Hiring a landscaper to make your yard the envy of the block? Choose carefully. You could wind up with a wasteland and a big bill to go with it.
1. "My sprays are killers."
Sure, you want your lawn to be as green as Yankee Stadium's outfield. But does your landscaper need to poison it in the process? Gloria Megee knows what harm grass-protecting pesticides can do. A few years ago, after a landscaper had sprayed pesticides onto the lawn of her Arlington, Va., housing development, Megee's bichon frise, Monique, started to nibble the grass. Seconds later the dog was vomiting; she would experience seizures throughout the night. Monique eventually became riddled with skin cancer and tumors. The cause? Megee's vet blamed it on the pesticides. "The poor dog's paws were totally raw from walking on sprayed grass," says Megee.
The Environmental Protection Agency has linked pesticides to Parkinson's disease, Hodgkin's disease and liver cancer. One of the major culprits in insecticide poisoning, Diazinon (an active ingredient in Ortho, Spectracide and Real-Kill, among many other pesticides), is so dangerous that the EPA has banned it from all household and gardening products as of 2004.
But a spiffy lawn and long-term health are not mutually exclusive. Rather than chemicals, some landscapers now use bug-eating birds, kelp spray and insects that prey on vegetarian pests (the ones that harm trees and plants). Says Steven Restmeyer, a landscaper practicing such techniques: "When landscapers deal with pesticides, they deal with liability and health issues, and they are replacing the natural process of the soil microbes that feed the plants."
2. "Don't expect a refund if your garden croaks."
A month ago your landscaper planted new shrubs in your front yard. They looked great-for a day. Now they look like a wheat field. The lan dscaper blames you for failing to water them enough. You blame the landscaper for buying bush-league bushes. Who's right? It doesn't matter -- the plants are dead, and don't expect your landscaper to cheerfully reimburse you.
Jeff Herman, co-owner of Herman Brothers Landscaping in Fairlawn, N.J., says landscapers get no money-back guarantee from the nurseries on the plants and shrubs they buy for homeowners: "They figure that the landscaper ought to know Sprinkler System Installation Rockwall what he's doing." Still, that doesn't mean your landscaper can't provide you with some protection. While you'll have little chance to get a refund on such things as rose bushes (they're prone to bugs) or ground cover (for instance, ivy, which will die quickly if not watered), you should demand some kind of payback from the landscaper if it's obvious you properly cared for the plantings. "Show your landscaper the grass around the d ead plant," says Hugo Davis, president of the Kentucky Nursery and Landscape Association, a trade organization for landscapers and nursery owners. "If it's Sprinkler System green and thriving, well, then you did all the watering you needed to do."
3. "Hey, I'm not qualified to do the job, but so what?"
Michael Torquato wanted to take advantage of the well behind his new home in Port Charlotte, Fla. So he hired a landscaper to build an irrigation system that would provide fresh, free-of-charge H2O. The plan quickly sprung a leak. The landscaper ended up connecting the irrigation system to a city water pipe -- a maneuver a city inspector later told Torquato was illegal.
Torquato's bigger mistake? Hiring a landscaper to do work he's not licensed for. (He should have had a well-driller's license.) Licensing regulations involving landscapers differ from state to state. Still, with jobs that result in water running underground (and possibly flooding you r basement in a big and costly way), James Hsu, executive director of the New Jersey State Board of Architects, offers this rule of thumb: "Unlicensed landscapers should not do anything involving grading or drainage. Some landscapers tell clients, 'Don't worry, I'm capable. I can take care of this.' Often, it's impossible to tell what they're capable of."
4. "My budget grows like a weed..."
How much fine print can there be in a contract with a landscaper? You might be shocked. In ant-size lettering you'll find the kinds of clauses that can raise an annual bill by 25%. For instance, you may be obligated to pay a $300 spring cleaning fee or get charged extra for the trimming and disposing of excess growth on bushes. And all of these fees may be applied at the landscaper's discretion and without your prior approval.
Why not include the charges up front, maybe even in the big print? "They're trying to make extra money without the (customer) being aware of it first," says Jeff Herman. He tries to avoid confusion by sending out fliers that keep his customers informed of work that needs to be done. Many competitors, he gripes, "don't even give the customer a chance to turn down the service."
5. "...and don't expect me to pass on any savings."
