Feb 15
0

First mower oil change in two seasons!?

By | Lawn Care, mowers | No Comments

Don’t slip up

Oil changes are important. If you own a car you know that regular oil changes are crucial to your car’s performance. The same goes for gas lawn mowers, like my Honda. I bought my mower two years ago through Facebook marketplace on the North Shore for only $125.

My work on the following weekend paid for it, and it’s been running great for two full seasons. On old, dirty oil. Don’t be like me.

Since I had never done an oil change on a mower, I wrongly assumed I needed a pump to extract the oil. So I searched for a pump on Amazon and other websites and, when I couldn’t decide on a good, affordable model, I put it off. I’m a busy guy and my Honda kept humming with dirty oil.

Changing your mower oil

While I was making my landscape business plans for 2025, taking care of my mower was on the list, and I finally got to it over the holidays. I had to get it off my to-do list.

I didn’t buy a pump, I simply tipped my mower on its side and emptied the oil into an empty car oil container. And man, was it black. I will probably change the oil again at mid-season, just because. I don’t mow a lot during the week so changing the oil twice in one season should suffice.

Full-time landscaping companies change mower oil every two months. It depends on your mower use. Homeowners can probably get away with one oil change a year but, at only $9, it can be done more often.

I bought mower oil at the nearest RONA location for C$9. No big deal. But I had to double-check the oil chamber volume for my Honda mower model. The number should be visible right on the mower body.

I think it was just under 600mL so I put the full container in. That’s it. Yes, I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner but I’m a busy guy.

Other changes

You can expect things to fall apart on a used mower. For example, the throttle cable blew up so I bought a new one online and changed it myself. I can’t afford C$90+ shop rates so I make small changes myself. If the engine dies, I will get a new mower but Hondas are amazing machines, so it’s unlikely. At C$125 used, this was a great investment because the mower has been making me money for two seasons already.

My pull cord also broke so I switched the whole top plastic cover to which the pull cord mechanism is anchored. It gives the mower a newer, fresher look. Incidentally, I always recommend having a full pull cord mechanism handy as a spare so you can switch in the field and avoid downtime.

Also check your spark plug and air filter.

Lastly, sharp blades are mandatory. I used to get my mower blades sharpened but the cost is similar to a new pair of blades. So, I usually start the mow season with brand new blades and I use a file to sharpen the old, dull blades. It’s a lot of work but it’s cheap. One day I will upgrade to a bench grinder.

Conclusion

Your gas mower works hard all season so give it some love. I’m glad I finally upgraded my used Honda this winter so I can start the mow season in spring with confidence. I need that baby to hum all year.

Feb 08
0

On the cost of switching to plastic turf

By | Lawn Care, Turf | No Comments

The problem

As soon as I took a look at the lady’s small sparse lawn, I understood her frustrations. She lives in a strata and the lawn is a skinny rectangle where grass barely holds on. Of course, this was in early January so you can’t really judge the patch; I’m sure it looks better in May.

Still, it’s a small patch, and a tall spruce tree towers right above it, which means plenty of shade and acidic needles raining down on it all year. Grass needs plenty of light to thrive.

Shade, spruce needles and heavy use.

Can you switch to turf?

Yes, you can but it will cost you. The homeowner got one $2,500 quote and gave up. Normally you would get at least three quotes but, clearly, it was too expensive. Considering the cost of living in 2025 Canada and Donald Trump’s tariff threats, plastic turf is a luxury, not a necessity.

Why is it so pricey? You have to pay for materials and labour, follow the steps outlined below and deal with poor access. There is only stair access which means heavy labour.

Plastic steps

Step one involves removing the old grass and maybe one to two inches of soil, then levelling it nicely. All of this excess dirt has to be walked down stairs.

Once this initial step is completed, you have to install crushed rock which forms the firm base for your plastic turf. And, again, this is a nightmare for the underpaid hired hands because they have to walk it up the stairs, probably in buckets.

Raking and compaction follow. The machine can be lifted up the stairs but it won’t be pleasant. Then you run it over the rock base to make sure it’s solid.

The last step involves installing the turf and anchoring it with pins.

$2,500 seems like a lot of money to switch a small rectangular patch of grass to turf but there’s considerable labour involved, plus the cost of materials.

Crushed rock base, heavily compacted.

What CAN you do?

