Profile: Kyle VandenBrink

Interview by Leslie McGuire, managing editor

 

Kyle VandenBrink, area manager for TruGreen Landcare, and his team provide services 365 days a year. The crews start at 6AM and work 8 to 9 hours per day, depending on the day, five days a week. They also provide weekend coverage of two people who work on Saturday and Sunday and are primarily in charge of portering the property and cleaning up trash leaf build-up.

The Gaylord Palms Resort, located in Kissimmee, Florida has just received the Professional Grounds Management Society?EUR??,,????'?????<

VandenBrink and his crew of seven full time staffers maintain 19 acres of turf, two acres of display beds with a total paved area of 24 acres. In addition they have two seasonal staff members. The group includes an arborist and two licensed pesticide applicators and put in a total of 300 labor hours per week. ?EUR??,,????'?????<

2 Mechanical services are done during daylight hours to minimize guest interruption. Here, a staff member is edging the St. Augustine turf. The plantings behind him are fashion azaleas. Hand watering and replacement of quarterly and bi-annual plantings beautify even the service entrances.

The landscape features four different turf types designed to succeed in both form and function: St. Augustine ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The equipment they use includes five Exmark mowers; two 52-inch riders, one 52-inch walk-behind and two 21-inch push mowers for all the islands in the parking lot?EUR??,,????'?????<

Slope mowing has to be carefully managed during the wet season to avoid rutting, which would damage the St. Augustine turf. Phoenix dactylifera palms and weeping willows are planted on the slopes.

Many of the beds feature newer introductions and unique varieties that place Gaylord?EUR??,,????'?????<

Editor's note: The Professional Grounds Management Society's (PGMS) Green Star Award program complements other national landscape award programs that recognize outstanding landscape design and construction by saluting the grounds superintendent responsible for maintaining a well-manicured landscape year round . Further information about the awards program is available online at www.pgms.org