You might be letting your commercial landscape enhancements off too easy. Make them multi-task.
How about great landscaping services that benefit the environment — and your budget?
Commercial property owners and managers are eager for landscaping solutions that do both, says Level Green division manager Paul Wisniewski.
Businesses are especially cost conscious these days, he says.
“We can suggest ways to help them save money in the long run,” Wisniewski says.
You might be surprised by how many commercial landscape enhancements also help the earth.
“Most people want to do all they can to protect the environment,” Wisniewski says. “They want to improve their landscaping, and still have a positive environmental impact. It’s definitely something clients are interested in.”
Here’s how to do it.
Convert Annual Beds to Perennials
We love annuals as much as the next guys, but perennials are real common sense commercial landscape enhancements.
How they help your budget: Plant perennials once, and they return every year. Annuals need to be replaced three times a year.
How they help the environment: Perennials don’t need much water, especially if you choose drought-tolerant and native plants. That helps the environment. Bonus: it helps your budget, too, with lower water bills.
Install a Rain Garden
A rain garden is a shallow depression that’s planted with deep-rooted native plants and grasses. It encourages stormwater to soak slowly into the ground — not rush into the nearest storm drain.
Plant one near a water runoff source like a downspout, roof, or driveway and water soaks into the garden rather than gushing straight into the stormwater system.
How it helps your budget: Any commercial landscape enhancement that channels stormwater helps your budget by preventing flooding that can cause costly damage to your property.
Excess water can damage your building’s foundation, erode and crack sidewalks, driveways, and retaining walls. Too much water creates mold and mildew and causes cracks in interior walls and exterior surfaces. Damp conditions can even encourage mosquitoes and rodents to breed.
How it helps the environment: A rain garden’s soil filters oil, grease, and other pollutants before slowly releasing the cleaner water into the water table.
Bioswales are beneficial in the same ways. They’re landscape elements that provide a path for water to run through slowly, rather than rushing off into a storm sewer or local waterway.
Use Native and Drought-tolerant Plants
If you haven’t already hopped on the native plant train, what are you waiting for?
They’re hardy and less susceptible to pests and diseases. Once they’re established, native plants typically need less water than non-natives.
How they help your budget: Native plants automatically love living on your property. That means they need less care from you. They’re happier and healthier, needing less water than non-natives.
How they help the environment: A host of wild critters will thank you. They love native plants — they offer a free buffet of berries, nuts, and seeds. Some native blooms provide nectar for hummingbirds and insects.
Plant layers of native species, from low-lying ground covers to knee-high perennials to canopies of trees. Native birds love the protective shelter this provides for breeding. Include a bit of everything, from flowers to grasses to shrubs, for the best bird appeal.
Install Permeable Pavers
These commercial landscape enhancements allow rainwater to seep through, rather than pool and flood your property.
How they help your budget: Permeable pavers last longer than other surfaces like concrete and asphalt, which means fewer costly repairs.
Also, in many counties and municipalities, commercial property owners can apply for a credit to their property taxes if they implement stormwater management techniques like permeable pavers.
Here at Level Green Landscaping, several team members are certified by the Interlocking Concrete Pavers Institute, specifically trained in installing these permeable pavers that redirect stormwater.
How they help the environment: Pollutants build up on solid surfaces like concrete and asphalt. Petroleum products, chemicals, fertilizers, and other contaminants accumulate on the surface. Then, when it rains, these pollutants wash off and enter the stormwater system and the environment.
Permeable pavers reduce the overall run-off of storm water on your property.
Choose White Gravel
Use white gravel instead of mulch in places like baking hot parking lot islands.
How it helps your budget: While mulch has to be replaced a couple times a year, gravel is a one-time expense.
How it helps the environment: White gravel reflects light, so it reduces “heat island effect.” Black asphalt and dark mulch attract heat, making the entire area hot.
Add Wildflower and Meadow Gardens
Meadow gardens are stunning commercial landscape enhancements.
Think queen of the prairie, with its pink lacy plumes. Sturdy, cheerful, black-eyed Susan. Drifts of butter-yellow coreopsis.
But they work hard, too.
How they help your budget: They’re low maintenance and need little irrigation. Plant them, and basically forget about them.
How they help the environment: Pollinators love them. These days, bees need all the help they can get.
You can plant meadow gardens instead of turf, which reduces mowing and the use of fertilizer and weed control products.
If you have a sloping hillside, planting a meadow garden will help control erosion.
Need Double-Duty Commercial Landscape Enhancements? Trust Level Green
Looking for landscaping services that benefit the environment — and your budget?
Look to Level Green.
We love smart landscape solutions that enhance your property, help your budget, and benefit the environment.
It’s a win-win-win.
Our service area includes Washington DC, Maryland and parts of Virginia. We focus on commercial property maintenance for offices, retail spaces, mixed-use sites, HOAs/condominiums, distribution centers, municipalities and institutions.
Contact us at 202-544-0968 or by filling out our form. You can also schedule a free consultation to talk with us about how we can enhance and maintain your commercial landscape.
We’d love to hear from you.
