What do a university, a hospital, a homeowners association and a retail center have in common?
They all need great landscaping.
And they all come to Level Green Landscaping to get it.
Everybody gets the same skilled attention to detail, from mowing to spring cleanup to installing impressive enhancements.
“But each type of property is unique, in its own way, and has its own needs,” says Paul Wisniewski, Division Manager at Level Green Landscaping.
Here’s a look at the diverse markets Level Green serves, with insight from Wisniewski about the challenges of meeting each one's unique needs.
Watch our video case studies for a more detailed look at how we keep all these clients happy, and their properties inspiring envy.
HOA/Condominium
It can be tough to please one discriminating homeowner. Now multiply that by a couple hundred or so.
“With an HOA, you’re dealing with the homeowners, so there’s great attention to detail, because they live there,” Wisniewski says.
“It’s important to know the expectations not just of the property manager, but of the HOA board and all the home owners,” he says. “You might have anywhere from 50 to 300 home owners, who all want a say. Good communication is really important, to keep everybody happy.”
South River Landing is a high-end community of multi-million dollar homes near Annapolis.
“Each home has its own restrictions and preferences, right down to the type of mower they want used,” he says. “It can get complicated.”
Level Green sends three crews — a total of 12 people — there every Friday, “rain or shine,” he says, to maintain and beautify the lush landscaping.
“It’s like three jobs in one,” Wisniewski says. “Both the account manager and the operation manager are on site, to make sure everything is done just right.”
Mixed Use/Retail
A mixed-use/retail site can include a lot of different elements, but it always means one thing — lots of people passing through and passing by, noticing if the place looks good.
The landscaping has to impress.
It doesn’t get much more mixed use than at Silver Spring Metro Center, a Level Green Landscaping customer for several years.
This vibrant group of residential, retail and office buildings in Silver Spring, Maryland includes retail shops, a child care center, several large government offices and high-end apartments.
Lots of foot traffic creates some challenges for Level Green crews, who have to keep the landscaping pristine without interfering with pedestrians with their mowers and weed trimmers.
“In a retail setting, we focus on the high-traffic areas, like walkways and entrances, and common areas where people congregate,” Wisniewski says. “Those areas have to be high impact.”
Landscaping retail centers also means paying attention to hours of operation, he says.
“When are stores the busiest?” he says. “If a store is busy at 10 a.m., we make sure we’re there before, doing our work when they’re the most empty.”
Learn more about Silver Spring Metro Center and its landscaping needs here.
Municipalities
Maintaining the landscaping at a municipality can mean anything from mowing athletic fields and installing plant material to building retaining walls and updating expansive paver areas.
Level Green has done all of that, and more, for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
Level Green maintains the landscaping for two of its high-use, high-visibility properties.
Potomac River Waterfront Park sits in the shadow of some of the country’s most recognizable monuments and draws throngs of tourists and locals alike.
A hiker/biker trail winds its way up and over I-95, the busiest interstate in America, and links trail systems in Maryland and Virginia. As visitors follow the trails, they can pause and enjoy sweeping views of the capital city.
Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex (pictured below) is a sprawling facility that encompasses a field house, fitness center, outdoor track and several athletic fields.
“We’ve redesigned 70 percent of the waterfront property with new plant materials, and there’s more to do,” Wisniewski says.
Keeping these areas looking great is crucial, he says, considering the sheer volume of pedestrians and cyclists who pass through here every day.
Commercial/Office
Even within this market, the clients are diverse.
Level Green maintains the landscaping at Four Seasons Hotel, the only five-star, five-diamond hotel in Washington DC; Dillingham Square Shopping Center, which recently completed a multi-million-dollar renovation, and Cabin Branch Distribution Center, a high-end industrial complex encompassing nine buildings.
In all three cases, great landscaping gives these diverse properties the edge over the competition.
Not only does their healthy, vibrant landscaping help set them apart, but it also enhances the overall curb appeal — something tenants expect.
Whatever the property, “We have the same goals in mind,” Wisniewski says. “Everything needs to look its best.”
Learn more about all three of these properties and their landscaping here.
Religious
Churches and other religious institutions have a unique set of landscaping needs, Wisniewski says.
“It’s important that these properties look especially good for their services, whether they’re on Saturdays or Sundays, and for holidays like Easter and Christmas,” he says.
“We have to be flexible, so we can time our work there around their particular needs.”
One of Level Green’s religious clients is the
Franciscan Monastery, a spiritual oasis built in 1899, that’s open to the public for tours, visits and special occasions, including many weddings.
The landscaping and expansive gardens at the 50-acre property are among the biggest draws for the several hundred visitors each week. The rose garden alone includes 3,000 rose bushes, plus perennials, annuals, statues and fountains.
“We have a full-time person there, to make sure it’s always looking its best,” Wisniewski says.
Take a look here to learn more.
Education
The best time to mow, weed, blow and edge at a school is when nobody’s there. That’s a pretty small window.
“We have to work around the schedules of schools, so they’re looking their best for special events like homecoming and commencement,” Wisniewski says. “We do lots of work during spring break, when nobody’s there, so we’re not causing disruption.”
That means paying extra attention to staffing needs at those times, he says.
“We only have a few days to really make the place sparkle.”
Level Green’s education clients include such high-visibility universities as Howard University, the University of Maryland and the University of the District of Columbia.
“Landscaping is extremely important for their images,” Wisniewski says. “It’s the first thing visiting students and their parents see. They want those first impressions to be, ‘Wow — this is a gorgeous campus.’”
Health Care
When you’re dealing with illness, injury and stress, you need all the peace and tranquility you can get.
“When landscaping hospitals and health care facility, you everything to look as nice as possible for a morale boost,” Wisniewski says.
And keeping the property safe for a client like Howard University Hospital is a huge concern, he says.
“Especially in winter, keeping the area clear of snow and ice is really important, both for people walking the grounds and ambulances coming and going,” he says.
But health care clients often have limited budgets, he says, so the challenge is to help them look the best they can with the resources they have.
Retail, Religious, Residential: We Do It All
At Level Green Landscaping, we design and maintain beautiful, healthy landscapes — for every market you can name.
“It means a lot of training for our field staff,” Wisniewski says. “On how to treat our clients, about asking questions to find out each client’s exact needs.
“We consider ourselves partners with our customers,” he says. “We build relationships, so we really know what their needs are.”
If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers.
Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.
Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.
We’d love to hear from you.
