Maintenance Landscaping
Maintenance landscaping is important for any Houston business that wants to distinguish itself from surrounding properties. A superior aesthetic carries with it a powerful attraction factor that draws people in from the surrounding community. For many businesses, this attraction factor has a direct, positive impact on customer acquisition and client retention.
We find that this is especially true for architectural firms, law firms, art galleries, hotels, fine restaurants, and high-end retail centers. These organizations require more than simple lawn maintenance (as important as this is) to maintain a public presence that visually communicates their ongoing commitment to excellence on an exceptional scale.
In addition to keeping up the appearance of their grounds, it is also important for these organizations to maintain the functional elements of their landscape. Many aesthetic problems can be proactively preempted by attending to the structural elements of the landscape first.
Perhaps the most essential structural element of maintenance landscaping is the grade of the land itself. Periods of heavy rains carry away a great deal of topsoil at times. At other times, hot, dry periods dehydrate the soil, causing it to crack and dip even more in certain places. It is important for every business to invest in a commercial landscape maintenance agreement that will include provisions for soil retention and replacement should seasonal weather negatively impact the grounds. Neglecting to do so can result in a landscape that appears glaringly off balance to potential customers.
Land grade problems can also result in standing water which causes not only an eyesore, but also a potential safety hazard. Along with a well-maintained grade, a commercial property must also have a network of custom drains that move water rapidly away from sidewalks, patios, building entrances, and parking lots. Drains must be concealed so that they will not be visible to the public. Each spring, they should be thoroughly inspected, cleaned, and repaired. One thing that distinguishes our professional maintenance landscaping agreements is the exceptional level of attention we pay to keeping drains clean and reliably functional throughout the year.
Because rainfall is unpredictable and problematic, commercial irrigation systems must be adjusted on a regular basis to appropriately compliment the level of natural rainfall. Particularly in the spring, the automated timers on sprinklers, drips, and other irrigation mechanisms should be set to intervals that will correspond to warming weather and a new growing system. Commercial landscape maintenance agreements should also include provisions for special adjustments that may need to be made if rainfall is unusually heavy in the spring.
Once the functional foundations of the grounds themselves have been attended to, landscape maintenance professionals can more effectively focus on maintaining the vitality of commercial softscapes. Soil amendments, aeration, and fertilization are done to maximize the land’s ability to support lawn grass, ground covers, flowers, hedges, and trees. Maintenance landscaping plans include seasonal fertilization of lawns and ground covers, along with deep root fertilization for shrubs and trees that must be done in late February or early March. Various anti-fungal and insecticide treatments are also scheduled at intervals that are appropriate to the species of plants we are tending too. While many of these services are done at the beginning of each season, the most important application of any soil treatment is the one done at the end of winter, just before the warming trend in March. These few weeks between mid-February to mid-March are considered foundational to the health of commercial softscapes.
Once these foundational services have been properly scheduled and performed, routine commercial ground maintenance can be scheduled appropriately. Pruning, mowing, and trimming can be timed at intervals ideally suited to specific commercial properties. Each maitenance landscapijng plan is carefully negotiated and customized to a particular property to ensure that each client is differentiated in an exceptional manner by the services we perform under that agreement.
