June 2006 Newsletter

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Mitch Phillips, CA, CPP

The month of May brings us all beautiful weather and growing landscapes. With this busy time of year our May newsletter has been delayed in order to pay close attention to our projects, schedules and growth.

I want to thank everyone who responded to our trivia question last month. The winning prize was awarded to Evelyn Mercado of Trammell Crow who had the quickest response time and correct answer. The question was What outfit swapped lawsuits with Amazon.com over which was the biggest online bestseller? Answer is Barnes & Noble. She was awarded with a fitness evaluation and training at Precision Fitness of Lake Norman. Congratulations Evelyn! This issue includes an introduction of ALLSCAPE’s newest team member, Matthew Davenport, then our focus on industry changes in the center city and how ALLSCAPE has expanded as a result and lastly, a brief history of fireant migration as well as ways to treat/ control fireants.



Allscape adds Matthew Davenport to our management team

ALLSCAPE is proud to announce the addition of team member, Matthew Davenport. Matthew will be managing our grounds management division. He has almost fifteen years experience in turfgrass management, tree and ornamental care and he is fluent in Spanish. Matthew is also an experienced arborist and more excitedly, he has competed and judged tree climbing and arborist competitions. We welcome Matthew and look forward to the addition to our team, as well as our property managers getting to know him! Matthew will be contacting all of our grounds management clients in the next few weeks to introduce himself and to arrange site visits with property management. Our goal is to be more proactive with issues that may not be immediate problems, but if handled promptly can head off greater future problems and expenses. This is especially true with tree pruning and hazard trees. We feel that this approach increases and continues our value of being a "total solution source" provider. Matthew will be a great addition to providing that "total solution source" effectively!

Allscape focuses on Center City

Traditionally, ALLSCAPE has focused on the suburban office park, industrial and retail market for our grounds management services. The growth and revitalization of what natives refer to as “downtown” has presented the opportunity to help existing and new clients with their high rise and center city properties. These sites typically do not have vast landscapes, but the interest and inclusion of green space around the structures is catching on, especially the utilization of annual color beds and street trees.

ALLSCAPE currently maintains the grounds for two sites in the center city, and we are proud to have also acquired the grounds maintenance for the Carillon Building with Spectrum Properties. The property has a heavily landscaped park area covering roughly a quarter of a city block. As with all of our customers, we send our appreciation to Spectrum Properties for granting ALLSCAPE with this great responsibility. We also look forward to expanding further in the center city market!

Fire Ants are coming!

Fire ants are as normal as mosquitos are for those who have roots in the deep south. Over the past twenty years, the “quarantine line” has expanded through the southern Piedmont of North Carolina and now reaches into Rowan County. These imported ants originated in South America and have migrated north into the United States. The ants are only deterred by the colder climates which is why they are residing south of zone 7. The ants spread by flight and by the distribution of agricultural products such as nursery stock and mulch. Once the ant is introduced into an area it is very difficult to control.

To understand what makes this problem so difficult we must first understand how the ants proliferate. The mating and reproduction of the ant is the main reason for the abundance of the species in a given area. The reproduction of the ant is triggered by rainfall or irrigation (the ant does not discern the difference). The fertile females perform their “nuptial flight” when triggered by a rain or irrigation event and then fly up to a mile from their original mound in order to burrow in the earth creating a new mound or colony. Within a week the new queen’s eggs have hatched and she has a colony of up to 200,000 ants. This occurrence is why so many irrigated properties seem to have never ending ant mounds popping up.

The only sure way to control existing mounds and hinder the introduction of new colonies is to treat the entire area with a systemic insecticide. Currently, there is only one chemical registered that has a residual greater than a few weeks. The chemical is Fipronil and is manufactured by Bayer CropScience. This is the only method that is proactive and can ensure that no mounds will ever be visible or exist.

ALLSCAPE maintains the NCDA license required to legally apply ground application for fire ant treatment. Contact us to apply treatment if fire ants pose an aesthetic or liability issue on your property. ALLSCAPE will guarantee 52 weeks control if we apply the product.

SITE WORK SERVICES

• Concrete installation and replacement including pads, drives, walk, curb and gutter Asphalt patching
• Storm water repair including; pipe repair, inlet repair and junction box repair
• Detention pond management to comply with Charlotte Mecklenburg guidelines
• Mass clearing and grading
• Construction management
• Erosion control