If you want a deal on bulbs and plants and topsoil, go shopping with your landscaper. He'll know how to trim the bill. "Nurseries have a secret code for landscapers on the price tags," says one New York-area landscaper. "There'll be 10 numbers, and I know which ones to look at to decipher the professional price, usually around 30% off of retail." He then charges customers the retail price for the plants and pockets the savings.
Some landscapers are known to be even more enterprising. "Fly-by-night landscapers go out, steal plants and then plant them in other people's yards," says Mary Ellen Burton, whose family-owned business in Frederick, Md., has been selling plants since 1929. "We had $8,000 worth of plants stolen from a model home. I guarantee (they're) in somebody's yard."
6. "I buy cheap plants-and you'll never notice."
There are some very good reasons you hire a landscaper to keep your garden looking like Versailles: You don't have the time or the know-how to do it yourself. And crooked landscapers thrive on this. "Less-than-reputable people will do whatever they can to get by," says Hugo Davis. One trick Davis says some landscapers favor: planting fast-growing bushes that are less expensive than slow-growing bushes, but will later require more care and labor from the landscaper. Also, instead of planting high-tech trees engineered to repel insects and resist diseases, they'll simply plant a cheaper, old-fashioned version -- a distinction you won't notice until the tree becomes riddled with fungus.
What can you do? Not much, according to Davis, who admits that even he can be tricked by look-alike plants. "It's similar to buying a car and being told that it gets 22 miles to the gallon," he says. "You won't know that for sure until you've owned the car for a while." All the more reason to choose a landscaper with a good local rep.
7. "I don't finish what I start."
Deborah Labate hired a landscaper she'd found in the Yellow Pages to plant trees and bushes at her Florida home. Before taking the job, the landscaper wanted $1,000 up front, $1,000 when the job started and $2,000 at the http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/lawn-garden/how-to/a724/install-sprinkler-system-underground/ job's completion. Sounded legitimate -- until she gave him the initial $2,000. "I didn't see him for a week," LaBate recalls. "He'd tell me it was too cold to work, that it was raining, that the ground was too wet to dig. Anything to keep from working on my yard."
You might suggest that she file suit. Bad idea. "You can't prove fraud or deceit because these guys start the job seeming like they intend to finish," gripes Erin Mullen-Travis, a certified code-compliance officer in Charlotte County, Fla. "The way to protect yourself is to get job parameters in writing and parcel out the payments very carefully. If somebody asks for a 50% deposit, that should throw up flags." A more agreeable figure is 30%. Mullen-Travis says that if you do run into a snag with a landscaper, consider going to small-claims court -- "especially if money was given and no work has been done. Under any law, that is theft." Or just do what LaBate did. "I relentlessly called the landscaper -- every day," she says. "Finally, he came back, and I told him, 'Finish the job, this week, or I'll become your worst nightmare.'" The threat worked. LaBate says she now has the best lawn in the neighborhood.
8. "What I'm doing won't make your home more valuable."
Good landscaping can keep a home's value blooming. Debb y Bright, a real estate broker in Gilroy, Calif., estimates that homeowners can recoup 150% of their landscaping costs when they sell. The one hitch: You need the right landscaping. Oleander bushes, for example, look great, but they're poisonous and a turnoff to botanically knowledgeable house hunters.
Bright's ideas for home-enhancing landscaping include trees that block noise and shrubs that create a sense of privacy; you don't want just a large, house-exposing lawn. While Bright points out that lattices and high hedges are more appealing than brick-and -cement walls, one quaint touch to avoid is climbing ivy. "It attracts roaches and termites. You'll think your landscaper's ivy is very nice until you are about to sell your house, you have a termite inspection and wind up spending $8,000 to resolve the pest problem."
9. "My workers chug your beer when they should be mowing your lawn."
A man in arizona claims that his landscaper stole pills from his medicine cabinet. A Tennessee woman says she left a group of landscapers home alone, then later discovered they went down to her basement to drink her beer and play eight ball on her pool table.
Because the landscaping profession has a generally low barrier of entry, homeowners need to be particularly vigilant in checking references and finding out about a company's track record. Mary Ellen Burton says be wary of so-called pickup truck landscapers. These nefarious gardeners will affix magnetic signs to their trucks as identification rather than using the more permane nt painted-on logos. But their inexperience can do lasting damage. Burton says these landscapers will commit such mistakes as applying too little mulch to soil or planting a tree too deeply. She has even seen landscaped homes with Leyland cypress planted near the front door -- a major foliage faux pas. "Typically, Leylands are used as a screening plant," says Burton, but if you plant one too close to the house, "in two years it will grow to be as tall as your entryway." To avoid such foul-ups, make sure the landscaper has liability insurance (about $1 million is a reasonable amount of coverage), and vet him through the Better Business Bureau.
