What Maintenance is Needed After a Commercial Landscape Installation?

After your big commercial landscape installation, it’s fun to step back, stare at it, and smile a lot.

It looks fantastic, right?

So, now what? Celebration donuts would be nice. But don’t forget to protect your investment, plan for the future, and make sure your place stays looking great.

What do you need, moving forward? Here’s a look:

1. A Good Turf Program

A green expanse of healthy turf is like your commercial property’s welcome mat — an impressive sign that you care about your place.

How to keep it that way? A comprehensive turf program to keep your commercial landscape installation lawn thriving.

That means a four-application fertilization and weed control program, including two visits in the spring, a second visit in May or June, a third visit in July or August and a final round of fertilizer in October or November.

2. Annual Flower Rotation

No matter how great your commercial landscape installation looks now, it only improves with year-round flowers.

Imagine: when spring flowers fade, you get a bright new batch for summer. When those get tired, here comes a whole new truckload to brighten your fall.

Impressive.

Think flowers at your entrances to make them extra cheerful and welcoming. Bright color as a go-to strategy for signage landscaping. (Color attracts attention.) Flowers near your property’s seating for up-close viewing.

Don’t let the flower show fade.

3. Spring and Fall Cleanup

Don’t ruin the look of your commercial landscape installation with ratty lawn debris, fallen twigs, and decomposing leaves. Yuck.

A messy lawn makes your whole property look unsightly and neglected.

Sign on for a visit in February or March for spring clean-up.

Crews remove leaves and debris, pull weeds, and get the property ready for the growing season. They rake any old leaves leftover from fall into the lawn and go over them with a mulching mower. That breaks them down into nutritious bits beneficial to your turf.

There are typically two or three visits in the fall, too, to clear leaves and debris — one visit before Thanksgiving and one before Christmas.

4. Irrigation Maintenance

That turf program we mentioned earlier can only do its job for your commercial landscape installation if your lawn is also getting regular watering.

That means irrigation system maintenance — not only to make sure your system is working efficiently for plant health, but to save water and money.

What you need:

Irrigation Start-Up Services

This inspection makes sure your system is ready for the busy irrigation season ahead. The water supply is turned on and each zone of the system is checked to make sure it’s ready to roll. Technicians check water pressure, sprinkler heads, controls, and sensors.

Inspection, Adjustments & Repairs

Our irrigation team will stop by throughout the year, making adjustments and repairs as needed.

As the weather changes, it’s important to update your irrigation system’s settings so it’s watering according to the weather.

Need an Irrigation Update?

If your commercial property has a very basic or older irrigation system, you could use an update.

Our team can add upgrades like smart controls to make adjustments remotely from your smartphone or device control panels, saving you time and keeping track of irrigation scheduling.

Irrigation Winterization Services

As fall arrives, it’s crucial to winterize irrigation systems to prevent damage from freezing during the winter. Our irrigation management team will remove the water in your system’s lines and components to avoid costly winter damage.

5. Tree Care

Are there trees in your commercial landscape installation? They’re a big investment. Think ahead to keep them thriving for decades to come.

It’s easy to plant a tree, then forget it. But you need a budget plan for commercial tree service.

Pruning a tree throughout its lifetime will maintain its nice shape and health and makes your property look even better.

It also saves you money. If you maintain your trees over time, you won’t be losing them in emergency situations.

Level Green account managers work with customers to create a manageable commercial tree pruning plan and budget.

6. Fresh Mulch

Mulch is magic, and we’re not exaggerating. Don't underestimate the power of fresh mulch in your commercial landscape installation.

Sure, flowers are brighter, shrubs are bigger, and nothing says lush like a rolling carpet of green lawn.

But without mulch, your landscape lacks the wow.

There are lots of other benefits, too.

• A nice layer of mulch helps your soil retain moisture, so you won't have to water as much.
• Mulch keeps pesky weeds at bay by blocking the sunlight they need to sprout.
• Mulch protects your plants' roots — both from the scorching sun and winter’s chill.
• It prevents rain from washing away your landscape soil.

As time passes, you’ll notice your organic mulch will settle and look thin. That means it’s breaking down, enriching your soil and making it more fertile.

Mulch ties everything together, as well as adding some texture and color to your beds.
So keep it coming, regularly, each spring and fall.

7. Aeration and Overseeding

If your commercial landscape installation included a brand new lawn, it’s all set for now.

But as time passes, aeration and overseeding will work wonders to keep your turf thriving.

If you have high-traffic areas — and many commercial properties do — your lawn’s soil can easily get compacted over time.

When soil is compacted, your lawn can’t breathe.

Aeration uses a machine to pull out tiny cores of soil from your lawn, allowing water and oxygen to get to the roots. Now, your lawn’s roots can grow nice and deep, producing a lush, healthy carpet of green.

Aeration is usually followed by overseeding, as the holes created by aeration are perfect new homes for that grass seed.

8. Retention Pond Maintenance

If your commercial landscape installation included a stormwater pond or retention basin, there’s security in knowing it’s out there working hard, right?

The pools collect water from rain and runoff and release it slowly, at a nice, easy rate that prevents flooding or erosion. Peace of mind.

But it won’t keep working without regular retention basin maintenance.

Neglect these stormwater management systems, and they won’t drain properly. They get clogged. A tree could uproot and cause a weak spot in the embankment, causing the dam to fail.

Then you face costly repairs.

Make sure you have regular retention basin maintenance so crews will keep woody growth from taking over and remove sediment that will block water flow and crowd out beneficial greenery.

You don’t want any failures.

9. Rejuvenation Pruning

Timely pruning of the trees and shrubs in your commercial landscape installation is crucial as time passes.

Rejuvenation pruning is the removal of old, overgrown limbs so that your shrubs can grow new, vigorous branches in their place.

Rejuvenation pruning is great for your commercial landscaping installation curb appeal, but trees and shrubs that get too overgrown and gangly can also snag pedestrians, obscure your signage, and block your lighting.

Don’t let it get wild out there.

10. Enhancements

Enhancements are those finishing touches that bring your commercial landscape installation over the top, keeping it competitive and drawing more tenants, customers, and visitors.

Enhancements bring the wow.

How?

• More seasonal annual and perennial plantings
• Landscape lighting
• Container gardens and planters
• Decorative fountains, seating. and sculpture
• Rethinking pedestrian traffic
• Sparkling holiday decor

Well-planned enhancements bring eyes to your commercial property, add impressive appeal, and make your place a must-go destination where people want to live, work, shop, dine, or play.

Don’t let your commercial property installation get stale. Keep it competitive with enhancements.

Keep Your Commercial Landscape Installation Thriving with Level Green

Scheduling all these services might seem complicated, but not for Level Green customers.

Property managers don’t want to have to manage their landscaping. They just want to sign a contract and know their property is in expert hands. No hassle.

That’s what happens.

Our crews are trained, our account managers are familiar with commercial property needs. Everything is handled.

Level Green account managers even prepare an annual landscaping budget for customers. You pick and choose what you want to include. Easy.

If you’re not already a Level Green Landscaping client, we’d love to add you to our growing list of happy customers. Our focus is on commercial properties like offices, mixed-use sites, HOAs, municipalities and institutions in Maryland, Washington DC and parts of Virginia.

Contact us at 202-544-0968. You can also request a free consultation online to meet with us one-on-one.

We’d love to hear from you.