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     There are some pretty amazing things on the Internet, some good, some bad and a lot that are just useless and mediocre. In the really good category would be the Flip My Landscape competition on local radio station WKML’s Web site. If this event brings to mind shows like Extreme Home Makeover, Flip this House, DIY and Designed to Sell, then you are right on the money.
      {mosimage} In the spirit of bettering the community, Cape Fear Landscape and Lawncare of Fayetteville owner, Garrett Fulcher and his sponsors, are offering up to a $5,000 landscape makeover to each winner of the competition, and the chance to have the entire experience broadcast on Time Warner Cable’s Channel 9, and we aren’t just talking sod and a few hostas either. Fulcher’s company deals in things like outdoor kitchens, retaining walls, outdoor lighting and custom pavers too. Set your DVR’s and mark your calendar, the first episode airs on Saturday, April 4 at 10:30 a.m. 
      So how did this traffic-signal installer and landscaper decide this was a project he wanted to initiate? “I was just sitting around thinking of something I could do to give back to the community because they’ve been so good to me,” said Fulcher. “I wanted to kinda give back a little bit to them and do it in a profession that we are good at, so we came up with the idea of flipping someone’s landscape.”
       The Cape Fear Landscape crew has already done a few makeovers, but none of them have been filmed or aired yet, although each one has surely been a blessing to the recipient. 
       “We’re looking for people who are down and out or are disabled and can’t do it any more,” said Fulcher. One of the winners  is a dual military couple. The husband has just returned from his fifth deployment and the wife is on her first deployment right now. “They just didn’t have the time to keep things up and he wanted to surprise her. He just wanted something nice for her to come home to.”
       While the bulk of the digging, planting and installing is done by Fulcher and his crew, there are plenty of local sponsors who are pitching in — Hubbard Pipes, Accubrick, Custom Pavers, the Fayetteville Guard, Thurman Trucking, Highland Paving Co., Horne Farms, Ican, Up & Coming Weekly, Vista Outdoor Lighting and Twin Oaks Nursery. Fulcher said that the response has been so good that the plan is to keep doing make-overs and wowing the community as long as the sponsors are willing to hang in there with him. When someone drives by a home that has used Cape Fear Landscape and Lawncare of Fayetteville, Fulcher’s hope is that people who see it will automatically know that his company has been there, and that the people who live there will enjoy the outdoor living spaces that they’ve created for years to come. 
       “We want people to know that when you need landscaping you need to be calling Cape Fear Landscaping,” he said.  “I mean we do it all from  one end to the other. We do outdoor kitchens, custom walkways, drive ways, sod, irrigation, landscape lighting. We do it from one end to the other; if it has got anything to do with the outside of your house we can do it.”
       While the first round of competition has closed, it is not too late to enter for the second round. Entries are being accepted until April 5. They will be posted on WKML’s Web site Monday, April 6 - Thursday, April 9 until 11:59 p.m., when the next Flip My Landscape winner will be chosen by popular vote. Visit www.wkml.com to enter and find out about the contest rules. Even if you don’t enter you can still vote and help choose the next prize recipient.