Too often as business owner’s we sometimes take our “eye off the mark”. The “mark” for every service business is, and will always be, the customer. We create systems for our employees, systems for maintenance on equipment and trucks, and systems for profitability. But we don’t always create a system for capturing customer satisfaction. A system is a group of interacting or interrelated entities that form a unified whole. In a business, we are “a system of systems” essentially. Let me break that down: The Main System – All roads lead back to Rome – in this case Bolton Lawn Care. Management Sy ..read more

Time Of Year: February February is easily the slowest month of the year for landscapers in PA. We have been lucky with a few snow storms to keep us busy, but snow at the end of February (or worse March), only delays the Spring season. We have a classic double-edged sword situation right now; revenue coming in during February is great, but the continuation of it will lead to delays and bottlenecks in our spring cleanup schedule. In February of 2020, we had extremely mild wealth and not one snow event. In fact it was so mild, that the first mulch job we did was the first week of March. February ..read more

This past year, our company picked up two Toro Grandstand models from our local dealer. We thought writing a review of the Toro Grandstand would be very useful for other landscapers. We had previously owned a Gravely ProTurn 160, and decided to trade that in for our first Grandstand. Fast forward to two months later, we were already buying our second Toro Grandstand! We have no affiliation with Toro, but somehow over the years have ended up with almost all Toro mowers in our fleet. I am really impressed with the quality of build that Toro makes for all of their mowers, whether it’s the Toro Ti ..read more

Tulip Background          Tulips are a beautiful and vibrantly colorful addition to any garden. This perennial flower is indigenous to the arid areas of the Asian continent. While wild tulips are mostly various shades of yellow and red, you can now find a wide variety of color shades that would perfectly compliment your garden. With tulips being a vivacious perennial flower, they will come back after every winter during the growing season. With relatively low maintenance, tulips can be an easy and rewarding flowery pop of color in any garden! This articl ..read more

Trying to identify the most common lawn diseases can be a challenge. This guide was created to give the knowledge on how to identify lawn diseases. After reading this article you will be able to identify: Does my lawn have a disease, which lawn disease, which course of action should be followed, and most importantly, how to prevent lawn diseases from coming back. Just like a three legged bar stool cannot stand if it is missing one of it’s legs, a disease cannot develop in a lawn if it is missing any of the three elements. The Right Environment A Pathogen Susceptible Turf Grass The Right Envi ..read more

In this guide, you’ll learn about the most common lawn pests and how to control them. Insects that damage turf grass can be categorized into two groups: Surface Pests and Subsurface Pests. Surface pests, as you can guess, feed on turf grass above the surface of the plant and can easily be seen. These include chinch bugs, sod webworms, armyworms and cutworms. Subsurface pests are trickier to identify, and feed below the surface on the roots of healthy turf grass. These include white grubs and billbug larvae. For the purpose of this article, we are going to identify the most common surface pests ..read more

Identifying The Most Common Weeds In Pennsylvania In this article, we have created the ultimate guide to broadleaf weed identification and the most common weeds in Pennsylvania turf grass. Although this post is focused on Pennsylvania turf grass, this guide is also useful for the surrounding states. Before coming up with a broadleaf weed management plan for your turf, we recommend you refer back to this article to make sure you have correctly identified the weeds in question. Spraying the wrong chemicals can be devastating to your lawn, and to more importantly to our environment. Rosette/Uprig ..read more

In a feature from US News which they do every year, their formula stated landscapers and grounds keepers ranked #1 in best maintenance and repair jobs. This probably comes as no surprise to anyone in the green industry, considering most of us got into the industry for the love of what we do! In addition to being ranked #1 in the best maintenance and repair jobs category, landscaper and groundskeeper was also ranked #4 in the best jobs without a college degree category. This came as somewhat of a shock to me considering the fact that in the top 10 of this category, only two of the occupations w ..read more

We decided to write a Ryan Lawnaire V Aerator review after purchasing one this past year. The price point for this unit is around $3,400 before taxes. We purchased the 36″ Ryan Lawnaire V Aerator with Easy Steer Technology, which is the biggest walk behind unit they make. Let’s start with the pro’s and the con’s of this aerator. Ryan Lawnaire V Pro’s Very Fast – This unit has awesome speed and can aerate an acre of land in under an hour – resulting in great efficiency for a business. Easy Steer Technology – The easy steer technology doesn’t allow you to make full speed turns with the tines in ..read more

After having put 350 hours on the Gravely Proturn 60 this year with our company, I feel confident in giving a detailed review on the mower. Let’s start with the pro’s: Long day of use during wet conditions! Built like a Tank – This mower can take a beating and will hold up when it comes to daily wear and tear. Smooth Ride – The air suspension seat is unnecessary (given the extra $1000 cost associated with it). The standard factory model seat was awesome and never left your back feeling sore. Good Speed – Not Gravely’s fastest model (I believe 8mph is its top speed) but did not disappoint from ..read more