Swearing: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.

The good: There’s a swing in the number of landscape and lawn care professionals calling the industry “healthy” versus “flat” or “down” compared to last year. (See “Pulse check” on page S5). The bad: More than a quarter of industry members say they’re “uncertain” about 2013 and 5 percent say they’re “pessimistic” about next year (See “Optimism index,” on page S5). (Last year only 12 percent were uncertain and 10 percent were pessimistic.) And the ugly: Many companies were hit by backto-back bad weather seasons with little snow in 20112012 and a historic drought in the spring and summer. Still, companies report a 7.5 percent increase in gross revenue from 2010 to 2011 and are anticipating a 17 percent bump in revenue from 2011 to 2012. Many industries would be happy to have that growth in a post-recessionary economy. When it comes to profits, although a quarter of companies expect net profits to be less than 4 percent, 41 percent expect 10 percent or more. (See chart on page S7.)