Update Your Email

HAVE YOU SCHEDULED YOUR
SPRINKLER START-UP YET? 

 

If you’ve already scheduled your appointment, you can disregard this notice. We began start-ups on April 15. If we haven’t heard from you by May 15, we’ll give you a call to see if you need us to come out.

A number of our customers have changed their email address but forgot to update us. As a result, these start-up reminders have not been getting through. We will have to call those people to get new emails.

Please remember that if you change your email in the future, we must be included on your list of people to inform if you wish to continue to receive notifications about start-ups and winterizations.

Some providers, such as Fios, may forward email from your old address to your new one for up to 6 months. If you are receiving this email because it’s being forwarded to you, please let us know your new address now so that you’ll continue to receive future notifications once your forwarding expires.

If you HAVE changed your email recently, please be aware that Appointment Plus will not recognize your new email. You will need to sign up again as a new user on our website. 

Reminder to Schedule Your Irrigation Start-Up

SPRINKLER START-UPS BEGIN APRIL 15!!   This is a reminder that our sprinkler startups are just around the corner! We’ve already started booking our first appointments and will begin coming out to do start-ups the week of April 15.  If you’ve already scheduled your appointment, you can disregard this notice.  Our customers use Appointment Plus, an online scheduling system, to manage their spring start-ups, fall winterizations, and sprinkler system upgrades. This allows us to be more efficient and helps you to remember when we’re coming. Access our online scheduling by clicking below. Important: Some of you have already tried to book your start-up prior to April 15. We aren’t starting our start-up service until Monday, April 15. If you’ve already scheduled before that date, please go in and cancel that appointment, then reschedule. We look forward to seeing you soon! If you haven’t scheduled online by May 15, we will call you to schedule your start-up.

Landscape Lighting (a.k.a. Nightscaping)

Our irrigation customers may not realize that we also offer other services that complement having a beautiful lawn.

Rapidly growing in popularity right now is our landscape lighting. The rationale is that it doesn’t make much sense if homeowners are investing in making their yard beautiful but no one can see their efforts at night.

Regardless of what time of year it is, your focal points in your property during the day are hidden once darkness hits, just waiting to be illuminated.

Landscape lighting helps to bring out those focal points and textures not seen in the daylight, but which have eye-catching details by illumination. Architectural features on your home can be accented and, with the correct lighting, can be visually stunning.

Landscape lighting can add the following to your home:

• Beautification
• Usability
• Safe passage
• Security
• Value

Nightscaping needs regular maintenance, just like your sprinkler system does. Add-on lights can be brought in at any point. If you realize later that you need more lighting than you first thought, just let us know and we’ll come back out to increase what you have.

Below are some images to showcase the difference landscape lighting can make to your home:

Architecturally stunning home in broad daylight, without accented focal points

Architecturally stunning home in darkness, with landscape lighting to accent contours

Strategically placed illuminating devices add nightscaping benefits.

With the correct lighting, architectural features on your home can be visually stunning.

Nightscaping adds beautification, safe passage, security, and value to your home.

Nightscaping highlights other landscape elements, prolonging your enjoyment.

Appointment Cancellations

In the occasional event of inclement weather and other unforeseeable acts caused by Mother Nature, we may need to reschedule our appointment with you. We know that can be an inconvenience, especially if you’ve rearranged your work schedule to be there for us, so when at all possible we’ll keep our appointments. But if we do need to cancel, we’ll give you as much lead time as possible.

If you need to cancel your appointment with us, we ask that you give us a 24-hour notice. If we show up at your house and nobody is home, we’ll unfortunately need to charge a $37.50 no-show fee. (The fee is subject to our discretion and will be waived in the case of accidents, illnesses, deaths, etc.)

Insect Control

Last year the mosquitoes and ticks came out early due to an unseasonably warm spring. As the warm summer continued, they got worse  - not to mention the deer ticks, fleas, and other pests, too. Will history repeat itself this year?

Good news – EZ-FLO (described above) can help mitigate this problem. A non-systemic insect control product can be combined in the EZ-FLO system for one-step application. The product is very toxic to insects but not to humans, pets, or the environment. There are no harsh chemical odors, nor will it stain.

EZ-FLO also works well with organic critter control. It repels, but does not harm, deer, gophers, moles, voles, rabbits, and others too numerous to mention. Because it’s formulated from food-grade products, it is is safe for children and pets.

You may not know it, but mosquitoes can also now carry Lyme’s disease. Although they can only carry the disease for a couple of hours before the bacteria dies, they do have a two-hour window of opportunity to transmit Lyme’s.

