Hey there, hope you are having a great week so far! Many of you further south are just coming into your lawn care seasons while others are wishing the snow would melt so you could get out and just see your lawn! No matter which you are, I hope this email gets you excited and that you learn something along the way.

That said, this a long email. My marketing team tells me no one wants to read all this, but I feel it’s important to throw light on this subject as I am learning more and more about it myself. The Fert Life is available to all who want to study, learn and experiment. The Fert Life is a great life and we are always improving our technique and strategies.

If you don’t care to read below and just want the free guide/schedule on Bio-Stimulants, go ahead and click here to get it. It has been updated!

(DOWNLOAD IT HERE)

Also, all during February 2019, ALL N-Ext products are $5 off including build-your-own.

Some Things I Have Learned

I’m an old TruGreen-ChemLawn guy. I learned cookie-cutter-corporate lawn care in and around Chicago and NW Indiana from 1998-2012. I held many positions in the branch from sales rep to operations manager, marketing manager, and general manager. Lots of spraying and praying, running and gunning.

“Throw down high nitrogen fert every 4-6 weeks, kill weeds, aerate every fall, hope the customer irrigates and mows right, and when in doubt, starter fert fixes everything!” - that is pretty much what I learned there as far as caring for lawns.

And for the most part, when you start working on a lawn that has been neglected, that’s all you need. In fact, you can run a good 2 or even 3 years improving a lawn with just simple nitrogen fert, killing weeds, and mowing properly.

But what if you are interested in something simple yet more scientific and slightly hippie? What if you want to master the basics of lawn care, but at the same time, do something cool to optimize and “dial-in” your soil to support all this lush turf you are growing?

The Urge To “Throw’er Down”

If you’re anything like me, you pretty much think instinctually that anything good can be even better if you just add more of it. Fertilizer is one of those things that we just want to sling. It’s suburban farming at a macro level. Sling more fert, get more green, earn more dominance in your little corner of America.

And I’m here to tell you: if you follow the advice I give you here in these emails, on my YouTube channel, across my podcast (iTunes) (Android) and in my e-books, I’ll show you how to throw down a lot of ‘“stuff” on your lawn that turns it into something you can be proud of, and I’m not just talking about “chemicals” either.

There are lots of good things you can spray and pray with that really enrich soil in a way that even permaculture cousins would appreciate. Plus, there is nothing like having the neighbors over for a little driveway drinking on a Friday night and your perfect lawn is providing the backdrop for everyone’s Instagram story. I’m serious about that, there is nothing more cool than being that guy or gal.

How do you get there? You Throw Down! = That’s how!

Like I said already: if your lawn has been neglected, and you start throwing down fert, it’s going to improve and look better... It just will.

In fact, check out the VERY FIRST lawn program I put out on YouTube. It’s pretty legendary now - “The Church Project” is what we call it. Most of what you see there (strategy wise) still stands today - but we have evolved!

2018 New Things I Learned

Hence the introduction of bio-stimulants and optimizing our focus from a little less “Big Nitrogen” and replacing it with lesser amounts of the more hippie stuff like sea kelp and humic acid.

Terms like “biochar” were foreign to me up until recently. I had some learning to do and that is what 2018 was. The longtime community members have grown right along with me. Like I often say, my base knowledge can only take me so far - I have to always be a student myself if I’m going to learn and improve.

What do bio-stimulants do?

In a nutshell, they optimize the soil so that your turf roots can pull out more naturally existing soil nutrients, while at the same time, creating an ecosystem that self sustains cohesively and needs very little outside input other than the occasional dusting of nutrients.

Your soil already has quite a bit of nutrients locked up in it. Adding organics in the form of fertilizers increases these of course, but what if we could add carbon sources like humic acid or root stimulating growth hormones like auxins, cytokines, and gibberellins to REALLY kick things up?

Now you can and it starts with the Bio-Stimulant Pack. It’s the ultimate soil optimization pack and is enough to cover a 5,000 sq ft lawn for nearly 2 full years.

Still Throwing Down!

Still want to ride the Nitrogen train of terror and throw down Milo hard every 4 weeks? In that case then, please do me a favor and throw down some bio-stimulants too - optimize the soil along with the heavy throwdowns.

In fact, I’m going to tell you that it’s ok to go hard on your lawn the first season. Maybe even into the second season, but from there, back it down.

I promise, you won’t need as much fert to still get the same or better result and your lawn will be much more resistant to disease which will further reduce your need to spread chemical all around everywhere.

In the end, I’m trying to get you to take action this season and start throwing down! And in the process, learn how your equipment works, how your lawn responds, how the weather dictates strategy, and most of all, I want you to learn your land.

Free Bio-Stimulant Guide and Schedule

Ready to spray some goodness on your lawn along with your fertilizing this season? Here’s my free Bio-stimulant pack guide.

That program centers around the Bio-Stimulant pack in my store. That pack is the one that is best for 99% of you guys. You cannot go wrong with the elements in that pack, which are all explained in the free guide.

So far with these emails I’ve been sending you, I hope you are learning and I hope you are researching on your own. Most of all, I hope you are taking action! Get out there and “Throw’er Down” and get some results on that lawn, I know you can do it!

ALSO- ALL N-Ext Products are $5 off through Feb 2019.

-AL

Note:

Me using terms like “Throw Down hard” or “push that nitrogen” doesn’t mean I want you to be irresponsible.

Follow the label on products you purchase and never apply more than .75 lbs/N/1,000 sq ft at any one time. Follow my program and you’ll be able to push it, responsibly.

PS - if you’re a TruGreen/ChemLawn friend reading this:

I wasn’t bagging on you above. Your company fills a great place in the industry; you guys and gals in the branches, you set the standard for the spray industry. You run great businesses - HUGE businesses.

If you are a 29-year-old general manager of a $4MM facility, you should hold your head high. You are elite. I respect you, and I respect your hustle. I learned sound business practice and strategy from some top-notch mentors during my time at TruGreen. I just wish upper management knew you like I do. You’re worth a whole lot more than a “$29.95 intro up to 5,000 sq ft..”

Here is the youngest general manager in the Chicago Region in 2011. To those mentors who had a part in teaching me (tolerating me) I thank you! I am better for it today