Lots of cool turf news this week, some more brain-twisting than others. Also: Why you should keep your tailgate up. Have a good week.

• Home sales are at their highest level in three years.
• 400-year-old frozen plant brought back to life. Thanks, science! (via NYBG)
• Go deeper: Your cousin, the blade of grass.
• Positive turfgass news from EPA.
• Truck aerodynamics info from GM.
• Related: Mythbusters on the enternal tailgate up-or-down debate.
• Above: The Detroit Mower Gang. Another reason the Motor City is full of badasses.

Here’s your round-up for the week. Have a good weekend, and remember why we’ve got Monday off.

• Thoughts from Square on why small businesses need to think like big ones. (via Roger Phelps)
• Next week is Hurricane Awareness Week. Get ready.
• Related: How to get federal disaster relief funds for your business.
• IPM water quality protection guide.
• Aging in place: How to target the growing senior citizen market.
• Cool sustainabile landscape program from ISC-Audubon.
• Above: A mower at Stonehenge.

Here’s my weekly digest of cool stuff. Lots of trees and insects. The weather’s great here in Ohio and crews have been slammed. Stay safe this weekend and enjoy it!

• U.S. scientists still unsure about cause of Colony Collapse Disorder.
• Related: Europe ignores science, bans neonicitinoids anyway.
• Bad news borers: an update on EAB and its recalcitrant cousins.
• Planting ancient trees.
• Book: “New York City of Trees.”
• Above: The first cut of the season at my place. Share your own glamour shots here.

Some very cool stuff this week: New research examines the health benefits of green space, a big western city is raising water rates because people are saving too much water and Pittsburgh reinvents itself from a black smudge of steel factories to a champion of sustainability. There’s hope for us all.

See you next week.

• ASLA Guide to Washington’s great landscapes was nominated for a Webby. Vote here.
• Portland is raising its water rates to keep pace with lagging demand.
• The outside Rx.
• Related: New study further shows health benefits of green space.
• 6 of the coolest trees in America.
• How to choose a board for your business.
• Above: Pittsburgh’s Phipps Conservatory opens the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at the “greenest building on Earth.”

I’ve got a wide-ranging list of links for you this week, including advice on how to prepare for Obamacare, insight on the booming (again) housing market and, for you botany nerds, a list of terrible names for wild pansies. Enjoy!

• Are you a good boss or an amazing boss? (via Chris Heiler)
• Home prices are up in many markets. Again.
• Terrible names for wild pansies.
• Advice on Obamacare.
• How to give a great speech.
• The loneliness epidemic.
• Above: Seth Godin’s start-up school podcast.

a Forest Year from motionkicker on Vimeo.

This week I’ve got a lot of cool forest stuff for you, as well as the latest research on America’s Hispanic population and a neat case study on water savings. Needless to say, it’s a grab bag. Have a great weekend!

• New research on America’s Hispanic population.
• Case study: Stay Green saves HOA a ton of water.
• Old-school tree ID.
• The most admired companies (via Joe Calloway)
• How to write a great bio.
• Seven-layer forest.
• Above: A year in the forest condensed into a two-minute time-lapse. (via Karen Varga)

For your reading pleasure this weekend I’ve got a few articles about snow, how Google works and some fantastic images of botanic gardens from around the world. Enjoy!

• Dust from Africa impacts snowfall in California. (via CLCA)
• Related: Thin snowpack out west points to summer drought.
• Tech’s best feature: the off switch. (h/t Warren Gorowitz)
• How Google works.
• Landscape designers have the best offices. (h/t Shayne Newman)
• The rise of the new sharing economy.
• Interesting Q&A with Travis Beck, NYBG’s Landscape and Gardens Project Manager and author of “Principles of Ecological Landscape Design.” (via NYBG)
• Above: Best botanic gardens in the world.

Spring isn’t technically here yet, but we’ve made it through the longest shortest month, and that’s reason enough to celebrate. This week I’ve brought you a solid reading list, a video to share with your friends and a great post on marketing.

• Lead gen tips for your sales team.
• Jim McCutcheon explains that you can make real money as a landscaper. (via Chris Heiler)
• Late winter reading list from Marty.
• Medieval flower clock.
• Rainscaping is growing more popular out east.
• Marketing means answering this question: Who do we want to change?
• Learn more about how to figure that out in our Grow the Market report.
• Above: Some pre-spring blooms to get you through the rest of winter.

Some pricing information, business strategy and how to use your extra leaf blowers to make high art. Have a great weekend.

• Find out what customers will pay.
• How to say no.
• Terrible social media advice. (via Chris Heiler)
• Sometimes you have to disappear to run your business better.
• The mother of all terraria.
• Above: Leaf blower portraits.

Here’s our weekly round-up of cool stories from the web. Enjoy!

• Bottle gardens.
• Preserving landscaping’s past.
• Flower-powered clock.
• When trees die, people die.
• ValleyCrest replants all the trees it cut down to make way for the shuttle.
• Above: A robot uses a Stihl chainsaw to carve nesting stools out of a log.