On Pointe

This spring, landscapes aren’t the only thing being renewed. After a lot of hard work behind the scenes, Focal Pointe is excited to announce the launch of its newly redesigned website: yourfocalpointe.com. There you’ll find a brand-new look and a user-friendly interface with more information than ever before.

Some of our site’s new features include:

Better navigation with improved functionality and faster loading
A new design that’s fully responsive on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets
Easier to read content for Spanish-speaking viewers
Integrated social media features including our Instagram feed on the site’s Scrapbook page
New video content that tells …

In 2015, Focal Pointe instituted a summer internship program to provide students with hands-on learning for careers in the landscape services industry. The program includes a wide range of experiences and is customizable to the intern’s areas of interest. Interns spend approximately one week in each of a variety of disciplines, culminating in a mutually agreed upon self-chosen area of interest.

Below, two of Focal Pointe’s past interns, Elizabeth Fraley (2015) and Derek Reiking (2016) provide an inside perspective on what it’s really like to be an intern at Focal Pointe:

What types of projects did you …

The natural environment sustains the life of all beings universally. – Dalai Lama

Last week Focal Pointe representatives attended the St. Louis Green Business Challenge kick-off seminar, held at the Commerce Bank Center for Science Education in St. Louis.

The St. Louis Green Business Challenge, a program of the Missouri Botanical Garden, supports integration of sustainability measures into the kinds of everyday operational practices common to every business. Since the program launched ten years ago, 216 companies – representing more than 150,000 employees – have joined the Challenge. Focal Pointe joined in 2018 and earned an Award …

Last week Focal Pointe representatives attended the Account Manager Excellence regional workshop through the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP). The two-day event, held in downtown St. Louis, featured landscape industry experts Ken Thomas and Ben Gandy of Envisor Consulting discussing ideas and strategies for effective account management. More than 70 account managers and business owners from across the country attended the workshop, including five account managers from Focal Pointe: Cody Azotea, Elyse Harpstrite, Sharon Morris, TJ Rau, and Craig Spihlman.

Over the course of two days, many excellent topics related to landscaping account management were …

Focal Pointe announces the addition of Adam Colstock of Okawville, Illinois as the firm’s Continuous Improvement Manager. In this position, Adam will be working with crew members and the leadership team to identify, prioritize, and implement best practice opportunities throughout the company’s operations. Adam will help streamline and develop processes and systems to improve efficiency while maintaining Focal Pointe’s ability to achieve the high standards expected by clients.

“As we continue to grow and branch, our entire organization is committed to making sure the service we provide remains consistent, exceptional, and of great value,” said firm …

Focal Pointe’s industry peer group, The Growth Network, holds an educational summit each year. The group’s seven member firms each send representatives to learn, collaborate, and share ideas. In 2018, the event was held in Washington, DC and featured keynote speaker, Steve McClatchy, who gave a highly informative presentation entitled, Decide: Work Smarter, Reduce Your Stress, and Lead By Example, focusing on productivity and time management.

Steve’s presentation was so impactful that Focal Pointe founder and president John Munie brought him to St. Louis last week to speak to the employees who were unable to attend …

The Focal Pointe team spent Friday training up for Old Man Winter!  All production members of our snow team went through the following training sessions:

Shop Talk:  Proper pre-event equipment inspections, proper installation of plows and spreaders, and proper post-event cleaning.

Plowing and Deicing:  Proper plowing techniques, salt spreading techniques, how to safely apply chemicals, proper loading of chemicals, and site documentation.

Hand Crews – Safety and Quality:  Proper clothing, bringing extra clothing, and what food to bring. Training also covered snow shoveling, snow blowing, and effective ice melt applications.

Communication:  Proper inter-company communication before, during, and after a …

More than 100 landscaping professionals gathered in Washington, DC last month at the Capitol City Summit, the Growth Network’s annual three-day educational event. The Growth Network is an industry peer group made up of seven landscaping companies across the U.S., including Focal Pointe. The other firms are: Level Green Landscaping of Maryland, who hosted this year’s summit; Native Land Design in Texas; Duke’s Landscape Management in New Jersey; Conserve LandCare in California; Mike Ward Landscaping in Ohio; and Greenscape, Inc. in North Carolina.

Because the companies are from different geographical areas, they aren’t competitors. This allows …

Focal Pointe is celebrating Smart Irrigation Month by helping customers save water, save money, and see better results.

Smart Irrigation Month is an initiative of the Irrigation Association, a non-profit industry organization dedicated to promoting efficient irrigation. Each July (traditionally the month of peak outdoor water use), this public awareness campaign highlights simple practices and innovative technologies to:

Make maintaining green spaces easy and convenient.
Minimize overwatering while keeping lawns, gardens, and landscapes beautiful and healthy.
Save money on utility bills.
Help protect community water supplies for today and the future.

Property owners and managers often overwater, unintentionally wasting money every …

Focal Pointe employs the best and brightest landscape professionals in the nation. Our latest search for young talent brought us to the Tar Heel State, where we attended the 2018 National Collegiate Landscape Competition (NCLC) at Alamance Community College in Graham, North Carolina. The competition, known as the “Olympics of the landscaping industry,” is landscaping’s largest recruiting event.

The National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP) describes the competition as an annual three-day powerhouse event that brings together the best landscape and horticulture students, top industry companies, and dozens of the biggest industry manufacturers and suppliers. This year, …

In 2015, Focal Pointe instituted a summer internship program to provide students with hands-on learning for careers in the landscape services industry. The program includes a wide range of experiences and is customizable to the intern’s areas of interest. Interns spend approximately one week in each of a variety of disciplines, culminating in a mutually agreed upon self-chosen area of interest.

Below, two of Focal Pointe’s past interns, Elizabeth Fraley (2015) and Derek Reiking (2016) provide an inside perspective on what it’s really like to be an intern at Focal Pointe:

What types of projects did you …

Innovation. Efficiency. Sustainability.

In today’s landscaping industry, this should be the vocabulary of an irrigation technician.

Watering your landscape is simple, right? For many, an irrigation system is out of sight and out of mind. The green turf and vibrant shrubs are watered overnight. One wakes up to a house with beautiful landscaping and finds more of the same when they go to work. It may seem like magic, but that’s irrigation. It’s a rapidly growing field with innovative technology that is greatly increasing the efficiency and sustainability of irrigation systems.

Focal Pointe strives to be leaders …

“The earth laughs in flowers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

The St. Louis area has just recovered from the longest stretch of sub-freezing temperatures in more than 30 years, so most people are not yet thinking about the annual flowers they want to plant this spring. But in the landscaping world, we’re already actively planning for the planting season to make sure our clients have beautiful flowers this spring and summer.

Planning for annual flowers actually begins more than 12 months in advance. Seeds for annual flowers are harvested from live plants, and these stock plants must be …

We’ve reached that time of year where we are no longer mowing on a regular basis. The end of the season can be challenging for a variety of reasons. Things such as number of mows left, weather, and number of available employees all affect end of season planning.

The mowing schedule is delicately balanced throughout the season. As operation managers, it’s our job to find the balance between mowing consistently on irrigated sites and skipping sites that are not irrigated, to avoid cutting when the heat is at its worst, which could possibly damage the turf. …