Frank Fistner, president at ArtisTree, has a good list of language you should never include in your contracts. It’s a good thing to pass this along to your sales team for distribution to property managers and HOA boards during bid time.

Fistner’s list includes these vague gems:

• “Custom-blended” fertilizer (details, please?)
• “If deemed necessary” (by whose definition?)
• “occasionally inspected”

At L&L, we support any effort to eliminate fuzzy language. You can read the full list at the ArtisTree blog.

Here’s our weekly digest of interesting and informative stuff from the internet. Dig in, and have a great weekend!

• “A wall made of animals.” Why you need a good schedule, not just a great design.
• 30,000-year-old plants from the Russian permafrost.
• Chris Heiler on how to do SEO.
• A great discussion on gas prices at our Linkedin group.
• Good, short piece from Jason Cupp on customers.
• Abbot and Costello explain unemployment figures.
• Above: The first in a series of top landscape mistakes from Austin Outdoor.

Here’s a collection of some of the best stuff we found this week. Enjoy!

• Ron Edmonds at the Principium Group has a good collection of major acquisitions from 2011.
• Cynthia Barnett has a new book on how we can fix America’s water crisis. (Via UTNE)
• Today is Epiphany, so you’re allowed to take down your Christmas tree. Here are a few ideas on what to do with it.
• 2012 looks bleak for consumer spending.
• ArtisTree supervisor exceeds customer expectations, refuses customer kisses.
• Jeff Korhan’s predictions for business and social media in 2012. (Better content, more videos.)
• Why marketing for small companies follows the “fake-it-til-you-make-it” model.
• Above: A good illustration of turf’s benefits from BASF TurfTalk.