For those with prized lawns, deer control services can keep them at bay, but it’s far from a foolproof solution.

“If deer are desperate enough, they will eat anything,” says Eric Taylor, division manager with Lynch Plant Healthcare of Sudbury, Massachusetts.

Joe Markell, president of Sunrise Landscape + Design in Sterling, Virginia, says controlling deer has become more difficult in recent years.

“They’ve gotten a lot more aggressive in the past several years,” he says. “Maybe because they are being pushed out of their natural habitat, they’re trying more stuff that before they wouldn’t touch.”

Heightened herds. For Taylor, his clients have noticed an uptick in the deer population.

“We live in a sweet spot between where there’s a ton of deer and an affluent client base who would pay for the service,” he says. “This area we’re in has been developed for the last 10-15 years or more. The population used to be kept down more because there were more hunters.”

While deer are being driven out of the woods, Markell says they are desperate to find a safe space.

“It’s ease of access,” he says. “Most of these plants are planted in the open yard. They feel safe in these places. Deer are opportunists. They go where it’s easy to get to.”

Establish expectations.

Taylor and Markell both make it a point to tell their clients that there is no silver bullet when it comes to repelling deer.

“I think it’s probably the most challenging service to offer well,” Taylor says. “If you are able to dial in a turf care program by testing products, you can really offer it with 100% confidence and great control. This isn’t foolproof. There is a different way you have to pitch it to your customers. You have to start off by managing expectations. You cannot guarantee that they won’t have any deer on their property. A lot of times, the deer have to try to eat the plant to realize they don’t want to be eating this.”

Markell says that deer control only makes up a small portion of his company’s business.

“It’s pretty small for us,” he says. “I’d say we do about a dozen or so. Those are people with highly prized lawns who are willing to pay. I have a few customers who have herds of 20 or 30 deer come across their properties. If you treat, they might move on to others around you if they don’t like the taste.”

Taylor says utilizing sprays and physical deterrents can be a great combination.

“You have to pitch the service as, ‘We’re going to do a bunch of different things that are all tools in our tool belt,’” he says. “Not one is going to be the only thing you need, but all together you can make an effective plan. If their plant material is important to them, and they want to invest the money in it, being on a deer repellent program is excellent. If you’re doing the repellents and netting then that’s better.”

When it comes to providing the service, Taylor says mixing up which products you use can be helpful.

“We have products that work good but if we use it six times, the deer will build up a tolerance for it if they’re desperate enough,” he says. “You have to be one step ahead of the deer.”

Markell says his company is always testing different products and sees varying success.

“We still do some spraying, but it’s been very hit or miss,” he says. “Sometimes it works and sometimes they power through it. We’re sampling some now that are systemic, meaning the root takes it up and the plant itself tastes bitter. We haven’t seen any success from it yet, but it’s early so we can’t really say.”

Markell and Taylor say common ingredients in deer repellents include egg-based products and cayenne pepper.

Seasons changing can also have an impact on which products work best.

“There are different products for different seasons because of the way they browse and the growth habits of the plants,” Markell says. “In the winter, if there is a prized plant we know is susceptible, we might put netting over it. You really can’t see it, but it keeps them from eating all the foliage. In the fall, we can get away with one or two fungicide applications. In other seasons, you’ve got to do it monthly. It has to be very regular.”

Taylor says being extra vigilant in the wintertime can also be useful.

“Throughout the year, we’re able to have good success,” he says. “During the winter, it’s different. In the wintertime, you really need to be proactive and get an application down before it snows. If you really want great control, you might have to go out through the winter to reapply.”

“Deer are opportunists. They go where it’s easy to get to.” Joe Markell, president of Sunrise Landscape + Design

Fence it in.

“The treatments will deter them, but it might not stop them completely,” Markell says. “You’ve got to make sure people understand that. If they care that much, they need to think about fencing. The best success we’ve ever had is putting up a seven-foot fence around the whole property.”

Markell suggests a height of seven feet for a fence, as deer will be able to jump anything lower. He also recommends staking the bottom and having the fence around the entire perimeter of the property.

In addition to fencing, deer netting is another tool to keep plants safe. Markell says the two options are ideal for homeowners who prefer to keep their lawns free of chemicals.

