The Kansas City Star recently launched its new blog called “KC Gardens” - Highland Outdoor was pleased to provide their first “Landscape Project of the Month” - a project we did (and featured on our website) last fall. Read the editorial article and see photos here. Brent Menghini, Landscape Designer, was the Project Manager, and the client was pleased with the final result. See the entire portfolio here.

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NEWS Contact: Vicki Bendure, APR
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (540) 687-3360 or
Lisa Schaumann
(540) 687-5099

PROFESSIONAL LANDCARE NETWORK DONATES SERVICES
TO ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY AND HISTORIC
CONGRESSIONAL CEMETERY AND VISITS CAPITOL HILL
— A $300,000 Environmental Gift to the American People —

HERNDON, Va., July 24, 2007 — The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) held their most successful “Renewal & Remembrance at Arlington National Cemetery and Historic Congressional Cemetery” event on Monday, July 16, 2007.

More than 400 volunteers from across the nation brought their crews to Arlington National and Historic Congressional cemeteries and spent the day mulching, caring for and cabling trees with lightning protection, pruning, liming, planting, and aerating as well as installing an irrigation system at Arlington National Cemetery. This gift is valued at more than $300,000 in services and work.

“This was an opportunity for us to demonstrate our professional skills and care for two important American monuments,” stated PLANET President Jim Martin, CLP. Many PLANET members have special connections at the cemeteries either through relatives and friends who are buried there or through their own military service.

The day began at Arlington National Cemetery with a ceremony featuring a joint color guard and speaker presentations that dedicated the day of work to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. The children of PLANET members planted flowers and presented a wreath to the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

“This is PLANET’s most significant project this year,” notes Tom Shotzbarger, CLP, CLT, CTP, COLP, CTP-CSL, a PLANET member and the chairman of the event. “The natural beauty and quiet grace of Arlington National Cemetery make it a place that we feel compelled to protect and take care of. This extremely worthwhile, meaningful project demonstrates our honor and remembrance of America’s veterans and leaders.” Shotzbarger also noted that this event, in its 11th year, was the largest ever held. “We began working on Friday because there was so much more to do than in years past,” Shotzbarger explained. More than 1,400 trees, bedding plants and shrubs were planted.

On Tuesday, July 17, PLANET and Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA) members visited their congressional leaders on Capitol Hill and spoke with them about issues facing the green industry, including comprehensive immigration reform. This Legislative Day on the Hill event was held by PLANET and TCIA.

PLANET THANKS ITS PARTICIPATING COMPANIES, SPONSORS, AND DONORS!

PARTICIPATING COMPANIES:
….
Highland Outdoor
….
PLATINUM SPONSORS:
Bayer Environmental Science
Husqvarna
Syngenta Professional Products

GOLD SPONSORS:
Dow AgroSciences
IMERYS
John Deere
John Deere Landscapes/LESCO
Nufarm Turf & Specialty

SILVER SPONSORS:
BASF Corporation
FMC Corporation
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company
Vermeer Manufacturing

BRONZE SPONSORS:
The Andersons, Inc.
Helena Chemical Company
MAS Labor (Mid-Atlantic Solutions, Inc.)
PBI Gordon Corp.
Workforce Advantage

DONORS:
Angelica Nurseries, Inc.
Arbor Landscapers, Inc.
K&H Lawn Services, Inc
Manor View Farm
Premier Tech Biotechnologies
Riverbend Nursery
Shemin Nurseries, Inc.
The Tankard Nurseries
Wentworth Nursery

PLANET is the association of members who create and maintain the QUALITY OF LIFE in communities across America. With more than 4,200 member companies and affiliates, these firms and their employees represent more than 100,000 green industry professionals.

For more information, visit www.LandcareNetwork.org, or call the PLANET office at (800) 395-2522.

To find a PLANET professional in your area, visit www.LandcareNetwork.org/findaprofessional, or call the PLANET office at
(800) 395-2522.

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Life is a trip. When thinking about your travel needs you should visit Kayak.com. It is a travel search engine for flights, hotels, cruises and rental cars. Voted “Best of the Web”, by Business Week and Forbes this is the future of travel.

As an Executive Assistant at Highland Outdoor, I spend many hours on this easy and useful site, coordinating travel for our staff members to client meetings, speaking engagements and educational trade shows. Some of the great qualities about this site are their fare alerts and fare history that help you as the customer stay on top of the ever changing travel prices. It searches all of the airlines, websites, or any fare engines on the internet, finding the best price. It is so much more useful than Travelocity or Expedia, resources we used before we stumbled on Kayak.

This site is free and is able to connect you to the right resource to best fit your travel needs. So the next time you need to research travel for work or leisure, remember to visit Kayak.com.

Now that we’re in the middle of the summer, we are able to get get some photography of some projects we have done in the past year.  Check back often this month as we are attempting to take photos on a regular basis.  We have uploaded new photos on our Portfolio page.  Click here for some new project photos.  We hope to have many more portfolios uploaded by the end of July.

Our latest addition is a project that will be featured on kansascity.com in the coming weeks.  It was an add-on for a design-build project that was done several years ago, and the client wanted to add additional outdoor living areas for an upcoming graduation party.  You can click here for Portfolio 6.

Today Highland Outdoor will be a featured advertiser in MyMidwest Magazine, the on-flight magazine for Midwest Airlines, Kansas City’s 2nd largest airline, catering specifically to business executives and discerning leisure travelers.  We’re proud to regionally brand our company, and are excited about the potential opportunity it will be to work with this new segment of clients.  Check our ad out, opposite the soduku puzzle!  Congratulations to Jessica Singleton, in our office, for the excellent work in getting the ad placed, and the deal negotiated.

I recently flew Midwest Airlines for the first time to Boston for a business meeting, and was impressed with the clientele.  In fact, on the way back, I sat next to a business associate, who had seen our recent article in the Kansas City Business Journal.  While reading the inflight magazine, I realized that no design/build companies were advertising there, so a quick email from my phone to the office, and within a few days, Jessica had the ad placed.  Great job, Jessica!

This effort continues our commitment to attract the right client, at the right time, and expose them to all of our service offerings.