The Level Green Landscaping Blog

Expert Industry Advice and Property Enhancement Suggestions.

Here’s a good tip: don’t wait so long to hire snow removal that a family of penguins has moved into your parking lot.

Penguins are so cute, aren’t they?

But still. Don’t wait.

So what should you look for when you need snow removal service in northern Virginia?

Imagine it’s spring, and you’re happily strolling through your front yard to check out the cheerful daffodils and get a peek at the fresh green grass after a long snowy winter. Life is good, right?

Wait, what the heck?

There are big gouges in your nice lawn, and it looks like your prized hydrangea shrub by the driveway is dead! Ugh!

$@#%% snow plows!

The only thing worse than ugly damage from your HOA snow removal company is battling them over who should pay to replace it.

Make sure your snow management company cares.

“We realize what a big part landscaping plays in how you feel about where you live,” says David Keffer, a branch manager at Level Green Landscaping. “The HOA garden committee spends so much time on how things look. We don’t want to tear it up.”

Most snow removal damage can be prevented with a few key preventive steps, Keffer says.

Here’s a look:

Understanding all the snow and ice melting products out there can get kind of slippery.

Rock salt. Brine. And what the heck is “engineered ice melt?”

How much do property managers know about the products used on their sites to melt snow and ice?

We asked them. Area property managers took our quick survey about brine, rock salt, and engineered ice melt. Which is most expensive? Most effective? Safest for the environment?

Here are the survey results, along with some facts about these important materials that keep your property safe.

If you’re a property manager in the mid-Atlantic, you’re probably used to a pretty basic snow and ice management situation.

If it hardly snows at all, you say “yippee” and maybe celebrate by getting dessert at lunch.

If it snows a lot, you pay a lot. Lunch dessert? A handful of Tums.

If you haven’t signed your snow and ice management contract yet, Kevin Doleman gets it.

“When it’s 90 degrees outside, people aren’t thinking about snow,” says Doleman, snow manager at Level Green Landscaping.

Sure, head to the beach, grill some burgers, live in your flip flops. But take a few minutes to get your commercial property signed up for snow and ice management. When the snow starts drifting, you’ll be glad you did.

As Level Green Landscaping switches from mowing and weeding to clearing snow and de-icing pavement, Covid-19 cases continue to rise.

That means the safety precautions we’ve taken since the beginning of the pandemic are still in full swing, with extra measures for snow season.

“We take this very seriously,” says Level Green Snow Manager Greg Stacho. “Customers might not notice anything different, but we’re continuing to follow the rigorous precautions that we’ve followed all along.”

Here’s a look behind the scenes at our Covid precautions for snow season:

When most people get ready for winter, they dig around in a drawer for warm gloves and move the snowblower to the front of the garage where the lawn mower used to be.

Here at Level Green Landscaping, there’s a lot more to it than that.

You know that scene in the holiday movie, “Elf,“ where as soon as Santa returns from his Christmas Eve journey, the elves get to work on toys for next Christmas?

It’s like that.

Some surprises are great. Like when you think you already ate all the mint chocolate chip ice cream in the freezer, but hey, there’s a little bit left!

Others, not so great. Like when your commercial property’s lawn dies, and you have to dip into your already stretched budget to replace it. Surprise!

On days like that, ice cream helps. Better yet, add a few key commercial landscaping services into your contract to help avoid those unpleasant surprise costs.

Consider adding these:

We’re all so used to worrying about falling snow, it's easy to forget about melting snow.

Melting snow is good, right? It means all that slippery, slushy white stuff is going away.

But where is it going? And can it get there? And what is it doing along the way? 

Interesting questions.

Lucky for you, we have answers.

Got your mittens ready? Your parka? Your boots?

When winter blasts in with extreme cold, you’re covered. 

But what about your plants? 

Here’s a look at how to prevent winter damage to landscapes.