10. "I'll make the neighbors hate you."
You're relaxing on a crisp autumn afternoon, planning to do nothing more than catch the Rams-Packers game on TV. Suddenly, your couch time is blasted to pieces by the roar of a leaf blower. Suburbia's equivalent of Black Sabbath practicing in your basement, leaf blowers can pump out 75 decib els of rumbling, high-pitched noise. How bad can it get? Last December, in the posh New Jersey town of Far Hills, Chubb CEO Dean O'Hare had a gardening crew working on his 20-acre estate day and night, letting their leaf blowers rip. Neighbors complained so much that a town ordinance was proposed to limit the hours of noisy leaf blowing.
O'Hare and his crew should take a tip from the gentle people of Palo Alto, Calif. The city has set hours when leaf blowers can be used (9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week), and landscapers must take a "leaf blower etiquette" course offered by the Palo Alto police department. They're also required to use low-noise leaf blowers. "We tell gardeners to use the full extension on their leaf blower," says Lieut. Don Hartnett. "That allows it to run at fewer rpms, so the motor doesn't need to work as hard -- or as loud."
Today irrigation system has evolved with the use of latest technologies. It is not only used in crop production but also for dust separation, dry land farming, gardening, sewage disposal and various other areas through the use of wide range of high tech systems.
Drip Irrigation System:
Drip Irrigation System is a method where water is delivered to plants slowly and right at their roots using a network of mainlines, sub-main lines and lateral lines with emission points spaced along their lengths. It maintains an optimum moisture level in the soil at all times with less water lost to the sun and the wind. Drip Irrigation System is typically the most efficient method of irrigating as it is very easy to install, easy to design, inexpensive, minimizes soil erosion and specifically because it uses quite a less amount of water. It is very beneficial for plants in desert areas and is easily adaptable for use in commercial landscapes, agriculture, gardening, greenhouses, and nur series.
Center Pivot Irrigation Systems and Lateral Move Irrigation Systems:
In center pivot Sprinkler System Arlington irrigation system, the machine that consists of several segments of pipes, moves in a circular pattern and is fed with water from the pivot point which is located at the center. In Lateral Move Irrigation System, the lateral movement of the machine ensures that the entire field is covered. Whether to select Center Pivot Irrigation Systems or Lateral Move Irrigation Systems depends on various criteria such as water availability, crop type, land type, land topography, operational cost and agrology conditions.
Sprinkler Irrigation System:
Sprinkler Irrigation System is a method of applying irrigation water in the same pattern as natural rainfall does. A typical sprinkler irrigation system consists of a pump, mainline and sub mainline network, laterals and sprinklers. Sprinkler system offers efficient coverage for small and large areas. These sprinkler systems are suitable for almost all kind of crops including vegetables, wheat, grams, pulses, cotton, soya bean. They are applied at various places including farms, hotel gardens, golf courses and various other places.
Pathfinder Drip Tape Irrigation System
Pathfinder drip tape is an extruded drip tape manufactured with the highest technology. It is manufactured with materials of highest quality providing resistance to chemicals used in agriculture. Drip Tape is a flat tape used for irrigation purpose which has pre inserted drippers. Drip Tapes are used on wide variety of agricultural crops including http://www.thefreedictionary.com/landscape wheat, rice, beans, peppers, tomatoes.
Aluminium and Polyethylene Pipes and Fittings
Pipes and fittings are basically used in irrigation system for transferring liquid, gas or even solid material at times. These Sprinkler System Installation industrial pipes and fittings are made from different materials including copper, aluminium, clay, iron, steel, plastic. Polyethylene pipes are flexible because of the elastic nature of polyethylene. Hence these type of pipes can be curved to make turns with ease and avoid complexity and also the expenses incurred. These kinds of pip es and fittings are mainly translucent and come under various colors. Aluminium pipes and fittings have high strength and hence cannot be twisted or turned. Aluminium pipes and fittings have an extensive application in a host of industries.
