Lawn & Landscape
Employee of the Year - Cover Story: Sean Blair • Legendary Landscaping
Sean Blair’s affinity for fitness lets him lead crews through back-breaking work with expertise and empathy.
Tommy Bursi, owner of Buford, Georgia-based Legendary Landscaping, admits that Sean Blair was “pretty green” when he brought him into the green industry back in 2018. Nowadays, Blair is Bursi’s go-to guy and second in command, serving as the company’s senior project manager.
Bursi says its Blair’s dependability and driven nature that make him such a standout and a shoo-in for this award.
“Sean is always going to do the right thing,” he says. “Sean is going to be reliable and trustworthy and all those great character traits that we all aspire to have.”
Lawn & Landscape
Crews at Earth Effects Outdoor Living are fairly tech-forward and have learned to embrace labor management software.
Photo courtesy of Earth Effects Outdoor Living
In today’s world, business owners are looking to technology to solve their everyday problems and help streamline operations.
Nate Moses, CEO of Precision Landscape Management, in Greenville, S.C., says good labor management software can be one of the most essential tools for a landscaping company.
“Like the CRM that you use for your business, it’s very involved and the more involved you are in it, the more you get out of it,” he says. “You have to utilize it almost on a daily basis to get the most out of it.”
Lawn & Landscape
Features - Irrigation
Drip irrigation has become more commonplace in recent years, and irrigation companies are keeping up by designing more products to increase efficiency and ease installation.
Photo courtesy of Enviroscape LA
An increasing global population, droughts and a move toward more sustainable options throughout the industry has led to drip irrigation becoming more popular.
Because of this, irrigation companies are working to provide products that are more advanced, environmentally friendly and speed up installation time for contractors.
Benefits beyond saving water.
The primary advantage of drip irrigation is ultimately water conservation.
“It’s the most efficient form of irrigation because it’s putting water directly where it’s needed,” says Peter Lackner, product manager at Toro. “And that’s especially true of subsurface irrigation where it’s putting water directly at the root level.”
Lawn & Landscape
Features - Cover Story
Building a solid business infrastructure has positioned Matt Lyum and Performance Landscapes to grow thoughtfully, train thoroughly and deliver quality.
Photo courtesy of Performance LAndscapes
“I guess the new word of the year is pivot,” says Matt Lyum, president of Honolulu, Hawaii-based Performance Landscapes. He started the company in 2002 when he drew up a three-year cash flow projection, personnel policy, safety manual and job descriptions. Admittedly, the number-crunching before he hired a single employee was not business-as-usual for the industry, particularly in his market. “Most people thought it was overkill, but it set us on a path of growth,” he says.