Since 1989, Jim Wilkinson has led SeaScape, Inc. down a
profitable path while keeping an eye on the environment.
A leader in both the green industry and the community,
SeaScape has seen steady growth. Beginning as a lawn
care firm, its services now include complete tree care, commercial
property landscape management and even holiday
decorations
In the very competitive market SeaScape faces in Coventry,
Rhode Island, productivity and labor concerns are tied
together as major challenges facing the company. “Lawn
care is a very physically demanding job, and anything we
can do to make it less demanding for our employees is
an advantage,” Wilkinson explains. “This is thought of as
a young man’s job, and turnover is a problem. We want
to keep people here for the long term and want people to
think of this as a career.”
To this end, Wilkinson is looking to expand his fleet of
ride-on sprayer/spreaders. Plus, if he can reduce applications
of fertilizers and pesticides, it frees up employees to
do other tasks.“We need to be sure that our employees are as productive
as they can be,” Wilkinson says. “Not only does
this keep our costs down, but it also allows us to pay our
employees more money.”
Wilkinson has found an unexpected ally in his quest to
meet these dual challenges. He has been testing DURATION
CR fertilizer from Koch Turf & Ornamental, which helps
increase productivity while reducing man-hours pushing a
spreader.“DURATION CR takes controlled-release fertilizer to
another level,” he says. “And it enables us to dial in very
precisely how long we want these fertilizer products to last.”
Wilkinson started his trial in 2013 on “a handful of
lawns.” Last year, it was used on an entire route consisting
of about 500 lawns. “This year, we are expanding its use to
100 percent of our lawns,” he says.“Now we don’t need to put fertilizer down 5 to 6 times
a year,” he says. “We can cut back to 2-3 times a year, which
obviously takes some of the burden off of our technicians.
“When they are not putting down fertilizer, they can
spend more time on issues such as weeds and insects,”
Wilkinson continues. “At the same time, they can go
through their accounts faster, and take care of more lawns
during their day. And, if anything, the lawns have improved
in quality.”
On a final note, Wilkinson says that his new fertilization
program is also environmentally sound. “We live in a
very environmentally sensitive state. Our main resource is
Narragansett Bay; regulatory officials are very concerned
about nitrogen loading,” Wilkinson says. “With DURATION
CR, we’ve been able to reduce our total nitrogen applied on
annual basis by 25 percent. It minimizes loss of N due to
volatilization, runoff and leaching.”
The Rhode Island Department of Environmental management
introduced a new certification for Sustainable Turf
Management in January, 2015. “SeaScape was one of the
first companies to apply,” says Wilkinson. “And one of the
main reasons we earned this certification was the fact that
we reduced our nitrogen use by 25 percent. From an environmental
standpoint, it’s an absolute winner.”