Using Design To Set The Tone

Landscaping and Front Yard Design

Your home’s curb appeal is a good indicator of your home’s energy effectiveness and monetary value, especially if you’re preparing a sale. Your curb appeal ought to be a reflection of your house. It presents the best sales surface available.

Considerations For Outdoor Space & Landscape Design

The first issue to consider is what are the trees on your land now. Where are they and how big are they? When a new home is built, a thorough check is made of the tree growth on your property before the clearances are purchased. Usually the home buyer will have the clearance to purchase the tree growth, of course they want the growth in place. These trees are usually rated by mature size, and depending on your specific location and home style these mature sizes could come as big or small accordingly. Trees alone may account for upwards of 25% of your home’s roof.

Soil Type

The next issue is the soil type, drainage and the types of plants growing there. Soil types such as sand and clay can both be advantageous and negative depending on your landscaping goals. Clay can make a great area for lawn and landscaping but certain shrubs and trees thrive in clay versus sand. Sandier soil is great all around, especially for effective drainage.

Sun & Shade Ratios

Is your property surrounded by dense woods and forest? Or is it wide open with hardly any trees? The terrain also can play a factor in this as well. Because the shrubs that are planted in certain locations must be carefully planned based on the individual needs of the shrub or tree. Some prefer more shade while others require full sun all day long.

Budget

Once you have a general idea of what you want to accomplish with your plants, the next step is your budget. Whether it is a mere $1,000 or $100,000. It is important to know your top price limit for the project, allowing you to better understand what your options are.

Plan ahead for weather, sunlight, soil type and what plants will see the best year round. Choose plants according to maintenance requirements and design goals and you are sure to have the best landscape design in the neighborhood.

 

A Business That Operates on Autopilot

When it comes to building a business, far too many out there seem to do it the hard way. They build a crazy elaborate business and all the end up with is an over complicated job that provides no freedom whatsoever. They will start a construction company, or bet the farm on starting a restaurant or a bar. Those are high risk endeavors! Talk about laying it out on the line!

Building An Automated Online Business

When it comes to building a business that will actually produce money for you while do not have to actively work, the internet is the place to go. One example of this is pay per call marketing, also referred to as local affiliate marketing and lead generation marketing. This video explains how pay per call works:

The Rundown On A Pay Per Call/Lead Business

These are very simple businesses. You build a website that is impactful and is all about a local business service, if you’re a beginner you’ll target 1 city and service with this site, such as Little Rock, AR lawn care. Then rank that website for for that keyword and its variants. The monetization comes by placing a phone number on your website in several locations such as the header, main menu, in the text content, on buttons in the content and in your footer. When a visitor finds your website when searching for “lawn services in Little Rock” for example, they click on the phone number and are either directed to 2 locations.

  1. Pay Per Call/Lead Affiliate Network – this company is essentially a broker who will purchase information (contact form submissions received from affiliates’ websites) and phone calls. They have a network of clients who will buy the leads. These leads are in thousands of niches across the globe. Some of the most common and profitable ones are home services, such as plumbing, HVAC, landscaping, pest control and more. Hence the term pay per call affiliate, or pay per lead affiliate.
  2. Sell the leads directly to a local business – you as an affiliate SEO marketer take the position of the aforementioned affiliate network except you will be the one collecting the larger checks from the local business. However, you must manage the relationship with the client, pay for your own phone numbers & call tracking, and invoice them and of course obtain the client to begin with. This is lead generation marketing.

So this business model is essentially a hybrid of affiliate marketing and lead generation, another phrase for it is “online billboards”, “digital real estate entrepreneurship” and more. One interesting facet about these websites is that as they age and are profitable, they can be sold for upwards of 20-35x the monthly profit to a digital real estate “investor”.

The decision of what you want to do with your monetization strategy is up to you and whichever works best for you.

The beauty of these businesses is that once your website is ranking, it takes very little maintenance, and since the leads are coming in on their own, this frees up your time to do other things, such as build more websites, or enjoy leisure time.

