Grave Care – Culture, Weather, & Geology Affect Cemetery Maintenance

As you go about starting your own Grave Care Business, you will benefit yourself greatly by realizing there are differences in cemetery care depending on 3 main factors.

1) Local Human Culture – local belief systems and acceptable grave care practices differ from community to community. Your understanding of local culture allows you to cater your services in a wide range of cemeteries in your local area.

2) Local Weather Climate – weather and seasonality determine the types of profitable services you should provide your clients throughout the year. Opportunities for spring, summer, fall, and winter services allow you to make money year-round.

3) Local Geological Attributes – soil substrates, types of local rock used for tombstones, and erosive forces in your local cemeteries affect your ability to provide proper services. Application of your knowledge of local geology will make you a MUCH better Grave Care Professional.

I have spent the more than 20 years visiting and studying cemeteries world-wide to gain greater understanding of their care. It should come as no surprise that a cemetery in upstate New York will require different care than a cemetery in southern Mississippi. Cemeteries in Hawaii are bound by different forces of culture, climate, and geology than cemeteries in other parts of the United States or in other countries of the world like England, New Zealand, or Italy.

Human Culture, Climate, and Geology affect acceptable practices and methods of cemetery care.

Let’s look at three examples of cemeteries I visited recently. Culture, climate, and geology affect each of these cemeteries differently.

1) The first example is a cemetery in the deep southern part of Mississippi. Local culture in this Mississippi Cemetery embraces chain-linked fence surrounding each grave plot. Since proper grave care and cemetery maintenance should be tailored to the local culture, a grave care professional who services grave plots in this cemetery will get more clients and will make more money by providing chain link fence maintenance in addition to other grave care services.
mississippi cemetery care

2) The second example is a cemetery in Northern Scotland. Scottish Cemeteries face fierce weather climates. Winter howls with gale force winds in this part of the world. Those winds and winter storms add stress to fragile centuries old tombstones. Along Scotland’s coast line, there is salt in the air from the mist of seawater splashing fearsly against craggy outcroppings during violent north sea storms. The very atmosphere of Scotland’s weather climate demands adjustments to the level of care provided by a Grave Care Business in that part of the world.
scottish cemeteryScottish Grave Yard

3) The third example I want to look at today is Hawaiian Cemeteries. Hawaiian Cemeteries are intimately linked to their local geological forces. Especially on the Big Island of Hawaii, hardened substrate from recent lava flows should be paramount in the minds of Grave Care Professionals servicing these cemeteries. Plot maintenance practices should be adjusted to accentuate local natural features. On my recent trip to Hawaii to study cemeteries there, I discovered that understanding the geology of the area and the effects of active plate tectonics will greatly increase the profitability of a Grave Care Business in that region of the world.
Cemetery in Hawaii

Hawaiian Cemetery Grave Care

These are only three examples of cemeteries requiring vastly different care based on human culture, weather climate, and geology.

We’d love to hear from you. Share with us information about your local cemeteries. What cultural, climatological, and geological variables affect the cemeteries where you live? If you love cemeteries, leave a comment below and tell us about the forces affecting your local cemeteries.

My name is Keith. I have a life-long love of cemeteries. In addition to visiting and studying cemeteries for myself, I believe a financial incentive can help people care for and maintain their local cemeteries. Family members of those who are interred in local cemeteries will gladly pay you money to provide general plot maintenance, tombstone cleaning, and floral decoration on grave stones. Everyone wins in this arrangement. The families are grateful you are providing these services, the cemeteries attain a better level of care, and you make money with your own small Grave Care Business.

IF you’ve ever thought about starting a Grave Care Business, we provide a comprehensive Grave Care Business training course to help you get stared and grow your own successful Grave Care Business. The course provides even more information on the 3 subjects listed above as well as a HUGE amount of material on starting your own grave care business.

To learn more and purchase the course materials, please visit our website:

Grave Care Business – Training Course and Instruction

If you have questions about the course, please let us know on our CONTACT page. We love cemeteries and are always happy to help.

How-to Run a “GREEN” Grave Care Business

Small businesses are rewarded by providing their services in an environmentally friendly manner. Grave care is no exception.

Small businesses are rewarded by providing their services in an environmentally friendly manner.  Grave care is no exception.

If you have read our Grave Care Business materials you know important we feel it is to operate your business as environmentally friendly as possible.  By saying this, we are not eco-fanatics.  However, we believe an eco-friendly business will be looked on favorably by your comunity, loved by your customers, and cost less money to operate.

The Grave Care Business program outlines many different services to offer your customers.  Today, we are giving you a brief overview of ways to make the landscape maintenance side of your business environmentally sound.

1)  Lawn Mower

If you Grave Care business normally does single plots, you will find it beneficial to use a push-style reel mower.  Reel mowers do not use gasoline thereby eliminating ozone destroying pollution.  Since they do not have engines they they practically producs no sound.  For larger areas and entire cemetery clean-ups feel free to use a powered mower but for single plots a reel mower is a great choice to cut the grass.

2)  Weedeater or String Trimmer

There aren’t many effective non-powered options to trim weeds.  Since 2-cycle engines are some of the most polluting lawn care equipment engines, if you are in the market for a weedeater, seriously consider purchasing a battery operated or a propane powered weedeater.  We have personally tested several models of battery and propane powered models.  The Lehr propane powered line trimmer is our favorite.  Though it is noisy like many weedeaters, it produces very low emissions and it runs for two hours on a 1 lb. bottle of propane.  As always, use caution with string trimmers around tombstones and grave markers.  The string can damage these stones.

3)  Plan your routes

Plan your routes so trips to the same cemetery coincide with each other.  Travel time is a huge waste of your resources.  Plan your jobs so all jobs in the same cemetery are performed on the same day.  One trip is much less wasteful than three or four trips.

These are just a few tips on how you can “green” your Grave Care business.  For our entire Grave Care Business package, visit our home page at:  GraveCareBusiness.com