I recently had my friends Rob and Jessie Shrieve on The Grow Show. They own Coastal Shores Landscape in the South Carolina Lowcountry, and they're hosting our tour at GROW! 2027 in Savannah this February. We covered a lot, but one line from Rob has stuck with me: "We're not a culture of flattery."

Last Spring we tried something through our ACE Peer Groups and it turned out to be one of the best things we've done in the 25 years of running these groups. We call it the CEO swap; inspired by ACE Peer Group Facilitator Jim Cali's previous experience swapping branch leaders at Kinkos.

Something unexpected happened last week at Grunder Landscaping: our leads jumped.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that our team had a meeting on the calendar to work through renewals and requoting for 2027. We've had that meeting now, and I want to share how we approach this time of year, because a renewal is one of the biggest opportunities you have and also one of the easiest to waste.

When people come to tour Grunder Landscaping Co. on a Field Trip they always want to see the morning roll-out: the huddle, the stretches, the trucks pulling out for the day. I get it, it's definitely exciting, and there's a lot to be gathered from how we do it. But one reason we have such a smooth morning roll-out is.

We've had an exceptionally wet summer here in Southwest Ohio: we had almost 9 inches of rain in August when normal for us is about 3. This summer has been marked by flash flooding, not drought.

A few weeks ago I talked about my own garden and how it's changed over the time I've lived in my home. While I'm making over my yard to fit my lifestyle, my three daughters are all doing the same for their yards. Their lifestyles look a little different from mine: all three have young children now. I offer to help.

When a snowstorm is bearing down, our clients are already juggling school cancellations and childcare plans, business opening schedules, and whether the roads are even drivable for their team to make it in. We don't want the status of their property to be one more thing on their mind, so at Grunder Landscaping Co. we.

Let me quickly dispel a myth: yes, I really am a landscaper. To prove it, I took to my own yard to show off a garden bed I'm particularly proud of and talk through what's in it. When Lisa and I moved into our home 20+ years ago the yard was almost entirely full sun and we had four kids in grade school. Today, the.

It might seem early to talk about snow when most of us are still in the thick of the mowing season. But getting prepared now is how you succeed later. This week I want to share one of the tools our snow and ice team relies on to stay ahead of every storm: our weather stations. We have six of them spread across the.