The First Impression Means Everything To Your Success
Whether your primary objective is to keep your hotel, shopping mall or office building fully occupied with high quality leasing agreements, or you’re focused on maintaining an upstanding reputation in your community, initial impressions mean everything to your success.
Curb appeal can make all the difference between whether potential customers gravitate to your property or choose to move on to your competitor, so it’s crucial to keep up appearances, and the spring season is a great time for getting your landscape in shape.
Maintaining A Beautiful Landscape Is Beneficial On Multiple Levels
Even more than just the visual aspect, a flourishing green space is beneficial to the environment in a multitude of ways including cleaning the air and filtering contaminants from the ground water, as well as helping to control soil erosion and regulate both ground and ambient temperatures. And a lush, beautiful softscape has proven to be incredibly healthy for everyone’s wellbeing, both physiologically and psychologically.
In fact, there is an editorial published by the National Library of Medicine which compiles a number of studies and empirical articles that all strongly support the conclusion “that exposure to nature, even urban nature, impacts humans’ capacity to pay attention, recover from stressful events, and form stronger social ties among neighbors,” in addition to other health benefits.
What’s more, with the right landscape features you can increase the value of your commercial property and take advantage of the opportunity to provide the kind of space that makes a measurable contribution to your business objectives.
Do you need to make sure there is a secure, healing space where residents can convalesce on the grounds of your nursing home? Could your executive office building benefit from an outdoor courtyard where people can get outside and enjoy a quiet lunch break? Or, maybe you’re trying to appeal to weary travelers with several lodging options in the immediate vicinity. Whatever your business goals, your property’s exterior can be largely influential, and with springtime upon us, it’s a prime time for some strategic landscape enhancements.
Springtime Is An Opportune Time For Landscape Improvements
So, where should you begin with your spring landscaping? Spring cleanup is, of course, the first step since you’ll be able to more easily assess the needs of your landscape once the debris has been eliminated. Once that’s accomplished, the key items to include on your task list are:
Landscape Drainage – if you have clogged landscape drains, or need to find a solution for standing water or heavy overflow, this should absolutely be a priority if you want to avoid the added cost of unplanned pavement repairs, the replacement of turf areas, trees or other flora, and other property damages.
Your commercial landscape services provider should be able to provide the full suite of landscape drainage services, from installing new drains to creating dry creek beds or natural rain gardens, improving the soil’s permeability and changing the terrain if necessary to reroute water. If they don’t have these capabilities, get in touch with your local U.S. Lawns.
Spring Irrigation Services – if you’re located in a region that experiences freezing temperatures, your irrigation system should have been properly shut down and winterized in the autumn, so you’ll need to have spring startup services performed.
This can be a good time to have your irrigations system upgraded too–adding new watering zones, replacing worn sprinkler heads, valves, drip emitters, etc., and installing rain sensors and smart controllers to improve functionality and increase efficiency–all of which positively contributes to your bottom line and sustainability at the same time.
Hardscapes – when it comes to updating your grounds to make them more appealing, there are a variety of hardscape features you can add, and spring is the ideal time for it. Envision a sheltered gazebo, a vine-covered pergola or a new patio with covered tables and outside seating placed at perfect distance from the warmth of an outdoor fireplace or a relaxing rock waterfall. Or create a useful recreational area with walking paths, athletic courts and a playground for the kids. The ways you can incorporate hardscapes into your landscape are virtually endless!
Annual Flowers – if you’re looking for a way to keep colorful blooms popping all throughout the growing season, annual flowers are a way to accomplish this without breaking the budget. And the fun part about planting annuals is that since annual flowers expend their entire life cycle within one growing season (unlike perennial plantings that will return year after year) you can experiment with different color combinations each spring. Just make certain that you’re putting them in the ground within the proper planting window for your chosen floral varieties, because they may not survive if they’re planted at the wrong time.
To determine your planting window, you need to understand flower classifications and know which your annuals are. There are three annual flower classifications, each of which has a different tolerance to frost. They are:
- Tender Annuals – which do not tolerate exposure to frost or cold temperatures, so should be planted only after the temperature remains at 55°F or warmer.
- Half-hardy Annuals – these plants can tolerate cool soil, but not frost. They also require a longer growth period, so it is common practice to start them indoors so they can mature for a period of four to eight weeks before being planted outside after the last frost.
- Hardy Annuals – are flowers that can tolerate light frost or light freezing and can be planted in the early spring.
Spring Mulching – this is one of the most important landscaping tasks to include in your spring landscape improvement plan. Not only is mulch great for moisture retention, soil nutrition, regulation of the ground temperature and prevention of erosion and weed germination, but mulching also adds aesthetic appeal to your property, making natural mulch an invaluable landscape enhancement. The general rule on timing is to wait until mid- to late-spring to ensure the mulch won’t slow the essential soil warming process and compromise seedling growth.
Now, while all these spring landscaping duties may look to be expensive and painstaking endeavors, investing in the right spring landscape improvements are a powerful, cost-effective way to attract and retain your audience–especially if you have an expert team of landscape improvement professionals like your local U.S. Lawns behind you.
So, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it all, get in touch with us. We’ll help you lay out and execute a spring landscaping plan that makes sense for your company and your budget.