Environmental Insights

Water is essential to life and vital to the progress of civilizations. It's delightful to sit in on a warm summer day or to watch as it falls gracefully into a fountain basin. There’s nothing more peaceful than the sound of rainwater falling on a tin roof, or as relaxing as soaking into a hot bathtub at the end of a long, hard day.

Starting a new relationship—whether personal or in business—always involves a certain amount of risk. In our private lives, we’re on our own. But in the commercial landscape business, it’s standard to create a built-in risk containment device: the contract.

A good commercial landscape maintenance contract not only protects both parties, it can also be an invaluable communication tool to ensure that both you and your landscape contractor are—and remain—on the same page, and that you actually receive the service you want and expect.

However, a contract is only as good as what you put in it. Here are a few things we highly suggest including in your bid request the next time you hire a commercial landscape maintenance company.

What’s wrong with bahiagrass? Depends who you ask.

Looking for lawn care or landscape maintenance for your commercial property? There are a lot of reasons to choose a professional landscape management company instead of just a “landscaper.” But once you’ve narrowed it down to a few good companies, how can you know who will best meet your needs?

Every good landscape services provider will have a slightly different approach and personality. Today we’d like to highlight a couple of our competitors and discuss how we are—not necessarily better—but different.

Both Yellowstone and Brightview are well-established commercial landscape companies for whom we have a lot of respect. Let’s start with Yellowstone.

When you need groceries, you head to the store. One grocery store may have marginally better prices over the next, or a nicer produce department, but ultimately it doesn’t matter that much whether you frequent Kroger or the Piggly Wiggly. You’ll still fill your fridge.

Lawn and landscape care, though; that’s a different matter. Your choice of landscape provider can make a huge difference in your experience, and impact the quality, appearance, comfort and even safety of your home and property.

Unlike plumbers and electricians, landscape services providers are not required to complete any kind of certification or training. That means that any Tom, Dick, or Jane with a truck and a lawn mower can hang out their shingle as a landscaper. However, there is a significant difference between such a person—let’s call them a “landscaper”— and a true landscape professional.

How can you tell them apart? A few strategic questions go a long way.

Spring is undoubtedly the most exciting time of year in the landscape. The full creative energies of Mother Nature are bursting forth, with new blooms and new growth everywhere. And all that lush plant material calls for a lot of water! Which, of course, means you’ll want your irrigation system tuned up and ready to handle the job.

Just as with any other mechanical system, it’s very important to inspect your irrigation system regularly. An irrigation inspection, or irrigation audit, will help you discover and avoid problems such as leaks or broken components that could cause damage to your landscape and/or raise your water bill.

You can inspect your irrigation system yourself, if you feel comfortable doing so and have the time. Otherwise, contact us for a professional irrigation system inspection.

Remember life without GPS? We got along, but sometimes it’s hard to remember how. I can’t tell you how many hours and how many gallons of fuel I’ve saved simply by using this one type of smart technology.

I’m sure it’s paid for itself many times over.

Your plants have no need for travel directions, but there’s another type of smart technology that offers similar savings for your landscape: smart irrigation.

Chances are if your landscape has been in for 15 or more years it is overdue for renovation. Even if your landscape was well planned and maintained for the long haul, a decade and a half’s worth of growth is almost guaranteed to leave it looking a bit unkempt. Crowded roots, straggly growth, overgrown trees and shrubs, bare spots, ho-hum or dated appearance: these are all signs it’s time for an overhaul.

If you’re reading this and nodding your head in recognition, here are some landscape renovation ideas to consider this spring.

If you had to pick just one landscape plant to symbolize the South, you could do worse than choose the Crepe Myrtle (or “crape myrtle” as it is often spelled.) With its spectacular summer blooms, shapely trunks and stunning fall color, this small tree or shrub simply oozes Southern beauty, hospitality and class. So much so that even though Crepe Myrtles are arguably over-used in the landscape, you just can’t help but love the things.

So why - WHY - did anyone ever get the idea to start willy-nilly decapitating them?

“They’re cutting my budget - again! My staff has shrunk, and I still have all these sumptuous plantings to deal with, not to mention hardscapes and water features galore. How can I make it work?”

The concept behind having college landscape design guidelines is sound.

A good landscape master plan can help ensure consistent design for a pleasing and unified campus appearance that meshes well with campus and surrounding architecture.

It is also helpful in creating a landscape environment that meets the diverse needs of all campus stakeholders. And it can be an especially useful tool for ensuring that proper landscape safety procedures and precautions are met.

When these goals are addressed in a practical manner, all is well with the world and the college landscape master plan can be a valuable asset. However, when campus master plans don’t mesh with reality and/or demand impractical requirements, they can cause untold headaches for those whose duty it is to implement them.