This website also teaches about pay per call strategies: mattwacek.com.

To get more information about how to build a pay per call website, affiliate marketing SEO website, or lead generation marketing website, this video explains it all:

Life Can Throw Curve Balls At Times

By bringing the phrase curve balls into the conversation, I am not referring to baseball and having fun playing ball with the team or friends. The matter of grass being blown onto the street can have an effect passersby such as bicycles, pedestrians and especially motorcyclists.

Dangers of Grass Clippings on the Road or Pathway

Far too many hack down their lawn and do not care about it impacting anyone else. They could care less about their lawn and when they finally knock down the grass after it has been growing for six weeks without being cut, they just spray the clippings onto the road. Whether this is deliberately done or due to a serious lack of awareness, it poses a big danger and it must be handled properly. Any one that is walking, jogging, riding a bike or motorcycle through an area where there is grass on pavement is at risk for falling or crashing.

The danger lies within the grass being wet. During the overnight, the moisture content of the air increases, and it abides to the grass. When this happens, a layer of dew forms and the blades of grass are wet. Depending on how tall the grass is, this moisture may not evaporate from the blades of grass all day, even during direct sunlight, especially if it is humid or the grass is incredibly tall. cutting the lawn to avoid clippings in the road

What happens when the grass is cut at a high rate of speed from a lawn mower blade, is that the moisture then gets dispersed all over the clippings. Wet clippings on pavement add an element of material between the road surface and the runner or motorcyclist. Road surface is normally grippy for tires on a bike or motorcycle, or the shoes on a runner moving at a high rate of speed, but wet grass prevents those shoes or tires from gripping to the surface. Enough volume of wet grass can cause the pavement area to be as slippery as an ice rink. Talk about danger.

Prevention Is Key

Opinions on this matter scatter across the board. Motorcyclists whose lives could be in danger are generally angry about this, whereas homeowners who want to hack down their yard three times per growing season and “call it good”, do not care about anyone but themselves it appears.

A lawn care service in Stillwater, MN mentioned the technique that is employed by their crews to mow every lawn with one or two passes around the perimeter of the property on their mowers with the discharge chute pointing in towards the lawn. This is not only much safer for the roads and sidewalks, but also reduces the potential for damage to occur to cars driving by the property or pedestrians walking by because the mower deck chutes never point towards them during that time. It also saves them time on every property because their crews do not need to spend time blowing clippings off the street or sidewalk.

They explained their process in-depth in this video:

Another tip that a homeowner could employ, if they have the right mower for the job, is if clippings are blown into the street and they are too lazy to grab a blower to blow it back into the turf, they can drive their mower in reverse with the chute pointing towards the lawn. With blades spinning wide open, unless the turf is completely wet, nearly all of it will blow back into the yard. Saving time and making for a safer environment. An ounce of prevention goes a long way.

Autumn’s Arrival Means A Change In Pace

September has arrived and that means it is time for relaxing, enjoying whiskey and watching football as the leaves begin to fall. However, with leaves beginning to fall, means your lawn turns into a mess, especially if you have a lot of trees or at least some large ones on your property. As you watch the players toss the ball you can see the leaves start to fall, especially once the cold overnight temperatures arrive.

The last thing you want to be doing when the game is on and you are about to chug some whiskey after seeing your team score a game winning touchdown is raking the leaves in the yard. Talk about a buzzkill, literally. Because then you have to get rid of the piles of raked up leaves by either putting them into bags and bringing them to the compost or hiring a company to haul them away.

Handling This Mess of Leaves

My go to choice for handling leaves is hiring a company to get the job done. A local provider of leaf removal services, I got a local lawn man to get the task handled each week – they offer the service in many areas but really hone in on Leaf Removal Champlin. Since they are local to that area, they informed me of a weekly pickup service they are able to start when come by each week to mow. They bag up all the debris as the cut the grass so it’s a win win for everyone. More money for the company and relaxing whiskey time and football for me.