Well, we pruned the spruce tree, taking out some of the lower branches but nothing too crazy. There are privacy issues because the spruce tree forms a natural barrier between neighbours who may or may not want to see each other too much. But it should let more light in.

You can also get rid of the needles periodically and apply lots of lime to try and lower the pH level. When the soil is too acidic the grass plants may not be able to get or use available nutrients.

Water and fertilize liberally.

Conclusion

I love this example: not every homeowner is ready to shell out thousands for plastic turf. Not that I like plastic turf. Personally, I would keep the weak lawn even if my pockets were deep.

Feb 01
0

Why beech trees are hard to forget!

By | Gardens, Trees | No Comments

Hands bleeding

One of the trees we looked at during my winter plant identification course walk was a huge weeping beech tree (Fagus). It’s located near the main building inside the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens. It’s a beautiful, massive, weeping specimen.

In our multi-family strata complexes, where there is less space available, it’s common to see columnar beech specimens which stay upright and narrow. All you have to do is prune them back into shape once in a while.

It wasn’t hard to find the leathery brown leaves; there were piles of them by the rock wall. So I collected a few and now I’m pressing them in one of my books at home. Looking at leaves in winter obviously helps you identify the tree. Assuming the leaves are really from the tree you’re looking at. Always collect as much information as you can.

Buds

Tree buds are obviously the key identifying feature in winter. And here I have a lot of bad experience. Years ago in White Rock, my task was to thin out beech trees that had previously only been power sheared. It was a bit slow because beeches have this habit of fusing their branches.

That’s another key identifying feature; and it makes pruning slow and annoying because the branches you want to remove, may be fused with neighboring branches. That makes it difficult to extract them and could lead to unintended large holes in your tree.

Blood on my hands

By far the worst beech bud feature is its sharpness. I didn’t pay any attention to this in the beginning. I knew it was a beech tree and I made a lot of mess. So when it came to removing the branches I lost a lot of blood when my fingers collided with the sharp buds. I couldn’t believe how sharp and dangerous the buds were. I literally had blood on my hands.

That’s why it’s very unlikely I will ever forget beech trees and their sharp, pointy buds. Beeches are beautiful trees, yes. I especially like their fuzzy seed capsules and the seeds inside them. We found some in the leaf litter at Van Dusen. But do be careful when handling beech branches because the buds are super sharp. I think you need heavy duty gloves to handle them.

Beech tree buds
Jan 25
0

Van Dusen Botanical Gardens are worth a visit in winter

By | Education, Gardens | No Comments

Winter gardens

Last weekend I took a winter plant identification course at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens in Vancouver; and I took full advantage of free access to the gardens. The $30 course consisted of one hour in-class session and one hour outdoors. As soon as it ended and the group disbanded, I went back in.

And it was glorious! It was sunny at lunchtime on January 11, 2025, and there weren’t any crowds to fight through. It became a nice mental break for me because I’m normally on the go during the season, usually seven days a week. Now I had the gardens almost to myself so I walked it. Here’s what I saw.

Observations

Close to the main building I saw ornamental grasses nicely tied up. This not only looks like a fun project, it allows the grasses to remain standing. In regular strata landscape maintenance work, these grasses are sheared into oblivion as soon as they start to flop; and then there is nothing to look at. Nothing moves in the breeze.

Moving on, I came to a patch of evergreen ferns and, I’m proud to say, I didn’t need the plant tag because I knew the botanical name well: Asplenium scolopendrium or Hart’s Tongue fern. It’s an interesting fern, well-worth adding to your garden.

For the longest time I couldn’t remember its botanical name so I started writing blogs about it until the name stuck. Asplenium has something to do with the sun and once I get that part out, scolopendrium follows. Learning botanical names is a struggle which is why I paid $30 for a winter plant identification course!

As you walk through the gardens, you notice tons of leaf mulch. This is a botanical garden, not a strata multi-family property where everything is blown clean with backpack blowers. The leaf mulch protects the soil and whatever creatures over-winter under it.

You will also notice that most perennials are still standing. This allows birds to enjoy the seeds and it gives us something to look at. If you get lucky, you’ll see the stalks and flower remnants covered in frost.

You don’t have to cut everything back as soon as it’s spent. It can wait until spring. It definitely wouldn’t make sense in a botanical garden because visitors need to see something in winter.