“If you don’t want to use any kinds of chemicals or deterrents, you’ve got to fence it or net it at least,” he says. “You have to put a physical barrier up because nothing else will keep them out.”

Find a good fit.

Another natural solution is planting deer-resistant plants.

“We certainly recommend deer-resistant plants,” Taylor says. “You’ve got to find the ones that appeal to the customers.”

Both Taylor and Markell recommend hollies as an effective option. Other deer-resistant plants they recommend include lilacs, boxwoods and daffodils.

“You’ve got to fit the right plant to the right place in terms of conditions,” Markell says. “It all depends on what the customer is looking for. You can be limited. People want flowering plants, but that’s usually what they eat first.”

Taylor suggests staying away from arborvitaes and rhododendrons. “They eat those like crazy,” he says.

Be prepared.

Before adding deer control as a service, Taylor says make sure your business utilizes reliable scheduling software.

“More important than anything, you have to have a good scheduling software so you’re there at the times you need to be there,” he says.

“It’s not like tick or mosquito control where you’re late but the day after you get there and do the application, you won’t see any ticks or mosquitos. With deer repellent, if we get a call that we weren’t there in time, the damage has been done. The plants have been eaten.”

Taylor recommends having a good inventory of backpack sprayers or a spray truck can also be useful.

Markell says establishing a good relationship with a supplier can also be useful, especially if you plan to install fencing.

“You need a good supplier where you can get everything you need,” he says. “They’ll have the post and fencing itself and some of the tools to make the install successful.”

When his company first started sanitizing homes, Justin Berg says he immediately realized the powerful effect of helping during the COVID-19 crisis.

A man contacted the Texas-based Purple Care, which provides landscaping and pest control services, about sanitizing his mother’s home. She had recently died from the novel coronavirus, and he needed to retrieve belongings from her house and find closure after her death. Berg sent his director of pest control and a technician, who quickly got certified in the state of Texas by completing two classes on sanitization.

“When someone passes, there’s a lot of paperwork and it’s also very painful to go through emotionally,” he says. “The guy was able to go back into a house he did not feel safe or comfortable going back in. This poor guy needs closure, he just lost his mother. We’re not trying to prey on that (with our sales), but I’m glad that we could help this guy get him back in that house.”

Through moving swiftly and making sure his team was ready, Berg says they’ve been able to implement a sanitizing service at Purple Care that’s already garnered a handful of clients.

“The way we’re looking at this is, if we can help people, fantastic,” Berg says. “It’s more of what can we do, this is our piece, how can we help?”

The Process.

Berg says the day after Texas started announcing coronavirus-related safety measures in March, his team started asking how they were going to handle it. Berg says that though they were down in March revenue, he had enough work to “keep our guys busy.”

“I’m also not going to complain because a lot of guys out there are doing (zero dollars),” he says. “By no means is it normal, but we’re at least doing some business. I’m taking the blessings as I can, and I know there’s a lot of people out there worse off than us.”

Berg says his returning services were largely put on pause because clients were unsure what was going to happen with their income, and services that Berg says are somewhat luxuries like weed control and pest control all fell. Their salesmen could also no longer go door-to-door, which represents a big chunk of Purple Care’s sales.

But Berg’s team saw an opportunity to help, plus lessen the blow his company would take from the COVID-19 fallout. They already had much of the necessary equipment – face shields, respirators and gloves – because Purple Care offers pest control. The company also already had hand-held, point-and-spray devices that could be repurposed with disinfectant that is non-toxic and can be applied on any surface.

“When this COVID-19 thing is over, we will continue to offer this.” Justin Berg, Purple Care

All they needed was disposable paper hazmat suits and to get the proper licensure from the state. He says the requirements vary from state to state, so checking to ensure a company meets that state’s respective guidelines is a must.

“For some of these states, the limitations are very minimal. The question is going to be, do you have the equipment?” Berg says.

Big Decisions.

Berg says that any interested companies have to determine if they want to send their crews out there in situations where they could be exposed.

“That should be the number one thing you’re looking for,” he says. “Why would I want to put my guys in harm’s way to add to my bottom line? The two things you’ve got to worry about are safety for your people and safety for your clients.”

They dispose of the suits each night and sanitize themselves, plus the equipment, after every stop. Berg says he doesn’t want to risk his crews bringing COVID-19 into someone else’s home, and he reminds anyone interested in sanitization that you never really know where the germs exist.

