Much of my travel schedule during the past year has been to talk with those in the green industry about the business of professional landscaping and about our new publication serving that market. Some who heard the new title, Total Landscape Care, were under the impression our magazine focused primarily on maintenance, or the “care” of landscaping. Our explanation was that “TLC”, as we like to call it, actually covers the gamut of landscaping, including maintenance, but we are perhaps the only book that pays particular attention to the design and actual creation of a landscape project in each month’s issue.
Our readers have responded to that approach: “Truly your team has broken the mold that all the other (magazines) are in,” writes Roald Hughes, owner of Green Mountain Landscape in New York.
“Something’s missing in other landscaping books and your editorial calendar shows you realize that.” Those kind words were from a public relations firm representing a national nursery.
The reaction to our bilingual “Safety Watch” pullout card has been phenomenal – so much so that a competitive magazine has copied our idea almost verbatim. What a compliment!
One area that we have tried to pay particular attention to is the overall look of the magazine – particularly the photographs and graphics we select for each issue. Let’s face it, landscaping is an aesthetic business. Your job is to change something bland into a visually exciting new landscape.
We celebrate our readers’ passion for beauty, color and design each month starting on the cover of our magazine and on every subsequent page inside. We know if we can capture that sense of aesthetic appreciation with a dramatic cover photo then, you, the reader will not only pick TLC up, you’ll feel compelled to open it and see what is inside.
One feature that continues to grow in popularity is “Scrapbook” in the back of each issue. Much to my delight, reader contributions of before-and-after pictures of their most successful projects has been outstanding. In my opinion, such passionate responses from readers prove our editorial point: Like TLC, professional landscapers take a great deal of pride in the scenery they create and the job they do. As a result, readers instinctively know that TLC will continue to be “all ears and eyes” in covering the landscaping industry and giving them the informational and inspirational ideas they need to become more successful as this industry changes and grows.