Conclusion

If you’ve never been to the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens then definitely find the time to go. Summers are more exciting and much busier but I thoroughly enjoyed my winter visit. It’s a great place for a walk, alone or with your friends and loved ones. There is a cafe and you can buy souvenirs in the gift shop.

To see YouTube shorts from Van Dusen Botanical Gardens please click here. Don’t forget to like and subscribe to my West Coast Landscape Professional channel.

Jan 18
0

Late season adjustments you can make

By | landscape maintenance | No Comments

Late season luck

The weather is always a deciding factor late in the season and so far this year it’s been great (knock on wood). Heading into the holiday season I was able to take care of lots projects. So let’s take a look at the adjustments I made for my clients. Perhaps it will inspire you to check over your own garden.

Lame Photinia

Now, this Photinia shrub is clearly struggling so I put it out of its misery. I love plants but this specimen looks awful, stuck between a fence and a large spruce tree. There is another Photinia just to the right so we’ll let it move in.

Don’t be afraid to do some editing in your garden. Start over if you have to.

Brown spots

This brown spot is probably visible from space and it’s easy to fix with one cut. The trick is to carefully reach into the cedar hedge and make the cut there. We don’t want to see anything sticking out.

When you do this you can expect to create a hole in your hedge which is unfortunate. In this case it wasn’t bad at all.

Tree stubs

This topic shows up almost every year because I see stubs all the time. Take a look at the black button on the left. It’s a stub the tree can’t quite cover up. We have to wait for it to die and break up, or we can cut it to help the tree. Also remove the sprouts.

The spot in the middle is an old cut that got nicely covered up. Trees know what to do so help them by not leaving tree stubs.

Can’t exit your car?

Are your Spirea shrubs preventing you from exiting your car? Take them down hard now or else they will just keep on pushing into the stall. The shrubs are forgiving so reduce them now. I did it by hand, which is slower but it also eliminates having to chase down shredded branch bits. It’s also quiet and relaxing; just make sure you know where your fingers are when you grab a handful of stems.

3/4 reduction

Cherry and leaf drop

Adjustment one is mandatory because the city has asked the owner to prune her cherries to improve sight lines. They’re asking for a 2.5 m clearance so I raised all of the trees off the road gently. The only is very touchy about her ‘Akebono’ cherries. When they flower in spring, people stop by to take pictures. To be honest, all of the trees need some pruning.

Adjustment two made me laugh. The lady texted me asking if there is still time to pick up her leaves. Oh, my, she’s lucky I know her. She had avalanches of soggy, decomposing leaves still on her lawn just days before Christmas.

If you want to kill your grass this is how you do it. The piles of leaves will smother your lawn and turn it yellow underneath. Never do this! Shred the leaf drop when conditions are still dry, not on Christmas day. Or rake up the leaves and compost them; shredding is also recommended in this step.

Chafer beetle damage

There isn’t much we can do about European chafer beetle grubs but you could rake this mess over and add soil. Overseed only when we get higher temperatures in spring.

Since this area has terrible access for stump grinders you can chain saw the pine tree stump as close to the ground as you can manage. Or you can dig it up, in which case the joystick leftover will help you to dislodge it.

Conclusion

There you go. As you head into 2025 take a good look at your garden and identify adjustments you can make. If Proper Landscaping maintains your building, ask them for help. Otherwise, message me for help.

Jan 11
0

Can tree wells save your trees?

By | Lawn Care, Trees | No Comments

Lawn struggles

Typically, when I show up at a new lawn care job, I walk the lawn to check for obstacles and hazards. One of these clients had a small struggling tree planted in the lawn; and if you read my blogs regularly you already know where this is heading.

Trees planted in lawns struggle with competition from the grass and therefore don’t always thrive. They will do fine but they may not thrive. It was definitely the case here. When I got close to the tree I could see bark injuries from line trimmers. Even if you’re careful, it’s likely you will slip up. I know this from experience.

Stress!

Every hit with a line trimmer or worse, mower, is a stressful injury requiring the tree to allocate precious resources for repairs. What we really want is for the tree to grow. Repeated weekly injuries will kill the tree.

So, I cut the lady’s grass and then went back to the tree. Since I don’t usually carry plastic tree guards with me, I grabbed an edging shovel (flat bottom) and I created a tree well around it. Those two items are recommended ways for protecting trees from lawn care machines. The third suggested item is what we’re doing with this blog post: education! Keep your machines away from trees!

