My secret
Today I’m revealing for the first time the secret to my blog’s traffic, tongue-in-cheek, of course. Jorge is a young apprentice I know who tried really hard to get better when I first met him years ago. But of course, all new landscapers make mistakes in the field. That’s quite normal. So, we take them and train them into landscape beasts, which takes time.
Then, over time, I noticed that Jorge’s field mistakes made for great blog post ideas. Some were published here and some elsewhere. I’m not proud of it, but sometimes I would delay the delivery of my tips just so I could photograph and catalog the mistakes. Jorge was a gold mine of blog post ideas and I knew he could make me rich.
Frost
Frost is one example. In lawn care we ask people to avoid stepping on frosty lawns because it damages the blades. Frosty grass contains less water and oxygen. It is thus way more brittle and stepping on brittle grass blades damages them.
The same principle works with shrub tissues in winter. When I arrived on site one winter day, Jorge was busily hand pruning an Escallonia shrub that wouldn’t make it to spring. So, this became one more field lesson. Pruning frosty shrubs in winter gets the timing wrong. And timing is critical for good pruning. Pruning in frosty winter conditions is almost synonymous with injury.
Fast forward to 2022
Jorge is now heading into the New Year as an experienced landscaper, looking for more responsibility and higher pay. He didn’t do well on his first go through the apprenticeship program but he might try it again later. For now he benefits from our interactions in the field. It’s clear that he’s trainable; and I’m happy to train all enthusiastic apprentices.
Clearly, his improvement is directly proportional to the number of hours we spend together in the field. Sadly, I can’t say the same thing about the Spanish he’s teaching me. I recently found out that my Spanish wasn’t fit for print. Anywhere. Unless I wanted to fill out a gang application.
Blog idea generation
Working as a landscaper is a great bonus for landscape bloggers but ideas are everywhere. I find them in the field, newspapers, magazines, online, and from books. Write them down in a notebook daily and use the best ideas first.
Working with Jorge has been great. He’s a great sport. He knows I’m kidding, and I know that his mistakes will keep on making me money. So, this year I gave him a new mug that will soon be available for purchase on this website.
Be great!