Cost of Removing Leaves

When you are talking about a job that is the magnitude of removing leaves from a property, it requires some serious equipment. Therefore there is a serious cost to removing leaves. It is best to check out this guide for leaf removal costs, then run it by the local guys to see what he charges and see if you can throw in some drinks to maybe lower the cost of the job. But even if you do have to pay a couple hundred bucks, compared to spending three weeks raking every night after work, it is worth it 100%.

How Frozen Pipes Can Ruin The Weekend

Weekends, especially in the winter are all about one thing, enjoying that whiskey and other drinks that are cold weather friendly. But if something like a pipe burst happens and all the sudden your basement is completely flooded to due a heater failure, then you have a problem.

How To Prevent Pipes From Bursting

Every winter in the regions where temperatures drop below freezing, this can be a problem. If you leave town for a weekend and your heat is not turned on high enough or there is a malfunction – it is game over.

“A flooded basement is nothing to laugh at – it is truly a mess, can cause mold and is expensive to clean up.” says Twin Cities Plumber Co, a 24 Hour Plumber in Minneapolis. And they are correct.

You can leave a faucet dripping or just barely running to prevent freezing in the event of low temperatures, because moving water freezes at a lower temperature than still water. This is why lakes are frozen while rivers continue to run all winter. By keeping the faucet on, you keep the water moving.

Why This Happens

One of the top reasons this happens is because people have become cheapskates. They turn down or turn off their heater to unheard of levels, especially when going out of town for a period of time. This can spell disaster in the event of a leak or failure.

The best solution to this is ensuring all your pipes are insulated. Throughout the entire home, this can be expensive but it is essentially an extension of insurance because you will know your pipes are protected. This could prevent damages that measure up to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.

If you plan to leave for any duration, the next thing to do would be to turn off the water in your home. This can reduce the fear and anxiety that comes with leaving your home and is particularly savvy to do during the winter if you want to escape the cold but come home to your house and not seeing a flooded basement due to a frozen or burst pipe.

That Lawn Care and Whiskey Life

When it comes to your home or business, the landscaping is extremely important because not only does it increase the value of the property, it’s the first thing your guests see besides the color of your home or business.  Keep these in mind when hiring a professional lawn man or landscape builder:

  • Make sure they install strong edging that can withstand being walked on or possibly hit with a lawn mower
  • Install a drip irrigation system in all landscape beds – this will save time and money by allowing your plants, perennials, and flowers to be watered automatically
  • Install mulch every year – mulch retains moisture for plants and enhances the look of your home’s landscaping
  • Make sure your lawn drains properly – use extra soil to raise the level of the lawn near structures so water will wash away from it
  • Consider how much sunlight your lawn receives each day – this will greatly affect the type of shrubs, trees, and perennials that can be installed

Backyard Landscaping Makes For Great Parties

Instead of leaving town on the weekends, many stay home and want to enjoy their elegant landscaping at their home in their backyard.  If this is you, then you need to hire a professional lawn care provider and landscaper.  Projects as small as simple planting beds with shrubs, edging, and mulch can be done.  All the way up to vast projects such as paver patios with a freestanding wall to sit on around an outdoor fire place with a waterfall as a backdrop.  The possibilities are truly endless.  Imagine not having to hurry up to get home from work on Friday to head out of town to enjoy peace and serenity because it’s now in your backyard.  You will be the envy of the neighborhood and all the neighbors will want to spend weekends at your home grilling and enjoying a bonfire.  Many of these projects can be maintenance free since they are hard-scapes and require minimum upkeep.

Finding The Best Company To Handle The Lawn Work Can Be Tough

Finding the best landscaper and lawn service can be a daunting task. Every large city has hundreds if not thousands of contractors that offer everything from design and construction of entire projects such as paver patios, outdoor kitchens, and retaining walls for homes and businesses alike. Their prices will also vary as well, the approximate costs are anywhere from $1,000 to $50,000 or more. Lawn mowing prices are also across the board as well. It is best to seek out resources to qualify your chosen company before making the decision to write that check for their services. 