Though it’s only been offered for a month, Berg says he wishes his team would’ve jumped on this service sooner. COVID-19 could rage on for the foreseeable future, but Berg says Purple Care will continue to offer it long after the chaos settles because there will always be work that needs done.

“There’s some disease and bacteria that are very bad that need to be sanitized, so now we’re going to have a service. When this COVID-19 thing is over, we will continue to offer this. We want to be able to help.”

If creating (or updating) your employee handbook feels more like a chore than an opportunity, you may want to rethink your approach.

“I think a lot of companies think of (writing a handbook) as torture, but they don’t have to be that onerous. They don’t have to be that difficult. And they don’t have to be that time-consuming,” says Christine Soderlund, owner of Soderlund Enterprises, a talent acquisition and strategic sourcing company.

Done correctly, an employee handbook offers a perfect first opportunity for your firm to outline and share a sense of your company culture, values and goals – not to mention providing employees an easily accessible resource that answers common questions about payment procedures, requesting vacation time, workplace protocol and much more.

Here, we offer a few strategies for crafting an employee handbook that’s both user-friendly and engaging, while still including all the necessary information for your current and incoming employees.

Why have a handbook?

There are no laws requiring a business to have an employee handbook, Soderlund says. But, if you don’t, you’re making a misstep.

Think of your employee handbook as an essential pillar in the relationship you’re building with your new employees, says Jason Drent, administration director at DJ’s Landscape Management in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “In conjunction with the job description and offer letter, a handbook helps build a clear, consistent foundation for a productive employer-employee relationship,” he says.

In addition to its role as a relationship-building tool, the handbook can also serve to dispel questions or disputes about workplace policies, often before they happen. As such, it can “protect (both) employees and the business from misperceptions, miscommunications, and the potential for lawsuits,” Soderlund says.

A well-done handbook outlines not just regulations for employees, but also their benefits and protections, from how to request bereavement leave to what to do if they’ve faced workplace harassment. In that way, it offers “not just rules, but also protection to the employee,” says James Hornung Jr., president of Elbers Landscape Service in Buffalo, New York.

Having a professional, engaging handbook that clearly articulates employee benefits, including payment schedules, vacation leave and more can help distinguish your firm from competitors without one. In a tough job market, it can be an important key to luring and retaining skilled employees, Hornung says.

Deciding what to include.

You’ll want to work with experts from your human resources and legal teams when drafting your employee handbook to ensure it includes all the information your firm may be legally required to share. These are based on federal, state and local requirements for businesses of your size and in your location. While no federal guidelines require companies to have an employee handbook, employers may be obligated – depending on applicable statutes – to inform employees in writing about their rights regarding issues such as family medical leave, equal employment, non-discrimination policies, sexual harassment and worker’s compensation, for example.

When working with your team, there’s no need to build your employee handbook from scratch since templates are widely available. Hornung outsources his payroll and human resources management to an HR solutions compan, and therefore receives templates and assistance in crafting his firm’s handbook via their HR experts.

Drent has used templates and employee handbook builders available to members of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Guidelines are also often available via industry trade associations, says Hornung, who is a member of the Sports Turf Managers Association and the New York State Nursery & Landscape Association, among others.

These templates can be helpful in providing a framework of information that you’ll likely want to include, including sections to address basics such as: definitions of employee types (full-time, part-time, and seasonal); attendance policies; work hours, daily breaks and overtime procedures; workplace safety; and an outline of employee benefits, including vacation, sick time, family-medical leave, jury duty and worker’s compensation.

In addition to these general categories, be sure to also include specific workplace policies of your firm, whatever those may be. DJ’s Landscape Management’s employee handbook has a section on its drug-free and smoke-free policies, which prohibit smoking on client properties or in company vehicles.

Similarly, Elbers includes specific guidelines about use of company cell phones and company vehicles, as well as proper uniform attire and social media usage, including a restriction on posting privileged business information online. “Often, when an employee steps out of line, it’s not malicious. It’s just due to lack of awareness,” Hornung says. “So, we try to offer the handbook during our onboarding process and then review it with our employees seasonally to help with that ongoing education process.”

