Landscaping with the "Dot Com Sodders"

The trailing spouse decided to try his hand at landscaping. Is there a better way to learn about the locals and the neighborhoods than working with the land? Also – one finds out that things are not always as they appear.





You may re-call – we bought a home in downtown Tallahassee about 3 years ago when I retired from teaching and Lulu started “professing” at FSU. The house had promise – great location – on a little lake – and a pool just like Lulu wanted. But by far its best quality was it was so close to campus – Lulu could walk to work if she had to.





The grounds were overgrown with trees and bushes. The thicket was so dense that the lawn refused to grow and whenever I tried to mow the little bit of grass we had – I would raise up a dust storm.



First things first – I bought a chain saw – chipper – pickup truck – and stump grinder and proceeded to remove about 200 trees – bushes – stumps and roots. Being in a green town like Tallahassee – we did raise a few grumpy looks from the neighbors. But the last 3 owners of our house “let the yard go” – and it had become an eyesore.




Don’t get me wrong – we still have about 100 trees – but compared to before – our property looks like it just joined the national guard and got a buzz haircut – leaving on the sideburns.

A landscaping project is like a symphony. One has to contract excavators – concrete men – graders – sprinkler crews – and finally a sodder.. Each one has to do their work exactly on a daily schedule or you have workers backed up – waiting – and costing money. Also if everyone is not done in time for the sod truck – the bare ground lies open to erosion – and the sod rots in a pile.

So one week in July it went like this. Monday – Gary the backhoe guy ripped up the old driveway. Tuesday – Bill the concrete guy laid the forms for the new driveway. Wednesday – we poured the driveway. Thursday - Dave the grader shaped the lot and hauled away several truckloads of overburden. Friday – a crew of 10 guys installed the sprinkler system. And finally Saturday – Dustin and his crew put down 8000 feet of sod.

It all went without a hitch – each contractor hit their time window perfectly.

But as I said above – things are not always as they appear. Near the end of the project – we got to know James Parker - Dustin Clenney – and Stephen Middleton – our sodders. During the day they reminded me of Clark Kent – the mild man and reporter – as they sweated thru the day throwing sod. I found out that DC Landscaping is their day job. At night – they turn into supermen – they are starting up a budding “dot.com” company. They have a website called “videoshowto.com” – it is full of “how to” videos. It is similar to YouTube – except it has a definite southern flavor. Their page even has a request box for videos that people need.




They cover things as mundane as “how to change the oil in a specific car” to “how to connect a DVD player.” I was a bit surprised that they did not have “how to install St. Augustine sod.”

It is always interesting being a new homeowner in Tallahassee – meeting new people everyday. Folks here seems to have two sides – what they do for work – and what they do for play. If you take time to scratch the surface – people love to tell you about what is on their mind.

And if you happen to be cruising down Seminole Drive – and you gaze upon a fresh new lawn – think about Dustin, Stephen, and James – who have dreams of being Bill Gates – but right now they will settle for being the “Dot Com Sodders.”

Check their web site at -
http://videoshowto.com