There are various irrigation products manufacturer and exporter in Spain that offers irrigation products but you must select the best company for better irrigation facilities.
There are more than two separate camps of cooks in the debate of gas versus electricity ovens. Some die-hard stalwarts, including many professional chefs, will insist that unless you're cooking with gas then you're not really cooking at all. Others swear by the reliability of cooking with an electric oven, whilst many cooks prefer to mix and match options with gas hobs and electric ovens.
With gas and electricity, it really comes down to a matter of personal preference and cooking style, but there are some general tips that can be observed to save you money on your utility bills whilst cooking.
One of the general principles of gas and electricity when it comes to ovens is that gas ovens are more expensive to buy but cheaper to run. Electric ovens, on the other hand, are cheaper to buy but more expensive to run. If you are investing a significant amount of m oney into an oven which is a long-term purchase rather than a quick fix, then it will probably work out cheaper over time to buy a quality gas oven rather than an electric one. Gas and electricity prices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWoSWNwtVKA will invariably fluctuate but if electricity prices rise then gas prices tend to increase in tandem, and gas is usually cheaper than electricity as a rule.
There are a number of factors that can make different ovens cheaper to run though. Fan-assisted ovens, for example, increase the temperature inside the oven and spread the heat more evenly, allowing for a smoother cooking process. As extra heat is generated, fan-assisted ovens can cook at lower temperatures, thereby https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWoSWNwtVKA using less gas and electricity. Not only do fan-assisted ovens cook more thoroughly, they also cook more qui ckly, making them more fuel efficient and time effective.
Most ovens these days are electric, and what sets them apart from gas ovens is that they are cheaper to buy, tend to be more reliable, and can be more http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs-electrician versatile. Modern electric ovens come with a host of additional functions including thermal grilling, defrosting, batch baking, and timers that can be programmed. Gas ovens tend to be more traditional but ultimately give cooks more control with t heir oven temperature.
In terms of oven hobs, gas is almost universally accepted as better for cooking, whereas electric is almost universally accepted as being better for cleaning purposes. Ultimately, whether you decide to go for straight gas, straight electric or a mixture of gas and electric, the oven you require will depend on the type of cook you are. For a solid all-rounder though, a fan-assisted electric oven with gas hobs is an excellent mix of gas and electricity, which is both versatile to use and reasonably cheap to run.
Transcript for Trump Visits Scotland to Re-Open His Golf Course
In the meantime, Donald Trump is overseas in Scotland to open a golf Sprinkler System Installation Greenville course. He was asked what he thought of the vote, and called it a great thing. And said America is next. Tom llamas is in Scotland tonight. Reporter: As brexit shook Europe to its core, Donald Trump choppered in for the re-opening of his golf course with this bold announcement. Basically, they took back their co untry. That's a great thing. Reporter: With bagpipers following him, and staffers wearing red "Made turnberry great again" caps, trump spent less than 30 seconds at the top of his speech addressing brexit, then another 13 minutes praising the course, from the new sprinklers to the luxury suites. A lot of people think this would be the greatest par 3 anywhere in the world. Reporter: Afterwards, trump fielding many questions about brexit. Do you think anything you said in the United States influenced voters here in Britain when it comes to leaving the eu? If I said yes, total influence, they'll all say that's terrible. His ego is terrible, right? So I will never say that, Tom. But my opinion is that what happened should have happened. They'll control their country and they'll control everything about their country. Reporter: Trump tweeting, they took their country back like we'll take our country back. And as the british pound was sinking, trump was singing. Look, if the pound goes do wn, they are going to do more business. You know when the pound goes down, more people are coming http://migarden.msu.edu/ to turnberry, frankly. Reporter: On Wednesday, trump was less certain about brexit. I don't think anybody should listen to me because I haven't really focused on it very much. But my inclination would be to get out. Reporter: And today, Hillary Clinton releasing this new video mocking his golf course appearance. Are you traveling with any of your foreign policy advisors? Well, I've been in touch with them but there's nothing to talk about. Reporter: David, though trump is in Scotland for this critical time in Europe, this was a scheduled trip. The trump campaign tells me tonight at this point Sprinkler System Installation Greenville there are no other foreign trips planned before the election. David? Thanks.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
For the painters, musicians, sculptors and writers who have inspired this art-loving country for centuries, their works are the truest memorials, whether concertos of Antonio Vivaldi still regularly performed in the Venice church where he served as violin master or Michelangelo's masterpieces that pack crowds daily into the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
As Leonardo da Vinci once said, "A work of art dies not."
