplies has been difficult to navigate, not only for him but other lawn care companies in his market.

Because of this, Middleton says he thanks his lucky stars that he stocked up on the essentials when he did.“It’s been hard to get a few of our pesticides,” he says. “But I do things a little bit different…when COVID first hit I tried to be proactive. I was thinking and perceiving that we might have some issues with supply chains, so I started buying up a lot of my herbicides and things… I’ve got a whole storage unit full.”

Middleton credits his nearly four decades in the industry as his reasoning for being so proactive.

“I’ve been in this business since 1983, and I’ve seen some bad times…so I learned from those, and I try to watch the market and how it reacts to everything,” he says. “I try and see things as they start coming.”

And Middleton’s mindset is continuing, as he already is starting to plan out and purchase what he’ll need for the upcoming fall and winter.

“I’m already trying to buy seed for the fall just to be a step ahead,” he says. “Most people wouldn’t worry about that until September, but I’m not that way. I want to know what I’ll have in stock and so I can promise my customers we’ll have it.”

Because he was so well prepared, Middleton recalls having the chance to help some industry peers out of tough situations. In doing this, Middleton ran out of fertilizer and had to switch to a different brand. Which meant recalibrating ratios and more time onsite for techs. But he says it was well worth it to help those who needed it.

“A lot of my friends and colleagues in this area mostly use the same fertilizer,” he says. “We couldn’t get it for the first six months of the year. But I had some and I shared it.”