You want your Northeast Ohio commercial property to look good.
Thick, green grass. Nicely shaped trees and shrubs. Colorful containers at entrance ways and key focal points. Tidy landscape beds. Clean and smooth pathways that get your visitors from A to B without delay or hazard.
While you want a nice looking commercial landscape (who wouldn’t?), you also want to save money.
We understand that. You have a budget to maintain. As a property manager, you’re likely weighing different ways you can trim the cost of landscape maintenance.
Let’s look at some ideas that can enable you to have a great looking commercial property while also keeping costs in check.
Reduce Landscape Maintenance Costs
There are times for any commercial property where finding some areas of cost savings may be important. Whether the economy is impacting business and keeping budgets tight or your dollars are being pulled in some other priority directions and you need to refocus, cutting costs is sometimes necessary.
Having a service provider ally that can help you do that is important. This way you can gather some good ideas that fit your aesthetic needs, but also save you money when you need it.
Try these 4 ideas to reduce landscape maintenance costs.
#1. Mulch Cultivation
A fresh layer of mulch can really spruce up your commercial property each year. And it comes with a bevy of benefits.
Mulch insulates the soil, keeping it cool in the heat of summer. It holds moisture better to protect your plants from drought, it suppresses those unsightly weeds, and it adds a nice, natural element that breaks down in the soil.
But when you have a year when you need to keep expenses down, there’s a trick with mulch that can help you stretch your dollar and lower your cost of landscape maintenance.
Cultivating mulch or turning it over and freshening it up can give it a little more life. If you have to wait to add new mulch, this may be your best bet for ensuring you still get some of the benefits of mulch for that extra year.
#2. Limiting Landscape Beds
Landscape beds full of lush plantings that add color and texture are great additions to your commercial property.
They can draw your eye to entranceways, add nice spaces for relaxation, provide color to outdoor meetings or eating areas, bring life to school grounds, or add healing touches to health care facilities.
But they do take a little extra maintenance. During a year when you’re having a tougher time with your budget, you can limit your landscape beds by reducing plants, using stones or mulch, or focusing on turf.
Strategizing your landscape beds during a tight budget year can help keep your commercial landscape maintenance costs in check.
#3. Install Perennials Instead of Annuals
Maybe you want to keep your landscape beds and aren’t willing to sacrifice the advantages they bring to your commercial property.
That’s OK. There are other ways to reduce landscape maintenance costs.
Annuals are a great way to bring amazing color to your commercial landscape. They grow quicker and flower all season long. They can be changed out during spring, summer, and fall to shake up your color, drive interest and variety, and keep your landscape fresh and exciting. And to start with, they are usually not expensive.
But annuals can cost more because they last only one year and need to be replenished, which adds a recurring cost. They also can require more frequent watering and more maintenance to ensure continued blooms. While the color can’t be beat, the costs can be by making some different choices.
Perennials are a great way to add a lot of variety to a landscape bed. They grow back each year after going dormant during Northeast Ohio winters. They grow strong roots and can handle our area’s varying temperature fluctuations. And they usually require limited maintenance -- just cutting them back in the fall or spring.
#4. Install Trees & Shrubs That Require Less Pruning
Want to save some commercial landscape maintenance costs? Try choosing some plants that are easier to maintain, therefore cutting some expenses, while also adding greenery to your property.
One great plant choice is boxwoods. Boxwoods are always ready for any spot and any season by being extremely versatile. In winter they keep their strong shape and rich, green color. Boxwoods have a naturally formal shape that can create emphasis in a landscape bed. In summer when the commercial landscape is in full bloom, boxwoods provide background and structure without competing with other plants.
Another great choice for your commercial landscape that is low maintenance and has a great natural shape is the American hornbeam tree. This tree can grow in shade or parietal shade and has distinctive hardwood bark, showy catkins, and beams with yellowish-red fall color. It can tolerate wet conditions. Plant this one in moist, acidic soil. This native tree can reach an average height and spread of 20 to 30 feet over a 50- to 150-year lifespan.
Both of these options can be pruned simply to reflect that natural, attractive shape versus pruned to exhibit a tighter, more structured shape that requires more work to maintain.
Choose a Service Partner That Can Help You Thrive
As you look at your budget and your commercial landscaping, you want to feel good about your choice, knowing your dollars are being spent wisely on the most necessary services you need to achieve your specific goals.
But your time is already booked. Your plate is full. It’s hard to stop everything and research what areas you think might do your property the most good.
If you’re working with the best landscape contractor for you, though, you shouldn’t have to do this. A knowledgeable service provider will give you options that can help you do the right things for your property within your budget constraints instead of just selling a service.
Your commercial landscape maintenance costs can stay in check because your service partner is doing their job and noticing issues or concerns before they happen. Finding solutions to problems before they become extensive saves you money because when a problem is ignored and left to worsen, it can become much more expensive to fix.
Have you been noticing that your commercial maintenance isn’t meeting your needs? Maybe you’d like to save some costs or find some strategies that can reduce expenses but still give you a look that you’re after? Give Turfscape a call. We have experience providing options to Northeast Ohio commercial facility managers so you’re not left with only one choice or one option.
Want to learn more about our commercial landscape services? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can feel confident and make a great choice.
