Every year, summer arrives in the landscape industry with a familiar combination of opportunity, urgency, and pressure.

The days are longer. Irrigation issues are more visible. Plants are stressed. Customers are paying closer attention. Crews are working through the heat. Construction projects are moving. Employees are taking vacations. Kids are home from school. And somewhere in the middle of all of that, we are trying to squeeze in a summer vacation of our own.

Summer fatigue in the landscape industry is real.

I’m reminded of that every month when I log onto our East Bay CLCA Chapter Board meeting. Like most Zoom meetings, everyone appears in their own little square. But I know what is happening behind each of those squares. These are landscape professionals managing companies, employees, customers, equipment, schedules, families, and everything else that comes with our busiest time of year.

Yet they still show up.

That hour each month has reminded me of something I think is incredibly important in our industry: we need other landscape professionals in our lives.

Sometimes we need someone who understands the problem without requiring a 20-minute explanation. Someone who knows what it means when an irrigation issue blows up your schedule, when you’re short a key employee in July, when a customer calls about a brown spot on the hottest day of the year, or when you’re trying to get away with your family while still checking your phone.

Sometimes we need solutions. Other times, we simply need to hear, “Yep, we’re dealing with that too.”

One of the things I appreciate most about CLCA is that many of the people we turn to for that conversation are technically competitors.

There is plenty of landscape work in the Bay Area. I don’t believe another quality landscape company needs to lose for ours to win. In fact, I think the opposite is true. When professional landscape companies support one another, share ideas, develop better practices, invest in their people, and hold themselves to higher standards, we collectively raise the bar for our industry.

It improves how customers perceive landscape professionals. It creates better careers for our employees. It encourages professionalism and innovation. And it makes our local industry stronger.

Being involved with CLCA has also given me people I can call when I have a question, want another perspective, or simply need to commiserate with someone who understands the business. I hope I can provide the same thing when someone calls me.

That kind of openness requires some vulnerability. None of us has everything figured out. We all have difficult weeks, employee challenges, customer problems, operational mistakes, and days when the workload feels heavier than we’d like to admit.

But landscape professionals also have an incredible amount of grit.

We work through seasons. We solve problems. We adapt. We take care of our teams and customers, and then we wake up and do it again the next day.

As we work our way through another busy Bay Area summer, I want to thank our current East Bay CLCA Board of Directors. I’m grateful for your willingness to volunteer during a time of year when none of us has extra hours sitting around. More personally, I’m thankful for your openness, your willingness to share what you’re dealing with, and your willingness to help when I’ve needed it.

If you’re feeling some summer fatigue yourself, I’d encourage you to reach out to another landscape professional. Consider joining the CLCA and volunteering on the board, you won’t regret it.

Through the program, participants receive a complimentary propane-powered mower or utility vehicle for 10 days.

The Propane Education & Research Council has launched the Propane Landscape Demonstration Program, giving eligible companies the opportunity to test a propane-powered commercial mower or utility vehicle during a short trial period.

Through the program, participants receive a complimentary propane-powered mower or utility vehicle for 10 days. During that time, crews use the equipment under real-world working conditions, including daily mowing routes, golf course maintenance, municipal grounds care, and other landscape operations.

PERC will collect feedback from participants on daily operating hours, route types, fuel use, refueling practices, downtime, service needs, crew feedback, and comparisons with gasoline or diesel equipment. The program will document how propane equipment performs in the field and facilitate continued improvements in mower and utility vehicle technology.

Interested companies can apply through PERC’s Propane Landscape Demonstration Program form. Eligible applicants will be scheduled for a trial window, use the equipment in everyday conditions, and report performance data and crew feedback to PERC.

For companies curious about propane mowers, this is your chance to test them under real-world conditions.

Applications are being accepted through December 2026.

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