By Jill Nagy
Pandemic or no pandemic, the grass keeps growing and people are in need of landscaping services this time of year. But landscapers are not immune to problems brought about by the COVID-19 crisis.
Government guidelines allow them to do routine maintenance work, but no major undertakings like landscaping and hardscaping (patios, walks, and the like) or anything purely cosmetic. They can clean things up, but not install mulch and no new planting is allowed.
For Brian Phillips and his company, The Lawn Guy Landscape Management LLC in Saratoga Springs, landscaping and hardscaping is usually the bulk of his business.
“I’m losing time and time is money,” he said.
He is holding deposits from customers from last February and has projects booked into July. He estimates that he had lost some $50,000-60,000 worth of work over a six-week period.
Aside from that, Phillips said, “We are busy. We’re doing rather well” with the basic work. But, “Things are certainly different.”
Richard Kessinger’s Saratoga Lawn Maintenance LLC, a smaller, relatively new, company, doesn’t rely much on heavy construction jobs. He is busy enough that he may try to hire another employee later in the season, he said.
But there have been major adjustments for both companies.
No more than two people can ride in a truck to a job site. Some have to come along by car. Workers wear masks and maintain the requisite six-foot spacing. That may mean fewer people on a worksite, Kessinger said. As a result, the work goes more slowly. At the end of the day, he cleans and sanitizes the trucks and equipment.
Phillips said “everybody has a mask with his name on it” and they all bring their lunch now instead of stopping to buy lunch.
A few of Kessinger’s customers have had to cut back on services, but “we are not having a lot of that. We can hold off on billing or cut back on services” for those short on cash.
Phillips has fewer people working for him than usual—three or four at a time instead of the usual six, working in two shifts. He is worried about “the trouble we will have getting those guys back,” when they now receive unemployment benefits that exceed the entry level of $15 an hour he offers.
Phillips has been in the lawn maintenance business for 23 years, beginning as a 16-year-old with a single lawnmower and trailer. After college, he was doing landscaping and hardscaping work. He still has his first account, a family in Malta.
Kessinger’s story is different. “It’s a second career for me,” he said.
He moved to Saratoga after retiring as a New York City police officer and started his company five years ago.
Both of them, however, are confident.
“We’ll get through it,” Kessinger’s said.
“We all gotta be safe and we all gotta be smart,” Phillips said. “A lot of things can be done safely.”
Phillips can be reached at lawnguylandscape,com or 518-581-2655. Kessinger is at saratogalawnmaintenance,com of 518 944-0359.