Spraying in windy conditions is never a good idea, and it's not something I would even contemplate doing.
My situation is this; I have a customer who I see on Saturday afternoons, and she wants a patch of ground sprayed before she plants into it. There are two plots, both of which have been gone over three times by a tractor and rotavator, and now, of course, docks and clumps of couch grass are everywhere. My problem with spraying this area is that every time I go there it's either raining (or has just rained or is forecast to rain shortly) or windy. My customer is adamant that she wants this area sprayed in time to plant out bean seedlings (that her wild rabbit population will browse, but that's another story).
How do you cope with spraying jobs when the conditions are always wet and/or windy? Every time I duck out of spraying it's seen as me being awkward.
Ben.
(N.B. the two plots are side by side and surrounded by grass, and there's a mixed native/non native hedge about 6ft away)
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Shutter all around with boards, then use them as a temporary cover?
If the area is too big, tell the client they shouldn't eat the produce from ground that's been sprayed against your advice......
Thanks Brian and Paul.
I've not actually got a spray hood at the moment, but might be able to pick one up soon. The spaces are both pretty big, and to be entirely honest given that the job is essentially to claw back garden from years of neglect and develop new areas I think this client is pushing her luck expecting me to develop and maintain a vegetable plot on two hours a week! I was not keen when she told me that she'd decided to do this in the first place....
Make sure she clearly understands what can be expected. I'd suggest this may not be a viable use of business time.
where do people get the idea that rotovating a weed patch isnt going to the problem slightly more difficult to resolve....weed patch-chop weeds into finer root parts-then spray...? are they asking you to spray onto mud or something? what is the point of that?
cant she weed it out? lol
More excellent replies- thank you for sparing the time.
The job there is chaotic; she's a plant hoarder and the challenge each week is to create more space to plant up, rescue plants that are being smothered by nettles, brambles and couch grass (when I started there the brambles were taller than my van), so efficient use of time is important, hence spraying the area in the first place. To be brutally honest with you all, as fellow horticultural professionals, this particular job is getting me down- I'm there because I have to supplement my nursery wages, and this is a regular income. That said this customer is always squeezing me for extra time which is never paid for, and the prospect of going there leaves me cold. If I could find a way of saving that money or earning it somewhere else I would happily drop the customer.
I don't know why rotovating is seen as a good idea- it certainly wasn't right for this plot. I suggested sraying first, maybe a couple of times, then if she really wanted it rotovated going over it afterwards. Next thing the farmer had been in, and the soil was churned up. I stood on the soil and sank up to my ankles- yes, I will be spraying mud! The soil structure has been wrecked, so the raspberry canes waiting to go in will most likely not grow anyway.
Weeding out would be the best option, but she's unwilling to pay my time to do that, wanting me to lift sections of turf in another area instead. Oh, and in case anyone's wondering why I don't increase my time there it's because after a two hour slot with this customer I've had enough! Maybe I'm being too harsh about this job- might write a post describing the job (being careful to avoid names!) and see what you all think...?
Speculate to accumulate, I would drop customer and if you do not have new customers in pipeline get some leaflets printed and use spare 2 hours to target new customers.
Plenty of business out there and plenty of nice people to do business with.
Thank you both for this- it's hard when it's 'one on one' with a customer to know if things are as bad as you think or if you're just looking at things in a bad light. You've given me something to think about. :-)
Thanks Ben for raising it, although the original subject heading has moved on a bit towards the fundamentals of managing a client's desires with best practice and looking after their budget too....all at the same time of course!
The topic has caused me to review a current client - great 'juice'!!
Cheers, Eugene
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