Fall review

Now, the rest of the mowing season is a blur. I’m busy. But then the lady texted me in the fall saying how happy she was. The tree leafed out nicely, pushed out flowers so we could identify it properly as Sourwood (Oxydxendrum arboreum) and it produced beautiful fall colours. According to her text, this sourwood has never looked so good! Awesome.

Happier Sourwood with a new tree well!

This is a good example of using tree wells to keep lawn care machines away from tree bark. Tree wells also help the tree collect water and nutrients by pushing competing grass away. But by far the biggest benefit is eliminating the constant stress of getting hit by string trimmers.

If you have trees planted in your lawn definitely consider creating tree wells around them.

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Jan 04
0

Important lessons from one Japanese maple!

By | Pruning, Trees | No Comments

Unhappy senior

There she was, another gray senior citizen and she had lots to say about the person who pruned her prized Japanese maple last year. She didn’t like the job and she paid hundreds for it. Then there were some promises and the man never came back.

I’ve heard all this before. It’s important to hire professionals like Proper Landscaping and Red Seal Vas and go over the pruning work so it’s clear.

I told the lady to relax. I would come prune it for her and it wouldn’t ruin her retirement. So of course she called me this fall when I was still extremely busy and the maple was still covered in leaves. This leads us to lesson number one.

Hand-pruned maple

Wait until the leaves drop!

Now, when you wait for the leaves to drop, you help me see the full tree crown, which makes it easier to execute my pruning cuts; and see anything dead, diseased or crossing inside the crown. I can prune your tree with leaves still on but it makes it more difficult when I’m still busy chasing leaves.

Luckily, this old lady listened to me and waited because she was getting a great deal. I would prune her maple and she wouldn’t have to rejoin the work force to pay for it.

Last year her maple was quickly power sheared by an enthusiastic, low-skilled, side-gigger motivated by quick cash. Which leads us to lesson number two.

Don’t power shear your maples!

I get it, power shearing is very fast. Just run the blades along the crown, rake up the debris, collect your cash and disappear. I brought a small step ladder, snips, hand saw and pole pruners; and I still got it done quickly. Plus the clean-up was easy: small branches as opposed to shredded bits of tree tissue.

Hand cuts are way more precise; power shears run indiscriminately along the crown outline so many cuts don’t make sense. You can’t really cut close to a bud with power shears.

Prune your maples before Christmas!

It’s a good idea to prune your maples before Christmas, and I just made it. After Christmas, maples start to run their sap so when you make your pruning cuts, sap “bleeds out”. It’s best to avoid this and let the tree do its thing.

Conclusion

If you follow my suggestions above your maples should be in good shape. Don’t trust low-skilled side-giggers with your trees. Get them nicely, professionally done. Call Proper Landscaping for help.

Newly updated eBook from Red Seal Vas available for sale here!
Dec 28
0

Kentucky coffee tree surprise!

By | Plant Species Information, Planting, Trees | No Comments

What’s this?

One day this fall, I walked out from my front steps and when I reached the boulevard I noticed newly planted trees. Oh, what’s this? A nice surprise from the City of Port Moody! They were obviously bare but luckily one had a tag still attached to it.

Kentucky coffee tree ‘Espresso’

I had absolutely no clue what tree species they were: Gymnocladus dioicus (Trade marked Espresso) didn’t ring a bell. And that’s mildly distressing for an arborist. So of course I googled it right away and entered it into my ‘blog ideas’ file.

Meet the Kentucky coffee tree

Now that I knew the species name, I had a second question: why this tree species? What made the City of Port Moody buy and install Kentucky coffee trees on their boulevard? There had to be a good reason because I know from my work experience at the City of Coquitlam that tree species decisions aren’t made lightly.

Thank you J F Schmidt

The source of the information below comes from J F Schmidt. Thank you!

The Kentucky coffee tree Espresso sports large, frond-like, double-compound bluish-green leaves (yellow in fall) which form a canopy of dappled shade. Where they are, we’ve been trying to grow lawn so in the future we can expect the grass to struggle.

The tree is city-tough and gives us an airy, tropical feel.

One crucial feature of the Espresso cultivar is that it’s seedless. That makes a huge difference in the neighbourhood and for landscape maintenance crews. I hear people calling trees “messy” every year and considering the tree’s mature size it would be an avalanche of debris every year. Seedless is good in this setting.

