Battery powered lawn mower

Perhaps you may be in the market for a battery powered lawn mower. The video is awesome! When my lawn mower kicks the bucket, I'm going to look into this.

Bananas reaching $1 a pound

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18koeppel.html?em&ex=1214193600&en=d126069861c0a339&ei=5087%0A

With bananas reaching such high prices, why not grow your own bananas in the backyard? In fact, they are so easy to grow it isn't funny!

Give me a call 786-877-4573.

Wow. Just wow.

Florida is home to 14 of the largest companies in the landscape industry, according to a list of lawn and landscape firms published by trade publication Lawn & Landscape.

Together, the companies on the publication's Top 100 list generated $7.1 billion in revenue in 2007. That represented 7.7 percent growth over 2006, slower growth than the year before. For 2008, the companies project an average 6 percent growth.

South Florida-based companies that made the list include Vila & Son Landscaping of Miami, which reported $64.5 million in 2007 revenue and Tropics North of Homestead, with $42.5 million. Miami's Dixie Landscape had $32.7 million and Stiles Landscape of Fort Lauderdale had $20 million.

Landscaping classes?

I've got a few ideas for fun and profit.

I was envisioning a landscaping school where people could learn more about what plants go with what plants! Also I thought it would be cool to teach people how plants grow.

Also I'm working on a landscaping application that would teach residents of South Florida all about plants and trees. Seems like a cool idea.

Not big profit...but big fun!

I did two jobs this week for old customers for not a lot of money, but they were fun!

My two employees performed well today. We did 104 green island ficus and sod work with soil work. Two separate jobs.

We were working out there in the mid-day sun. Hot as hell!

Nearly three years...Plants From Paradise is growing up. I've learned a lot. I've got two great employees. I've got a powerful truck, a 20' trailer, a 10' trailer. Some capital to invest and everything is paid off.

So I've had success. It's been fun, most of all. Perhaps there are many other ways to a great fortune. But I'm in love with the act of planting trees.

Academics and physical activity. The contemplative and the active. Yin and yang, I suppose.

Can bamboo help reduce global warming?

Check it out while it's still up.

Not only do the hairy plants capture carbon, they "collect dust and dirt out of the air and make the rain fall more gently on the ground," says Gib Cooper, a nurseryman in Gold Beach, Ore., and executive director of Bamboo of the Americas, a conservation-action organization. "I hate to say it: The world's population and economy are going to outpace whatever we try to do. But bamboo will help."

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It's nice to feel like you are doing something to help the earth. The enormity of the situation shouldn't make us give up hope though. We can all help in our own way. Planting bamboo is a wonderful idea.

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"Unlike cotton, bamboo doesn't require pesticides to flourish. It needs modest amounts of water to thrive — some species rise a foot a day during growing season — and its root system can help stabilize hillsides and prevent erosion. When you harvest some of a stand's canes, the underground rhizomes survive and continue to quickly produce mature culms, unlike trees that die when chopped down."

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I planted buddha belly in my backyard. FPL should plant it along the canals.

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Plant some bamboo!

TREEmendous Miami

Check out a great charity in Miami-Dade:

TREEmendous Miami!

Maybe PlantsFromParadise should give them a helping hand?

Finished taxes

2007. My third time filing for Plants From Paradise.

In terms of money, 2006 was my strongest year...07 was even behind 05.

What does this mean? I know that I haven't been advertising enough for Plants From Paradise, but that's okay. I have customers who call me back years later. I have a long-term view of this and I'm not out to grab a quick buck. In 30 years, I'll be known as an expert of plants in South Florida.

We the Best

So when the other landscaping company leaves you high and dry, who you gonna call?

Me.

Markus.

Earnest.

"We the best."


Who else will make a terrible job look presentable???? 786-877-4573.

I'm back in landscaping!

Always have a contract...don't leave Dade county unless it's a sure thing!

From my last job:

• Don't leave Dade county unless the price is substantial.
• Always agree on EXACTLY what is to be done.

So I had to return to Broward to remove VINES from a fence. Mistakes happen in business...gotta move on!

My plan? Put an advertisement in the Crossings Signal.

Square watermelons

Look at the beautiful oak behind my grandparents.

Energy conservation

http://www.dreamingreen.org/

This charity seems beneficial. Helping schools become more energy efficient is a noble goal.

Trust me, as a teacher I know schools could save a bit of money on electricity! We keep ac so cold that teachers bring in space heaters.

Idiotic.

A hobby or a business?

Perhaps when I first started off with Plants From Paradise I jumped too quickly at some jobs.

http://selfmadechick.com/2007/12/31/5-things-i-had-to-unlearn-to-become-self-made/

is a great post from a...self made chick, I suppose...about how to become successful.

Self-promotion IS key. No one wants to hire an insecure whiner. Confidence is the key.

2007 was a rebuilding year

I had some success and some failures this year.