“Often, when an employee steps out of line, it’s not malicious. It’s just due to lack of awareness.” James Hornung Jr., president, Elbers Landscape Service

Setting the right tone.

Begin your handbook with a welcome letter from your company owner or CEO to share “basics about the core value and mission of the organization,” Hornung says.

Having a mission statement at the front of the handbook is essential, Soderlund says. And while this might sound daunting at first, Soderlund makes the task approachable for her clients by asking them to explain why employees should want to work for them instead of their competitors down the street.

While it’s important to cover all the basics, you want the end product to be “as succinct as possible,” Drent says. “You want no more or less than what’s needed, so that your employees embrace the handbook as a resource.”

Soderlund agrees. “If you’re putting out a long, telephone-book-like document that people will not read or use, that really doesn’t help anyone. You want to make it something that people actually want to read and engage with,” she says.

But how do you make an employee handbook engaging?

Start with what you’re calling it, Soderlund says. “The term ‘employee handbook’ makes you think of a long, boring, hard-to-read set of instructions. Calling your employee handbook something else – like “Team guide” or “How things work at our company” – offers a fresh opportunity to tell your company story, what it is and why others should care,” she says.

Add in sections that highlight the culture of your workplace. Do you offer bonuses when employees receive their CLT or IPM certifications? “Talk about that,” Soderlund says. “Find ways to communicate how a job with your firm is more than just a paycheck.”

Develop a user-friendly document.

Update your employee handbook – or team guide – at least annually and consider making its unveiling a fun event for employees. Soderlund says a staff barbecue or morning coffee and bagel gathering could work.

At the event, add in short Q&A contests with simple prize drawings to see if employees have read and understand new changes to the document. “You could hand out $5 gift cards or new company swag to winners,” Soderlund says. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money, but it’s a way of conveying to your employees, ‘We care about you, and we want you to know this’ in a much more engaging way than having a manager simply say, ‘Read this.’”

At Elbers, new employees are introduced to their handbook in a face-to-face orientation with their manager or foreman, who reviews and draws attention to sections the firm deems most significant. “That gives you the opportunity to highlight the things that are really important with the new team member,” Drent says. “We feel like if we’re treating (the handbook) as a valuable resource and approaching it that way, then the employees are much more likely to treat it the same way.”

You’ll want to make professionally translated Spanish or other non-English versions of your handbook available to staff members for whom English is a second language, so that all employees are on the same page. Similarly, all staff members – whether full-time, part-time, or seasonal/H-2B – should be provided with a copy of the handbook upon hiring.

If you use H-2B employees, add a section covering your firm’s H-2B policy (ensuring that it mirrors U.S. Department of Labor policies), as well as specifics on timing of hiring and rights and benefits provided to temporary, non-agricultural workers, Soderlund says.

If you have additional, specific details to share solely with H-2B employees – such as information about access to housing or transportation – you could include those on a separate document, as Drent does.

And, while you’ll want to include some basic information on safety protocols in your employee handbook, you may want to provide more specific guidelines on workplace safety procedures in a separate, dedicated safety handbook, as Hornung does.

Finally, to help ensure that your handbook becomes a document that your employees actually read and use, give some thought and care to the presentation of the handbook itself. “If it’s presented in a very formal, dry way, it’s not going to be received,” Soderlund says. “Thanks to social media and the ways we communicate now, these documents can be created in a little bit more approachable way than they used to be.”

Guidelines surrounding human resources and employment policies can change from year to year – on both the state and federal level. To help your employee handbook stay in sync with these policy changes, consider subscribing to email alerts from the Department of Labor, your state-specific or industry-specific employment associations, and/or human resources associations like SHRM, Drent says.

“There will be some sifting involved, but it’s a good way to make sure you’re not missing those changes as they come,” he says.

When Luke Hawthorne started his company in 2006, he and his wife operated the company out of their spare bedroom. Today, Emerald Lawns in Austin, Texas, employs 130 people and earns roughly $3.3 million annually. With most of the business being predicated on fertilizing and weed control, Hawthorne says he stumbled into a blessing when he discovered early order programs.

At first, Hawthorne says he just pre-purchased weed control he’d use in the spring. But now, he’ll pre-order just about everything – even his holiday lighting materials.

“It’s a pretty lucrative little system we’ve got going on,” Hawthorne says, citing rebates that reach upwards of 11%. “I’m going to use (the materials) anyway, so why wouldn’t I get that 6-11% back?”

