When the Unpredictable Happens: Is Your Turfgrass There For You?

Why Landscaping Pro Tim Ramsey Counts on Dormant Zoysia

When you’re a landscaping professional like Tim Ramsey, president of Lakeside Landscaping LLC in Fair Play, SC, there are some things you have down to a science. You know your region’s climate, what grows well, and what doesn’t. You know how to gauge the needs of your clients and offer recommendations based on their requests and the terrain you have to work with. If you’re anything like Ramsey, who has been in business for over 10 years, you’ve learned to mitigate risks and offer your clients the best in quality and expertise. But every landscaper and grower knows there are some things you just can’t control, and the weather is one of them. How do you run a successful business for a decade or more when there are factors out of your control?

Lakeside Landscaping LLC is a full service design-build landscape company. From inspiration to construction to maintenance, Ramsey and his staff of about 18 employees provide high quality landscaping services to commercial and private properties throughout the Carolinas and Northeast Georgia. While Ramsey does occasionally work with Bermudagrass in his landscaping projects, he predominantly uses Zoysiagrass grown by Turf Connections sod farm in South Carolina— a turfgrass he trusts will perform well regardless of the season or weather.

“We have had a very high success rate with Zoysia,” he said. “We’re predominantly a Zoysia installer. We prefer to install Zoysia for the success that we have with it and the durability. With Zoysia, even in the wintertime installing it, we have very little issues as far as the success rate.”
Reliability in spite of potentially challenging weather conditions is a huge advantage for Ramsey, who said “If folks will upgrade to the Zoysia, there’s no limitation to the season we can install in.”

Installing dormant turfgrass means a finished landscape and a house ready for habitation without the mess or hassle of laying mulch and straw only to remove it again at a later date. While some potential clients are apprehensive about installing sod in the winter, Ramsey is confident due to a track record of success in dormant sod installations.

“The customer asks us questions and I just use past experience and show them jobs that were completed and have matured,” he said.

“I keep a reference of customers to reflect back on, so I can say ‘look, this was installed this time last year and look at it now.’ You have to assure the customer that the product’s going to be just as successful if it’s installed in the winter as it is if it’s installed in the spring or summertime.”
In preparing for the unpredictable, sod not only looks attractive — it stabilizes the landscape it is installed on against erosion and runoff caused by rain and winter weather. A Zoysiagrass landscaping project Lakeside Landscaping LLC completed near Clemson University demonstrates how vital a groundcover like sod can be.

“There needs to be stabilization around the job site. We did a big commercial installation near Clemson University and there was a lot of runoff and embankments, so we used the sod to stabilize the soil and to prevent further erosion,” he said.

“It was a new construction and we were in an El Nino period a couple years ago. Instead of more plantings and ground covers, we switched to more sod. People have a big misconception that plants and mulch are less maintenance, but in reality the grass is by far less maintenance and much better for stabilization.”

For Ramsey, Zoysia turfgrass sod is the ideal choice for a landscaping project that requires both a lower maintenance routine and the functional aspect of ground cover and stability. As was the case near Clemson, when selecting a turfgrass variety that will fulfill these requirements, quality matters. Lakeside Landscaping LLC has been working with Turf Connections almost as long as he’s been in business. When the reputation of his own company relies on that quality, a trustworthy sod provider is absolutely essential, and Turf Connections’ sod fits the bill.

“It’s number one,” he said. “It’s the best quality sod I’ve found anywhere in our area. That’s what sold me on doing business with them was their quality and service. It’s by far the best.”
Ramsey has two major priorities when it comes to picking a sod provider — service and quality. When you’re carrying out work for a client, your landscaping business can depend on those factors for building your own reputation. Ramsey knows that when you find those things in a sod producer, it’s like “striking gold.”

“I’ll drive an extra hour past people who are in that industry to go there and get two pallets that we need to complete the project,” he said.
Ramsey and his workers aren’t the only ones who notice, either. Customers say it exceeds their expectations. We call customers back months after the install and follow up on how their lawn’s growing in, and we get rave reviews over how their lawns look.”

At the end of the day, landscaping professionals know that there are some things, like erosion and flooding, that you just can’t always be prepared for. But for Ramsey and Lakeside Landscaping LLC, the things you can rely on make all the difference.

“When we have needed more sod, Turf Connections has been there for us. I just can’t say enough,” he said.

“It’s a no-brainer for me to stay with them.”

Contact Turf Connections to order your own sod now!
(843) 862 8873