Bringing About New Life In The New Year

As it is officially a couple weeks into the new year, we couldn’t be happier because when it is bitter cold in the middle of January, that means prime weekends away from home with plenty of alcohol and whiskey are afloat. And speaking of afloat, we can’t wait to be floating on a boat, on a lake, when it’s 90 degrees and hot out, babes in bikinis and the last care in the world is cutting my lawn.a lawn man working

But seriously, let’s think about this for a second. If you’re a person who has their head on straight.

Hiring For Lawn Care

How on Earth does it make any sense to spend an entire weekend spraying weeds, installing mulch, or heck – even when it’s January – I would rather watch playoff football with a whiskey coke in my hand, then be slaving away shoveling trying to remove the snow from my driveway! Then come Super Bowl time, that’s when the party really gets going.

But anyway, once summer time hits and those ice cold beers come out, there is nothing better than packing up for the weekend and forgetting about the sixty hour workweek than to get out to the lake and drink until we forget what we came there to forget. And that is saying something. When I figured out how to hire a lawn care company and landscaper, it was instantly the saying of “Here, take my money!” I’m out of here was my next thought.

Getting More Free Time on Weekends

Those guys get the work done during the while I am slaving for the bossman (but hey, I am able to afford to live and have whiskey on the weekends so who is complaining?), and come weekend time, there is no outdoor work that needs to be done on my property. So I can spend the next 48ish hours getting totally wasted and forgetting everything. I love it.

If you have the financial wherewithal and capability to be able to hire a contractor for the hard work around your house, please, for the sake of your sanity – do it!

 

Weekends Mean Only One Thing

If you have ever spent your entire weekend slaving away in the yard like many have faced you will be the first to appreciate a cold one or whiskey after the project is complete.

But for many millennials that are becoming homeowners, the projects are in their hands. However they’re consistently straying away from building retaining walls, fences, and decks and even outsourcing the routine work like driveway shoveling and mowing the lawn to a lawn care and landscaping company.  Millennials may not understand it, but they use the concept of leverage, which in this instance would be utilizing someone else’s labor at a rate lower than the rate at which they earn to allow tasks to be completed. Similar to running a business where the owner delegates these tasks to laborers and managers.

professional lawn service cutting the grass

‘Working Smart’ Rather Than ‘Working Hard’

Far too many from the “baby boomer” and similar generations are infatuated with this concept of “work hard”, rather than employing some technology into the picture and drastically reducing the amount of time that has to be spent doing something that a person doesn’t enjoy, and worse yet, having to do these labor intensive activities during the time off that get from their busy job during the week. The obsession of working hard for the sake of working hard, which in today’s day and age, hardly pays anything if your profession does not require your brain to use its power beyond basic movement type labor tasks.

Labor Intensive?

Therefore the baby boomer statement’s merit should be thrown out the window.

Why should someone strive to be a hard worker when they can do what they need to do for their living and outsource the rest of a company that is a professional. Allowing them to be optimized for their main goals. Seems foolish to do anything else. This has been a bit of a rant but needed. It is much more enjoyable to be out getting wasted on whiskey over the weekend at an establishment’s patio with a bunch of drunk members of the opposite sex, instead of pretending to try to look like the “tough guy” who digs holes, and gets dirty building something that hiring a professional can do the proper way in a fraction of the time and whom offers a warranty should something go wrong.

Ask yourself this – would you build a car on your own from scratch, if it meant saving a few thousand dollars?

 

Taking Back Our Weekends From Landscaping Projects

If you’re as much of a weekend enthusiast as I am, you’ll recognize the amount of time that’s wasted on a home landscaping project when it could be spent… getting wasted enjoying too much whiskey in our hometown with our friends, for lack of a better way to describe it.