Failures:

• Not able to fix broken pipe.
• Not enough employees.
• Google adwords was sending me to Broward (even Palm Beach once)!

Successes:

• Redesigned plantsfromparadise.com
• Took a Horticulture course at Miami Dade College.
• Blogged about environmentalism and landscaping consistently.
• Not needing to grovel for work. My price.
  

Lose the lawn!

Here's an interesting concept:

http://www.losethelawn.com/gallery.php

Forget about having to mow and maintain that grass, lose the lawn!

Personally I'm going to make this my goal.

Damn Interesting » Space Radio: More Static, Less Talk

Damn Interesting » Space Radio: More Static, Less Talk

Ten trillion stars for every man, woman, and child...

Amazing.

don't waste water

Tamarac City Commissioner Patte Atkins-Grad was miffed last Thursday when Broward officials met to discuss the region's water shortage -- at a breakfast meeting where many people never touched their glasses of water.

''This is a water summit, and it irritates me to see all this wasted water,'' she told the crowd.

Atkins-Grad has encouraged restaurants in Tamarac to stop serving water to diners unless they ask for it.

Speakers talked about the need for Broward cities to work together to find additional sources of water, including waterless urinals and treating salty water.

But no one talked about the cost. Chip Merriam, deputy executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, has said in the past that the price to develop new sources of water could cost billions.

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How about we 1. limit development, 2. encourage native plantings 3. discourage car washing, golf, waste 4. save the everglades.

oh and drink yo water.

Spectacular image!

Awe-inspiring.

No foresight

Ailing oak tree saved from developer's chop

An oak tree set to be razed received a stay of execution Tuesday -- to the chagrin of a Coconut Grove developer.

Posted on Fri, Nov. 09, 2007

BY DAVID SMILEY

dsmiley@MiamiHerald.com

In Coconut Grove, things can get a little emotional when it comes to trees. That's why activists turned up at a city of Miami hearing Tuesday to fight for a scraggly oak that stands in the way of a developer's driveway.

Anthony Rubino, whose duplex in the 2800 block of Shipping Avenue remains off the market because the tree has prevented him from laying a driveway and sidewalk, wants to raze the oak, located on the public right-of-way.

But the city denied his request, leading Rubino to appeal to the Historic and Environmental Preservation Board Tuesday, where in a scene reminiscent of a daytime courtroom drama, Rubino went toe to toe with activists over the fate of the tree.

The developer, who says he initially wanted to relocate the tree, provided years' worth of pictures of the tree and testimony from arborist Lisa Hammer that said the tree ''is in fair condition at best'' and should be removed.

''I'll relocate it now if you want me to,'' he told the board. ``I'll do it, but it will die.''

But the TreeWatch Committee of the Cocoanut Grove Village Council and the Tree-Man Trust countered that the tree is sick because of construction-related damage -- which Hammer disagreed with -- its death is hardly imminent and besides, driveways are overrated.

Miami's Historic and Environmental Preservation Board agreed.

Members voted 5-2 that the tree should stay.

''The duplex should have been designed to accommodate the tree where it is,'' said Board member Gerald Marston.

Rubino said he was given the runaround by politically connected activists who used their influence to pressure city officials into saving the tree.

Public Works Assistant Director Francis Mitchell said the tree must be removed but he could not issue a permit because he would lose his job if Liliana Dones of TreeWatch and Jim McMaster of the Tree-Man Trust disagreed, Rubino wrote in his appeal.

Mitchell would not comment on the statement after the meeting.

''I don't have the power to have Francis Mitchell fired and neither does Jim, but we're very flattered,'' Dones said Friday.

Mitchell told the board that Rubino had left out the tree's location on site plans when the duplex and driveway designs were approved.

Rubino said the omission of the tree's location was an oversight.

The developer, who last year received permits to remove two trees from the property, said he didn't pull a permit for the oak because he wanted to see how the tree would fare before deciding to remove or relocate it.

That got him into hot water with Board Chairman Timothy Barber.

'We don't want people to do the `wait and see,' '' he said.

Marsten said Rubino was playing a shell game.

''It seems to me you were proposing to plant that tree in front of someone's front door and have them remove it,'' he said.

On Friday, Rubino said he wishes now that he had removed the tree when he first bought the property and was disappointed that the issue became more about the circumstances surrounding the tree removal than about the actual health of the tree.

''I'm disappointed it went that way because it took the focus off the tree and the facts of [Hammer's] report,'' he said.

Rubino said his tree woes comes at a time when Grovites are outraged at the federal government, which last September cut down a number of trees at the Grand Avenue Post Office. The post office was fined $10,000 by Miami's Code Enforcement. As of Friday, the fine had not been paid.

Arborist Pierre Sands said people should treat trees as if they were a dying relative.

''I take it personally,'' he said.

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It's nice to see people fighting so hard for trees. I love the old oak trees in Coral Gables and the Grove. Too bad the developer didn't use more foresight.