Conditions

The list of conditions is the real kicker. The Kentucky coffee tree tolerates heat, drought, cold and alkaline soils. I believe the crucial factors are heat and drought, as the city looks into the future on a warming planet. It doesn’t usually get that cold on the West Coast and the soils are definitely acidic. Here’s where my second question is answered. Why plant the Kentucky coffee tree? It tolerates heat and drought!

One faux pas

Considering the tree’s mature height of fifty feet and spread of thirty five feet, I don’t believe the city planted them with enough room between specimens. Although it’s unlikely I will be alive to see the problem develop.

Full marks to the City of Port Moody for planting trees with a warming future on their minds. I can’t wait to see the trees leaf out in 2025.

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Dec 23
0

Vas on Grass eBook for Christmas!!

By | Lawn Care | No Comments

Q&As

As a landscape professional I am used to answering lots of questions about lawn care. And over time I began to notice that many of the questions repeated over and over. Clearly, those questions represented pain points. So I assembled them into one file and I suspect there will be more coming out later.

That’s how my humble eBook was born: Vas on Grass: 33 lawn care questions answered buy a landscape professional. It’s now available for sale in pdf format. Click here. If you are unemployed, low-income or Proper landscaping client, please message me for a free e-mailed pdf copy.

One example

Here’s one question covered in the book. “Does it bother you if grass clippings are blown into the road? Why?“

Does it ever! First of all, it looks awful. Now, I know from experience that some days are frustratingly windy and complete control over your clippings is impossible. But on most days you should be able to blow the clippings back onto your lawn, away from the road. Just make sure you don’t smoked by a passing car. Stay close to the curb.

Second, every year cyclists and motorcyclists die when they lose traction on grass debris. In one example from the United States, a female motorcyclist saw her husband go down in front of her. Sadly, the man didn’t survive. That’s just awful.

Big ride-on mowers often cut grass without catchers so it’s critical that the grass be directed back into the lawn, not on the road when the edge is getting cut. Imagine being responsible for someone’s death.

Lastly, I must mention the cheaters who show up in the dark to blow debris from their site across the road to my side. I maintain commercial buildings in Coquitlam and I see them do it; they push grass and leaves across the road so it becomes my problem; and they avoid paying for green waste. It’s sloppy work that leaves the road in disarray.

Check it out!

Check out a copy of my book and if your question isn’t covered, then e-mail it to me: vas@greenfirstlandscaping.com. Book reviews are also very important. Send feedback so we can start a discussion.

Happy holidays!!

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Dec 21
0

“Becoming a gardener” book review

By | Books, Education | No Comments

The question

Can you become a gardener or is it some talent you were born with? In years past, I often wondered the same thing and the answer is obvious. You can become a decent gardener, if you work at it. If you actually go out in your garden and get dirty.

Catie Marron‘s 2022 book “Becoming a gardener” is yet another book born during the pandemic when people were shut in their homes. In some parts the book reads like an essay from school; it’s clear she did a lot of reading and research, covering people who wrote about gardens and famous gardeners. The pandemic was a great time for reading and research.

Catie Marron (Source: Goodreads)

I bought the book in audio format on Audible.com at 85% off the regular non-member price. This worked out to less than five dollars which is a steal. It runs just under three hours at 1.2 speed and there aren’t any issues with the narration. It’s a well-produced audiobook complete with a downloadable pdf file.

Gardening

Marron moves to Connecticut, surrounds herself with mentors, gets all of the necessary garden tools and goes for it. Buy year two, she’s growing vegetables and sharing them with food banks. Not bad at all. So, it can be done.

Towards the end of the book, Marron starts to share her new knowledge and she is very subtle about it. It’s sprinkled here and there.

As I write this review, I have trouble recalling Marron’s larger life lessons. That’s because I am distracted by the pdf print out. In one section it covers your annual garden tasks which is handy, even after you adjust for her location in Eastern United States.

Then there is a literary section on garden writers which can introduce you to new works. I know some of the writers like Michael Pollan. The others I will have to discover.

Lastly, there is the bibliography where you get to check out Marron’s sources. This is gold for less than $5.

Conclusion

Complete beginners will enjoy this book. I listened to it at 1.5 speed in under three hours while I worked outside landscaping. That’s how I like it when there aren’t any crew members around. Work, earn and learn at the same time.

The accompanying pdf file is an awesome resource you should consider mining. However, I would hesitate to buy this book at full price. I scored it on Audible.com at 85% discount.

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