Grounds Maintenance Blog

Colleges and universities across the country are known for having well-maintained and beautiful landscapes.

Those vast expanses of green, mixed with pleasing pops of color not only boost your educational institution’s brand and reputation, but they also draw more students to your organization and give them additional reasons to brag about their alma maters.

Traffic in and out of a Northeast Ohio hospital or healthcare facility on a daily basis is hectic and constant.

Think about it: Doctor’s appointments, tests, exams, emergency room visits -- and then all the employees and medical professionals who check patients in and out, as well as deliver those services.

In fact, according to the American Hospital Association, there were roughly more than 36 million admissions to more than 6,100 U.S hospitals in 2018. That’s a large number of people every day in just admissions.

And not many of those people who are going about their busy days realize all the attention to detail and organization it takes from a facilities management perspective to keep this experience smooth and stress-free.

Do you look around and see beds full of weeds and overgrown shrubs at your healthcare facility?

Has your commercial landscaping service underperformed? Do you feel ignored or that they don’t communicate well with you? Maybe you keep making lists of things you want done on your property but you have absolutely no time to address them. Not to mention, you thought these headaches were taken care of.

A well-maintained college campus with aesthetically pleasing pops of landscape color does more than you can imagine to boost a university’s student appeal.

On top of attracting more students to your educational institution, boosting enrollment numbers, professionally cared for landscapes can improve student grades, enhance campus safety, and be an important part of your branding and reputation.

Water has a way of taking over. 

Whether it’s from heavy rain or an irrigation system that has a sprinkler head that is leaking or broken, water will flow and travel on the easiest nearby path. If it has nowhere to go, it’ll collect.

A college or university campus with its rolling hills, shade trees, vast turf expanses, and gathering nooks surrounded by educational buildings is a special environment. Students get to soak in the sights while they expand their educational horizon.

What draws students and their parents toward choosing the right college and university that meets all of their needs?

If this would have gotten posted in February it would have looked significantly different.  The year 2020 has been a roller coaster to say the least and what would have been the commercial landscape trends have changed over the last couple of months.  Our personal lives look a lot different and so do our professional lives.  

At some point working in the landscaping industry developed the negative connotation of being a dead end job.  This mindset couldn't be further from the truth, and working for a professional landscaping company can be a very rewarding career choice for anyone.

In fact, landscaping is a very large industry accounting for $98 billion in yearly revenue, according to .With over a million of individuals working in the green industry, it has to be more than just a dead end job.  Here are a few reasons why working in the green can be a beneficial career.  

It's a business

Just like any business, a landscaping company still needs all of the functions that any other business would. 

• Sales & Marketing:  There is a service that needs to be sold, therefore sales and marketing are an essential component. 
• Estimating:  All landscaping contracts and projects needs to be measured and bid in order to provide a competitive proposal.  
• Human Resources:  There needs to be hardworking and talented individuals to perform grounds maintenance, snow removal, and instal beautiful landscapes.  Therefore a strong HR department is important to recruit these talented landscapers.
• Finance:  Budgets need to be prepared, assets needs to be depreciated, bills need to be paid, and invoices need to be sent out.  
• Operations Management: Services such as grounds maintenance, landscape installs, & fertilization needs to be planned and scheduled, so companies need a strong operations management team.  
• Account Management:  Customers need someone to nourish the relationship, and handle any concerns or complaints.  Contracts need to be renewed.  
• Landscape Design & Architecture:  Landscape installs need to be planned out and designed.  

No Experience Required 

Most landscaping companies will hire someone with no experience in the industry.  At Turfscape we focus on hiring for personality and training for skill set.  A commercial landscaping company like Turfscape will invest a lot of time and effort into training and education so anyone with an interest in working outdoors can learn a productive skill set.  

Advancement Opportunities

Whenever a mid to higher level management position opens up, Turfscape will always try to promote from within.  Doing so allows the company to provide career advancement opportunities to their team and gives them something to work toward.  It also creates a competitive environment that drives production and high performers can be rewarded by advancement.  Promoting from within is also beneficial to the company because they can develop their employees so they are ready to take on the challenge of management.  

Fun Work Environment

Working outdoors with a crew of landscapers that you enjoy working, and joking around with can be a lot of fun.  At Turfscape, we believe in this concept so much that one of our core values is, "Have Fun At Work".  The company cookout, Christmas party, or friendly competition goes a long way in developing a fun work environment.  

When the people you work with are your most valuable asset as they are in a commercial grounds maintenance company like Turfscape, it only makes sense to invest in hiring and developing the best.  That is why at Turfscape, our Human Resources team has the motto of, "WE ARE ALWAYS HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE".  If you or someone you know might be interested in a landscaping career please

An effective Arbor Car Program for a Condo Association or HOA should provide a detailed plan to maximize the well-being of trees.  Healthy trees obliviously benefit our communities by improving air quality, providing shade, and help provide beautiful landscapes.

If you live in North East Ohio it is easy to understand that the weather isn’t always a landscapers best friend.  The weather is one variable landscape professionals cannot control and can make things difficult.  We often get the call from some of our customers wondering why we are mowing grass in the rain.  The answer is pretty simple: “BECAUSE WE HAVE TO”, not necessarily because we want to.  Mowing grass in the rain takes substantially more time and creates a dangerous environment for our staff to work.