Outside the (penalty) box

No, contrary to our cover, Lawn & Landscape didn’t become a magazine educating hockey referees on how to officiate better on the ice. That’s Ed Arens, who, when he isn’t running E&M Outdoor Services with his wife, Melissa, watches for icing, offsides, slashing and every other hockey infraction as a hockey official and coach.

Uncovering your hobbies is the motivation behind our 2025 Census, which we’ve done every five years since 2015. We wanted to know what you do when you are not keeping landscapes tidy and green.

From marathon running to scuba diving to frequent travel around the world, we found that the industry is made up of people with a wide range of interests. We profile a handful of landscapers in this issue on how and why they discovered and pursued a certain hobby or activity outside of their jobs. Of course, we also have plenty of other interesting data. In regard to that data, here are some changes I found worth mentioning:

• There has been a decent increase in the number of women in the industry. In 2020, only 7% of respondents were women, while that number jumped to 19% this year.

• Independent grew the most when it came to political affiliation, increasing 5% from 2020 to 32%.

• And maybe it’s a financial decision or a time issue, but the number of married respondents dropped from 93% in 2020 to 82% this year. The percentage of married couples who own a company together, however, grew 5% , from 10% to 15%.

• You don’t want your crews working on your own lawn for what could be a business ethics reason (let’s hope it’s not a quality issue). In 2020, 35% of you said one of your crews maintains your lawn, while that dropped to 19% in 2025.

• By far the largest decline…a lot of you have cut the cord. In 2020, 67% of you enjoyed flipping channels with cable television, while now only 32% of you subscribe to cable.

For more off-the-wall information about the industry, turn to page 20 and read on to see where your personality lines up compared to others in the industry.

— Brian Horn