The Time Drawback of Home Landscape Projects

Think about it. Let’s say you want to build a paver patio in your backyard. An average sized patio for most residential dwellings is probably twelve feet by twelve feet, yes there are variables but hear me out. That’s one hundred forty four square feet. If on average, according to most professional landscaping companies a paver patio build will take about three quarters of a man hour, per square foot for the project.

With one hundred forty four square feet, that’s about one hundred eight man hours. If you were to do the right thing and hire a professional paver patio builder this could cost upwards of $7,500 depending on a company’s going rate. However, would you like to spend a backbreaking one hundred eight hours building a patio!? Keep in mind, these time rates are for a professionally trained crew. If you’re the guy that gets obliterated on whiskey each weekend, it’ll take you double the time! At spending twenty hours per weekend on the project, that’s at least six weekends, ten hours per day spent on this project.

So half of your summer swallowed up because you chose to pinch pennies. Because remember, if you do it yourself – there’s no warranty on the product, or the most important part which is the labor and improper installation can cause disaster to strike with not only the patio itself falling apart but wrong slope could push water into your basement. You’re talking tens of thousands of dollars at that rate. Who’s the sucker now?

The Better Option To Do It Yourself Landscaping

All things aside, the kings of the world that lay around making money while sipping scotch, whiskey, and beer are the last ones you’ll see slaving away in the backyard trying to build a patio, wall or whatever else. They know when to hire the professionals to do whatever task it may be, so that when the weekend comes, they can enjoy it the proper way – with an ice cold glass of whiskey.

I suggest you do the same. 6 weekends burned up and having to fix mistakes by yourself or pay a contractor to come fix the mistakes or $7,500 just one single time, the choice is yours and it’s painfully obvious.

Keeping The Outdoors Beautiful In All Areas of The Country

When it comes to keeping a high quality of life in the home, few things are as important as the outdoor area. The overall curb appeal is massively effected by the way a house looks. And when a house looks good, its inhabitants are even more happy, without the need of false happiness creators such as alcohol like whiskey.  Which can be quite detrimental to a human’s life and overall morale within the home.

Caring For The Lawn When It Matters Most

All things aside from binge drinking and/or enjoying alcohol. Having a nicely kept home is very important for making the neighbors look jealous. And there is not a better way to ensure an amazing looking home like having a nice lush green lawn. An example of a great looking lawn is shown below.

perfectly mowed lawn

You can see the deepness of the green turf, showing the immense amount of nitrogen that’s used for fertilizing to keep grass in that green state all season long. If you’re able to achieve this same look on your own property, then you have it made! Seriously, every single neighbor will be jealous as can be that your lawn looks that good. It’s not out of line to say the grass looks better than a major league baseball stadium’s outfield!

Even better, if you were to hire a professional groundskeeping service, you won’t have to do any of the hard work to have your home achieve this look. Talk about a win, win situation for all involved. You are able to laugh at your neighbors and enjoy some whiskey or whatever your alcoholic beverage of choice is, while they are out slaving away cutting the lawn, spreading fertilizer, and trimming shrubs. And then, a great local business is receiving the benefit of another client, also known as more revenue and more exposure for their business.

Make Fun, Then Ask How You Did It

The old adage of doing something different, getting a bunch of flack for peers, and then after results arrive, they ask “how did you do it?”. It reigns true in many aspects of life and outdoor lawn and landscape maintenance is no stranger to it in most neighborhoods throughout the USA. If you decide to go against the grain of the typical working man who takes too much pride in his “hard work” of mowing and fertilizing his own place each week and decide to hire a lawn care company like Fresh Cut Turf Pros or whomever is local to your area.

You’ll be the butt of every joke when you go out for beers and whiskey at the local watering establishment. That is until, these types of companies do the work and you keep the lawn watered, then one day coming home from work your not-so-nice neighbors’ jaws drop at the depth of green in your lawn.

Meanwhile, you’ll be inside relaxing with a cold one and while the neighbor fires up his mower to get the old weekend routine started with beers and mowing. Life is just grand isn’t it?