The Unemployed Life

Lemonade Makers: The Lawn Painters

Southern California was a greener, lusher place before the downturn. Homeowners worked to keep their lawns verdant—but with recession came thousands of foreclosures, and acres of brown grass. Last summer, T.J. Davis, who is retired from the fire department, and his brother-in-law, Mike Patino, who had been laid off, saw a news story about a company in drought-plagued Northern California that painted dry lawns using an eco-sensitive dye. In October, they launched Green Genie Lawn Service in Winchester, Calif. Davis talked to Recessionwire about the opportunity they saw in making grass greener for 25 cents a square foot.

What did it take to start this up?
It wasn’t a cheap investment. We spent almost $9,000. We bought a tank for $2,500 and a trailer we got through Craigslist. The dye itself is $99 a gallon and comes in two-and-a-half gallon containers, so if you want to buy several of them, it’s expensive.

How did you get the word out?
What I ended up doing was driving around; I probably put 500 miles on my car going to different cities. I’d take down the realtors’ phone numbers from their signs and we’d call them. We put together a pitch about curb appeal, got their emails and sent it to them. We also put signs up on lawns we’ve done with pamphlets attached, and when I drive around I sometimes see people jotting down the number on my truck when I go past.

The only problem we do have is that the chemicals in it react with dirt and turn it blue, so we can’t spray lawns that are down to bare dirt.

We also went to some of the cities around here that fine homeowners—which is basically the banks at this point—for not keeping lawns green. We’d go to the city and say, “If we go in and paint these lawns green, would that stop the fines?” They can put a lien on the homes for the cost of our services; it’s less money and less hassle than trying to collect fines from the banks that own these homes. If the bank owns this property, they’d have to turn on water and electricity to have people come in and maintain those lawns naturally. It would be a big cost for them. One town actually keeps us on retainer. They’ll send us a list or call with houses they need us to do.

What do you use to actually paint the lawns?
It’s called Green Lawnger. It’s the same kind of liquid that’s used on golf courses and pro football fields. It’s eco-friendly and won’t harm children and pets. It comes as a liquid you mix 15-to-one with water and spray it on. The only problem we do have is that the chemicals in it react with dirt and turn it blue, so we can’t spray lawns that are down to bare dirt.

What are these properties like?
Some are so bad — stagnant pools and weeds up to your knees. If a home’s there and been vacant and vandals have broken the windows, we’ll go and put in boards and board it all up. We also drain pools. That’s kind of a messy situation but it takes care of the mosquitoes, which is good. So the cities like us to go in and take care of that. We did one that took us six hours. We mowed first and took out a good 12 bags of weeds. The neighbors were coming out to watch by the end. They were really glad we were there.

Where do you see Green Genie going?
I think at least in Southern California we’re still going to be in business in the next couple of years. We’re still in a recession here and people are still walking away from their houses. I saw one just the other day. The family just walked away from their home. Plus, there’s an ongoing drought situation and talk of more water restrictions. I think what’s going to happen is that we’ll target where there are more water restrictions and do lawns where people are living in the homes.

Martha C. White is a freelance writer in New York. She writes frequently about finance and the economy.

Tags: business, Lemonade Makers, new entrepreneurs, real estate