AM Leonard

Landscape crews make pest treatment decisions all season long. Pests are always going to be part of the job, but not every pest or every bit of damage needs the same response. Some problems call for treatment before any sign of the pest shows up. Others call for scouting early in the season and checking back regularly so symptoms are identified early and treatment decided quickly.

Diseases like powdery mildew and boxwood blight fall into the first group. Weather and known disease pressure in an area guide the treatment plan ahead of the season, before symptoms appear. Common insects like bagworms and scale fall into the second group, since the damage they cause isn't always worth treating. A threshold needs to be set for these to evaluate when the damage is still acceptable vs. when damage is serious enough to require treatment.

Other pests, like oak wilt and emerald ash, fall into a third group. Both are serious enough that a confirmed sighting nearby is reason enough to treat, even before

CFM measures air volume, and MPH measures air speed. For most production cleanup work, CFM is the more useful of the two figures, because moving a large volume of air is what relocates debris across an area. MPH becomes more important when the debris is stuck in place, such as wet leaves matted into turf, pine needles packed into gravel, or grit settled into expansion joints.

While spec sheets should include both CFM and MPH, comparing those numbers is not as straightforward as it seems. Two blowers that list the same CFM will not always move the same amount of air. The number depends on which point on the blower the manufacturer measured the air volume, and whether a common testing standard applies to that machine. This guide explains what each specification measures. It also covers why figures from different manufacturers are not always comparable, and how to match output to specific jobs.

What CFM and MPH measure

Both CFM and MPH describe the same airstream, but they measure different

Drought conditions place significant stress on landscapes, especially newly planted trees, shrubs, annuals, perennials, turf, and shallow-rooted ornamentals. Professional landscapers can reduce plant loss and long-term damage by recognizing drought symptoms early, adjusting maintenance practices, improving soil conditions, and watering strategically when possible.

Identifying water stress early gives landscapers an opportunity to respond before plants suffer lasting damage.

Keep your tools working like new with tips from the A.M. Leonard Landscaper Tool Maintenance Guide. In this video, we show you how to keep your shovels, cutting tools, rakes, and more in top condition for all seasons.

Circling roots wrap around the inside of a container instead of growing outward, making a tree less stable once it goes in the ground. Nurseries and installers work to build better root architecture from the start, and air-pruning pots and containers are a main tool for doing that. Peer-reviewed research backs up their value, and it also shows that mechanical root pruning, shaving the root ball by hand at shift-up, works well alongside air-pruning containers and gives the best results when the two are paired.

Choosing the right shade fabric comes down to more than just blocking sunlight — the difference between tape yarn and monofilament yarn, and between woven and knitted construction, affects everything from UV resistance and airflow to how the fabric holds up in high winds or after a puncture. This buyer's guide breaks down how each type is made, compares strength, shade percentage, and lifespan side by side, and answers the questions customers ask most, like why HDPE knit often outperforms polypropylene woven material and what "mono-mono" actually means. Read the full guide to find the right fit for crop cover, animal shade, privacy screening, or containment needs.

After a major storm, the first question is always the same: which trees are safe, which ones can be saved, and which ones need to come down. At A.M. Leonard, we supply the tools professionals use for this work. This guide covers the field assessment sequence arborists use, grounded in university extension research, with the thresholds that drive save-or-remove decision making.

The first pass is a safety scan from a distance, looking for immediate hazards before you approach anything. After that, the close inspection runs ground-up: root zone, trunk, then crown. The base is where real problems hide, and what you find there informs how you read everything above. 

Wheelbarrow capacity is measured in cubic feet, but the number that actually limits you is the weight rating. Fill a 6 cu ft tray with wet soil or gravel and you'll hit 500 pounds before the tray looks half full. Fill the same tray with mulch and you'll push it all day. Start with what you're hauling.

Four things determine the right fit: capacity, tray material, tire type, and wheel configuration.

Cubic feet tells you how much volume the tray holds. Weight capacity tells you how much it can actually carry. For dense materials, the weight limit is what matters first.

6 cu ft is the workhorse size for most day-to-day work. It clears standard gates, fits in truck beds, and stays controllable on slopes with a full load. For mulch, soil, plantings, and general cleanup, it handles the job.

7 cu ft is a mid-size option available in select non-Leonard models in AML's catalog. A good fit if 6 cu ft feels limiting but you don't need the full jump to 8.

8 cu ft

There's a default most irrigation systems settle into: spray heads in the turf zones, spray heads in the beds, everything running on the same timer. That works for turf. In established ornamental beds, it usually means wetting foliage, watering bare soil between plants, and applying water faster than the bed can absorb it.

Drip fixes most of those problems. But drip isn't one answer. The emitter type and spacing depend on the soil you're working with and how the bed is planted. Converting an existing spray zone adds pressure constraints. And how the system gets maintained shapes which configuration holds up past the first season.

The sections below walk through each of those decisions.

Plant type and density is the first input. Widely spaced ornamental shrubs want water delivered at each plant individually. Dense ground cover or annual beds need more uniform distribution across the whole surface.

Soil texture determines how water moves underground from each