You’re probably being wisely proactive a lot without even realizing it.
Like when you put your name on your chicken pesto panini in the break room fridge so nobody else eats it. (Hopefully. Every office has that one guy.)
You don’t want to open the fridge, stomach growling, and find it gone. Unpleasant surprise.
It pays to be proactive with your commercial landscaping services, too. Otherwise, you’re in for unpleasant surprises. Like when your commercial property’s lawn dies, and you have to dip into your already stretched budget to pay to replace it.
Be proactive, and add a few important commercial landscaping tasks into your contract to help avoid unpleasant surprise costs:
1. Aerating and Overseeding
Think lawn aeration is a luxury item? Nope.
Aeration is one of those important commercial landscaping tasks. It uses a machine to pull out tiny cores of soil from your lawn, allowing water and oxygen to get to the roots. Now, your lawn’s roots can grow nice and deep, producing a lush, healthy carpet of green.
If you have high-traffic areas — and many commercial properties do — they can especially benefit from aeration, since they‘re more prone to soil compaction. Aeration is typically followed by overseeding, as the holes created by aeration are perfect new homes for that grass seed.
Be proactive about your lawn health and include aeration in your contract so you don’t face the unpleasant surprise of an emergency sod job to replace your ugly dead turf.
2. Tree Pruning
It’s easy to ignore tree branches — up high and out of sight, out of mind, right?
But neglected branches that are dead or dying are likely to suddenly crash to the ground, potentially injuring people and damaging cars and property. You’re suddenly facing big commercial landscaping costs.
Prune your trees, and you don’t have to worry about paying for the consequences of them toppling.
3. Lime Treatments to Balance Lawn pH
Is your lawn pH really that important?
Actually, yes.
Important nutrients for grass are available in soil when the pH is at the right level. If your pH is off, your grass won’t get the nutrients it needs, even if you fertilize regularly.
Here in Maryland, DC, and Virginia it’s rare that soil pH for turf grass is too high. It’s typically too low.
When your soil pH is too low, it’s time for lime, a soil amendment made from ground limestone rock, which contains calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate.
Add lime to your soil, and these compounds increase the soil's pH, making soil less acidic and more alkaline. Then your soil can use the nutrients in your fertilizer, and flourish.
Neglect your pH, and your lawn will struggle, unable to use that fertilizer you’re paying for.
You could end up paying more in the long run to get your lawn back in shape. Or, be proactive and include lime treatment in your contract to avoid expensive commercial landscaping problems.
4. Snow and Ice Management
Winters around here aren’t always too bad, right?
Isn’t it possible to breeze through snow season without paying for snow and ice management?
Sure, you could risk it.
But if somebody slips and falls on your property, there can be serious financial consequences for you. Winter weather can create all sorts of commercial landscaping problems.
We’re talking legal costs, medical costs, potential insurance rate increases, plus workers’ compensation if an employee slips.
Also consider loss of business if potential customers or tenants pass you by because your property is clogged with snow or looks dangerously slick.
And good luck trying to find a good snow and ice management company once winter sets in. The best ones book up early.
If you wait and hire one for emergency plowing, you’ll have to pay more, if you can even find somebody available.
Plan ahead, and partner with a reliable snow management company to get a contract signed early, long before the snow flies.
5. Stormwater Pond and Retention Basin Maintenance
There’s security in knowing you have a retention basin or stormwater pond on your property, right?
The pools collect water from rain and runoff and release it slowly, at a nice, easy rate that prevents flooding or erosion.
But is yours really working? Not without regular retention basin maintenance. It should be on your list of important commercial landscaping tasks.
Neglect these stormwater management systems, and they won’t drain properly. They get clogged. A tree could uproot and cause a weak spot in the embankment, causing the dam to fail.
This is a great example of how proactive planning can prevent significant commercial landscaping costs.
Add retention basin maintenance to your commercial landscaping services contract, and crews will mow the back side of the pond to remove any woody growth that can catch debris, obstructing the flow of water.
They’ll be on the lookout for cattails and other invasive plants that can block water flow and crowd out beneficial greenery.
If the pond’s bank is eroded, crews will backfill it with soil, plant grass seed, and cover it with an erosion control blanket of plastic mesh that protects the seed from wind and water erosion.
Regular mowing means crews can tackle the task with standard mowers. If they only mow once a year, the thick brush requires heavy equipment — a more expensive job.
6. Avoid Commercial Landscaping Problems with Proactive Water Management
Not to get too personal, but how’s your drainage?
If your answer is “beats me,” you might consider adding water management to your commercial landscaping services.
If your property is soggy, damp, or mildewy, there are some fairly easy commercial drainage solutions that will fix problems now, before they get worse and hit you with some pricey surprise costs.
Excess water can cause serious damage to your commercial property. It can damage your building’s foundation, erode and crack sidewalks, driveways, and retaining walls. If that sounds like significant commercial landscaping costs, you’re right.
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.
Excess water is a safety issue, too. You don’t want residents, visitors or customers tripping on damaged asphalt or wading through puddles to get to your entrance. Yuck.
Avoid Surprise Commercial Landscaping Costs with Level Green
Hate surprises? We can’t promise that one guy won’t steal your fridge lunch. But how about reviewing your commercial landscaping services contract?
Be proactive, add a few key services, and help avoid unpleasant surprise commercial landscaping costs.
Partner with commercial landscaping services in Maryland, DC, and Virginia with a focus on proactive planning.
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 for a virtual meeting.
We’d love to hear from you.
Image Source: Retention Pond
