© 2003 Wendy Dager

A long time ago, in a land not too far away, a man had a beat-up old pickup truck with a shovel and a couple of plants tossed into the back. All he had to do was use the shovel to make a hole in the ground, stick in his plants, and add a little water. Then he could stand back and see how beautiful it all became.

The man didn’t have to worry about best management practices, invasive exotic weeds, erosion control or pesticide effectiveness.

Life was good and mostly uncomplicated. But it wasn’t going to stay that way forever.

View From the Trenches

David Snow of the Thousand Oaks, California-based English Arbor Landscape company knows all about the changing climate of the landscape profession. Snow, 43, has been in the business since 1979 and has seen its evolvution firsthand. Among its changes is an ever-growing list of insects that are harmful to plant life.

"There’s a lot more pest control going on than there ever was," said Snow. "There are so many different things that attack plants and trees. The big one is the whitefly, which has been gaining strength in the last couple of years."

The silverleaf whitefly has caused serious economic losses in the southern desert valleys of California and has also caused economic damage in greenhouses throughout the United States.

Because of the whitefly and other pests such as the glassy-winged sharpshooter (See the Best of the Leaf-let, www.albrightseed.com/piercesdisease.htm), some landscapers are taking new career paths.

"The landscape business has become more specialized," said Snow. There are some people that just do ornamental pest control."

But, according to Snow, that’s not the only area in which landscape contractors are expected to be proficient.

"It used to be that a landscape contractor would come in and do your sprinklers and your lawn and plant a few trees," said Snow. "Now you have to install a waterfall or other custom things."

Where folks were once content to have a nice green lawn and a few shrubs, homeowners of today prefer to mimic the complex landscape designs they see in magazines or on television.

Today’s contractor has to be something of a landscaping superhero—part gardener, part stonemason, and part designer—in order to meet the requirements of a Martha Stewart-savvy and décor-oriented public.

"People have more refined tastes and they know there are better products available than there used to be," said Snow. "The difference is that many landscape companies do more than just lawn—they sell the whole package."

Still, there are some things that haven’t changed much at all.

"I can buy a 15-gallon tree and pay almost what I paid for it in 1983," said Snow. "The only thing that’s gone up—besides the cost of automobiles—is labor, along with the cost of insuring labor—and that’s an expense you can’t live without."

Labor Pains

But rising insurance costs are just one of the difficulties facing a typical landscape contractor, according to Larry Rohlfes, Assistant Executive Director of the California Landscape Contractors Association (CLCA). While the CLCA has made strides during its 50 years, including providing insurance packages for its members, it can do little to assist them with an economy that reflects the inconsistencies of the job’s payscale.

"The workforce has changed a lot in the last 20 to 30 years," said Rohlfes. "It’s much harder to find qualified people, whether we’re talking about management positions or just day-to-day labor."

Part of the problem is that fewer students are receiving degrees in ornamental horticulture, said Rohlfes, citing lower enrollment at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, well-known for its horticulture and crop science department. Students’ love of the science is overshadowed by the reality of being unable to make a living, which, in turn, is leading to a dearth of those qualified to fill landscape industry management positions.

"Then, on the unskilled side of things, nobody wants to do that work, so companies are relying on immigrant labor," said Rohlfes.

In the landscape industry, utilizing immigrant labor is commonplace.

"The reason we’re having a hard time paying our workers what we’d like to pay them is because of the underground economy," he said. "Landscape maintenance is a fairly easy thing to get into as a business—all you need is a truck and a lawnmower and a blower—and you can do it legally. That sort of thing makes it so hard for our licensed contractor members to get what they should get from the job."

In addition, many in the underground economy don’t bother to pay for expensive permits that licensed contractors are often required to have by law for certain job sites.

The Customer is Always Right

Also problematic for the landscape contractor is that current regulations favor the consumer if a dispute arises.

"There are a lot more laws protecting the consumer than there were 15, 20, 25 years ago. It’s very difficult to comply with the law—there are so many more forms and notices and paperwork," said Rohlfes. "The Contractors State License Board is more aggressive than it used to be in protecting the consumer."

Yet, landscape contractors continue to work toward bettering the industry by staying abreast of environmental advances.

"There’s a lot more knowledge about water requirements, turf, plants, and much more sophisticated irrigation systems," he said.

S&S Seeds understands the changes the industry has faced through the years and is happy to provide assistance with all your landscape requirements. Just call (805) 684-0436 and we’ll be glad to help make your job a lot easier.

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