The Level Green Landscaping Blog

Expert Industry Advice and Property Enhancement Suggestions.

The latest shortage related to Covid-19 hits you right in the landscaping — it’s plants. 

A nationwide shortage of trees, shrubs, and perennials has landscaping companies like Level Green scrambling to meet the supply for customers eager to spruce up properties as the country begins to open up after the shutdowns of Covid-19.

“We’re not the only ones facing a plant shortage — everyone’s facing a shortage,” says Bradley Sarno, operations manager at Level Green Landscaping.

Demand for plants is greater than the supply after a year of brisk plant sales to homebound homeowners who decided to boost their landscaping.

“Everybody is home gardening now,” Sarno says. “Everybody’s at home raising chickens, planting vegetable gardens, and installing landscaping around the house. It has definitely increased demand.”

To meet that demand, growers started selling stock last year that they would have saved for this year.

First off, these are no ordinary cicadas.

Their name even sounds ominous: “Brood X.”

This vast horde of insects will emerge in late April or early May from their 17-year stay underground, and the DC/Maryland/Virginia area is the epicenter of this cicada fest.

Everybody loves saving a few bucks.

Buy one pizza, get one free can actually make your whole day, right?

So when customers suggest cutting a few items from their commercial landscaping contract, we get it.

But unlike that pizza, cutting landscaping services isn’t necessarily a good deal. (Also, there’s no pepperoni involved, which makes things even worse.)

It can actually cost you more in the end.

Here’s how:

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:

JT Hipp is a certified pesticide applicator, which means he’s trained to safely kill insects.

But he loves bees. 

“Bees are one of the best things for landscaping,” says Hipp, an operations manager at Level Green Landscaping. 

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the plight of the little guys. 

Climate change, pesticides, and destruction of habitat by development are a few of the factors threatening the bee population. 

They can use our help. It’s only fair, after all they do for our landscaping.

How are native bees beneficial?

Here’s the buzz.

Sometimes, nature tries to take over.

Invasive plants are an increasing problem in Maryland and Virginia, taking over forests of native trees and plants and slowly killing them.

What are invasive plants? How do you control invasive plants?

Brad Butler, corporate manager at Level Green Landscaping, talks about the problem — and the painstaking, important solution.

Dear deer: the free lunch is over.

You can’t blame them, really. You plant rows of leafy greens, delectable petals and tender shoots. You fertilize them, keep them watered, line them up in a free buffet, right out in full view with easy access.  

But your beautiful flowers and plants are there to delight your customers, visitors, tenants and employees — not a bunch of rude, uninvited deer.

How to protect your plants from deer? It starts right here, right now, with a look at the best deer damage prevention and control methods.

It's time to close down the salad bar.

If we do our job right, the plants we add to your property look like they’ve always been there, like they perfectly belong.

But of course, first they came from somewhere else. 

We need thousands and thousands of plants, from flats of annuals to potted tropicals to bare root saplings to big established trees.

Where do landscapers get their plants?

Ever wonder where your plants come from?

We love colorful spring and summer annuals as much as the next guy, but your landscape needs more.

Enter the evergreen.

While annuals fade and perennials have one or two showy seasons, evergreens keep your property intriguing all year long.

Shelley Russell, landscape designer at Level Green Landscaping, shares her favorite evergreen trees and plants.

You might want one of each.