From unexpected weather to managing client expectations, a perfect lawn can’t just happen at the snap of your fingers. It requires careful planning and a good understanding of what problems will sprout up throughout the year.
“Seasonal weed control planning … I would kind of boil it down to you’re planning for those turf issues and weeds that are going to happen at the different seasons of the year,” says Eric Reasor, Ph.D., Southeast research scientist for PBI-Gordon Corp. “Spring, summer, fall, even winter, bring their own set of challenges.”
When an LCO takes the time to plan out their year, it allows them to think about how much product they’ll need and when they’ll need it, what weeds and pests to be on the lookout for and much more. Reasor says it also allows LCOs to set themselves up for success in the following seasons.
“The turf (and) the weed pressure you want to understand, the products you’re using, the strengths, the weaknesses of those products. And you want to understand the operational capacity you have to deliver those products to the lawn,” Haselbauer says. “If you don’t understand what kind of turf you’re dealing with, what kind of weed pressure you have, you’re not going to be able to break that weed cycle and provide the results for the customer.”
By using the past to create a framework for what the next year should look like, LCOs can set themselves up for success and plan around what they expect to face in lawns. But, as Reasor highlights, it’s important to leave some wiggle room to adapt to the unexpected, such as weather changes or new pests moving to your area.
“With anything — turf management, weed management, life in general — being flexible and adapting to what’s going on in the environment is key,” he says. “Planning is the first process and then making changes again. That’s where scouting is important. I don’t think we scout for weeds as much as we should.”
Besides being prepared for the year ahead, weed control planning can also come with the benefit of some serious money savings. For example, if an LCO knows what problems they’ll be facing and what products they’ll need, it allows them to better take advantage of early order programs (EOPs).
“As we’ve gotten bigger, as our business has gotten more structured, we have to plan much further ahead than in the past, and utilizing things like EOPs helps a lot, especially as we start the season and we have our base needs met with those products,” Haselbauer says. “Obviously, there’s sometimes significant savings in being able to utilize those EOPs.”
BioLawn’s Johnsen says that planning also allows him to hone in on the best products to snag for the rest of the year. Targeting specific weeds and pests with a premium mode of action ultimately results in a better result and a happier client, so taking the time to understand what weeds to expect and what the best control method is helps BioLawn deliver on its high-quality standards.
“We follow a repeatable process when selecting products each year,” Johnsen says. “It starts with learning from the people closest to the product — the manufacturers, distributors and early users. Then we dig into the research to understand how it performs. From there, we test it in the field, starting small and scaling up as we build confidence. That process helps us make informed decisions and ensures we’re using products that actually deliver results.”