Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A Minute to Complain

This is a very difficult time to be in the landscaping and nursery business, and i don't just mean because of the economy.  Here at Blackrock we hire a lot of college students, and even a few teachers on their summer vacations, during the busy season in order to keep up with the work.  Our crew swells to around 15 during the summer months, and while it is a logistical nightmare we certainly have enough hands to get the work we need to do done.

As the season starts to change to fall all these seasonal helpers head back to school and we are left with a skeleton crew.  The only problem is the work is still steady.  Now the crew is down to three on a good day, with a few able to be salvaged from the vegetable division when they have a minute.  Sometimes I make lists and as i get to a second page I start to panic a little bit.

It's like this every year, and I fully realize we'll be able to take care of the work, but it seems like i can never get used to this time of year and the drastic change in the way this business operates.