Still, artists do die - and what may surprise a visitor to Italy is how accessible, and how moving and beautiful, are the tombs and other formal memorials to artists that Italians dutifully and sometimes touchingly maintain.
Some of these we sought out during a recent visit, but others my wife Lucy and I virtually stumbled upon - such as the spot in a chapel of Venice's Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari where the composer Claudio Monteverdi rests under a marble marker on which some music lover had laid a long-stemmed white rose. In the Pantheon in Rome, similarly, an admirer had left a fresh laurel wreath at the gleaming tomb of Raphael, Michelangelo's rival.
A comprehensive list of such memorials would require an encyclopedia. Instead, here's a glance at sites in Florence, Venice and Rome.
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring expression of Italians' reverence for their departed artists is Florence's cavernous Basilica of Santa Croce. As in London's Westminster Abbey, legends of the art world share space here with statesmen and other notables.
So, for instance, Santa Croce honors Galileo, sculpted grasping his telescope. His remains were grandly re-entombed here after being kept elsewhere for nearly a century following his death, because his astronomy was deemed unbiblical.
Along another wall, Niccolo Machiavelli, the political theorist and writer, is buried. At composer Gioachino Rossini's handsome sarcophagus, his overture to "William Tell" (or the "Lone Ranger" theme) inevitably plays in a visitor's head.
Those conjurings change to mental images of hell and purgatory nearby, where the epic poet Dante Alighieri peers sternly at passing visitors. This, however, is a memorial, not his tomb, which is in the city of Ravenna.
Facing it stands the ultimate artist's resting place.
It's a near-riot of marble panels, vivid paintings and sculptures with downcast expressions, all of it rising to a pinnacle far up the stone wall. Completing the tribute are a bust and a tablet identifying the deceased: Michelangelo Buonarroti.
"Did he create that himself?" asks someone crowding in for a look.
The answer takes you to a museum attached to Florence's great Duomo cathedral: It houses the sculpture that Michelangelo actually planned for his tomb, a somber depiction of Christ being lowered from the cross.
The story is that the sculptor, then in his 80s, became displeased with it and, in frustration, smashed part of it with his hammer before aban doning the work. The fragments were gathered and later reattached, and today you can clearly see the cracks. (Several artists collaborated on Michelangelo's elaborate Santa Croce tomb.)
At the Frari church in Venice, besides Monteverdi's slab, you'll find the pyramid-shaped mausoleum of the sculptor Antonio Canova, containing, it's said, only his heart. Here, too, the tomb of the Renaissance master Titian stands near his enormous, glowing painting of the Assumption, which the writer Oscar Wilde deemed "certainly the best picture in Italy."
In Rome, near the Pyramide subway stop in the Non-Catholic Cemetery, many artists are buried, and many of them were English. Indeed, passing through the gate you step from noisy Roman streets into what could be a tranquil corner of Britain, with pruned http://www.artnet.com/artists/ hedges, stately shade trees and bright lawns strewn with violets.
Here, understatement marks the head stones of painters and poets, including two immortals of literature.
Follow the gravel path to the simple corner grave of John Keats, whose odes and sonnets are among the finest in English. Suffering from tuberculosis, he traveled to Rome at the recommendation of doctors who hoped in vain that the climate would improve his health; he was just 25 when he died here in 1821.
"Here lies one whose name was writ in water," reads the epitaph he wrote, sensing that he'd be forgotten. Hardly. On a recent sunny day, a steady stream of literary pilgrims paused silently by his gravestone, the cemetery's most visited.
Many next climbed a small rise to the grave of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, who drowned in Italy.
Nearby, a shaft of sunlight fell on a particularly affecting sight: the American sculptor William Wetmore Story's marker for his wif e, Emelyn. He completed the human-sized angel not long before his own death and burial here.
"I am making a monument to place in the Protestant Cemetery," Story wrote to a relative in 1894, "and I am always asking myself if she knows it and if she can see it. It represents the angel of Grief, in utter abandonment, throwing herself with drooping wings and hidden face over a funeral altar. It represents what I feel."
Last year, roughly 30,000 people made their way here. In the visitor comment book, one called it "the most beautiful place in Rome."