Hawthorne acknowledges it’s not always that easy of a choice. Every contractor must evaluate his or her businesses to see if they can afford paying for the materials up front, or if they can make the space for all the inventory. Plus, there are plenty of “what if” hypotheticals that run across contractors’ minds, like what happens if you order pre-emergent in October and a chilly, wet winter pushes the start of the season back several weeks?

Those degrees of uncertainty, coupled with the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, can lead to questions about whether early order programs are the right choice for contractors this fall.

Hawthorne will be doing much of the same as he always does – he’s trusted EOPs since his first or second year in business and won’t stop now over a decade later.

“One of the reasons I was scared when I started was because I don’t know what the next year is going to hold,” he says. “The longer I’ve stayed in business, the more I’ve realized that (hypothetical) stuff doesn’t happen or it rarely happens.”

Crunching the numbers.

Cory Elmendorf of Total Care Lawn & Landscaping in St. Louis says they implemented early order programs a few years ago because they wanted to get their clients into a solid monthly rotation.

Elmendorf says they do maintenance work for both residential and commercial clients, but the residential clients in particular clamored for improvement in their homes’ curb appeals. By planning around a monthly fee from clients and signing them up for an annual seven-round program, Elmendorf says he’s able to budget accordingly in the fall for the clients who will be back in the spring.

“We use a local supplier here in St. Peters (Missouri), and we get a lot of our seed from them,” Elmendorf says. “We can get chemical from them if need be as well. We also have other outlets, but if we’re getting bulk stuff, we go to our local supplier.”

Elmendorf says he rarely orders so much they have to keep it in stock for too long in the season, and he recommends finding EOPs that will hold on to materials and store them in advance. Some of those same programs also offer online calculating tools to help landscapers budget and estimate along the way.

Not only can the tools help with figuring out how much the material costs, but they could help you determine possible rebates through ordering so far in advance, an advantage that Hawthorne says cannot be overlooked once he starts planning the orders in August and early September.

“The rebates are an obvious pro, and the earlier you get your order program, the better,” he says. “It’s just better to get it off your plate. If you can do it, just do it.”

“(An EOP) makes it much easier when we know what’s coming.” Luke Hawthorne, owner of Emerald Lawns

Knowing your stuff.

Elmendorf says early order programs are easy to figure out, but he stresses that LCOs should make sure their employees are certified to use all the product they’re ordering for the next year. It could be frustrating to be stocked up on products but also needing to teach new employees how to use it on the fly in the spring season, particularly with the chemical products.

“Just get the knowledge first,” he says. “The testing, you’ve got to be certified. If your employees are going to spray, you’ve got to go through the protocols to get the right license.”

Hawthorne says the planning used to be difficult for early order programs, particularly because he didn’t know how much spring products and weed control he’d need. But on the flip side of the coin, it’s a lot easier in the spring to know you have a product than trying to order amidst a busy season.

Paying for the programs is where a company could get in trouble, Hawthorne says, so budgeting requires careful research. He pays for his programs in May or June after ordering during an annual trade show in September. Though the trade show is cancelled this year due to COVID-19 – which makes the early order program planning less fun, Hawthorne jokes – he’s still communicating clearly with his vendor. There’s not a face-to-face meeting like in years past, but Hawthorne says his relationship with the supplier needs to remain strong.

“Be careful how much you order because you’re still going to have to pay the bill,” he says. “Otherwise, you start paying late fees or you’re damaging your relationship with your vendor and you don’t want that.”

Hawthorne admits he’s not sure what’s ahead due to the pandemic. For his own company, the client cancellation rate didn’t decrease this year like he had hoped, but he also has no worries about investing in an early order program. Landscaping remained essential and strong during the quarantine in the spring, so Hawthorne says he doesn’t anticipate that to be different next year.

If an LCO is worried about the ramifications of COVID-19, he recommends a strategy he used when he was first starting early order programs: order half the product than you think you’ll need, and order the rest during the spring season as you go.

But Hawthorne says the peace of mind in an early order program is worth every penny.

“I don’t know how this year is going to play out,” he says. “But beyond the obvious perks, which are the rebates and the cash back, it makes it much easier when we know what’s coming.”