Some South Shore communities have begun enacting a recommended twilight curfew in late summer, encouraging residents to remain indoors once the mosquitoes come out. If you want to enjoy the great outdoors this summer without being chased inside by these pests, ask us about incorporating insect (or critter) control services through your EZ-FLO system.

“Fertigate” Your Yard with EZ-FLO

Last year we began offering EZ-FLO as a new “fertigation” (fertilizer + irrigation) method to automatically dispense fertilizers through your irrigation system.

There was a bit of a learning curve as we learned how to work with our supplier, but we’ve ironed out the process and are excited to offer this incredible product to you again this year.

EZ-FLO feeds turf, trees, shrubs, flowers, and vegetable gardens.

The goal is to get as much fertilizer into the plant as possible so that runoff is minimal. Unfortunately, with traditional drop or broadcast methods of fertilizing, uneven nutrient delivery (feast or famine) and burned roots and leaves are common.

Fertigation is a way to fertilize responsibly, as it virtually eliminates harmful environmental hazards and exposure to hazardous chemicals while conserving valuable water resources and producing far superior horticultural results.

EZ-FLO has the unique ability to apply fully concentrated liquid or water-soluble fertilizers in consistent quantities every time you water, either through an inground sprinkler or drip system. The EZ-FLO system is installed safely below ground in a valve box, keeping it secure and hidden from view. The small storage tank has the capacity to feed an entire landscape for 4 to 6 weeks before it needs to be refilled.

Here are just some of the benefits you will enjoy: 

Saves Time

• Connects directly to an inground irrigation system and feeds slowly every time you water
• One-step application; no dilution required
• Durable design for years of trouble-free operation

Saves Money 

• Replaces hose end sprayers and tank sprayers
• Up to 90% less fertilizer due to superior nutrient uptake
• Use 20% to 30% less water
• Reduce or eliminate insect and weed control requirements by up to 40% or more
• Complements existing fertilization programs, further beautifying property by adding beneficial micro-organisms (* Note: If you already have a fertilizer company, there are certain treatments we won’t be able to put through the EZ-FLO system, such as herbicides to treat crabgrass or dandelions. Over time, however, you may enjoy savings with your fertilizer company by needing less of their product.)

Eco-friendly

• Eliminates fertilizer runoff
• Eliminates exposure to harmful chemicals by using only organic liquids

Below are actual results using EZ-FLO.

It’s Time to Schedule Your Sprinkler Start-Up Online!

We hope you didn’t fare too badly through Blizzard Nemo or Winter Storm Saturn. Unlike last winter, this season was definitely your chance to use your new snowblowers, shovels, and ice melt!

And now, it’s the time of year when New Englanders are looking forward to turning their thoughts away from the white stuff and towards green grass. Sprinkler startups are just around the corner! We’ve already started booking our first appointments and will begin coming out to do start-ups the week of April 15.

Start-ups start on April 15!

Our customers use Appointment Plus, an online scheduling system, to manage their spring start-ups, fall winterizations, and sprinkler system upgrades. This allows us to be more efficient and helps you to remember when we’re coming.

Access our online scheduling by clicking below.

 

If this is your first year trying our online scheduling, there are a few steps required for your initial registration as a new user. After that, you’ll be able to easily log in with your email address as the username. Setting up an appointment is simple.

Just like last year, you’ll notice that appointments are only available for particular towns on certain days of the week. This helps us to be more efficient in scheduling our routes. Here are the days available for each town this year:

Monday – Carver, Duxbury, Halifax, Kingston, Plymouth
Tuesday – Hanover, Hanson, Hingham, Marshfield, Norwell, Pembroke
Wednesday – Cohasset, Hingham, Hull, Norwell, Scituate
Thursday – Carver, Halifax, Middleboro, Plymouth
Friday – Duxbury, Kingston, Marshfield, Plympton
Saturday – Cambridge, Dorchester, Quincy, Weymouth, Others

When you log in to schedule your appointment, you’ll also see a breakdown of services. You’ll need to specify which service you want. (Each service is automatically associated with an amount of time; ie, a service call is one hour.) Here are the services available:

* Startups 1 to 6 zones
* Startups 7 to 10 zones
* Startups 11 to 15 zones
* Startups 15 plus zones
* Startups of systems on wells
* Service call
* Tune-up
* Mid-season adjustments
* Winterizing of system
* Winterizing of system with dedicated irrigation well
* Upgrades
* New installation of system

You’ll receive a reminder email from Appointment Plus two days prior to your appointment, making it easy to remember. If you need to reschedule for any reason, you can do so by logging back in and cancelling your first appointment, then making a new one at a more opportune time.

Please note that due to certain scheduling challenges (ie, back-to-back appointments in South Plymouth and Kingston, possible on a Monday for example), we may be up to 15 minutes early or late for your appointment.