Landscape Enhancement.

Because each site has its own unique landscape environment, your landscape management service provider should give you recommendations for your commercial site to utilize native plants, perennials, disease-free and hardy plants to increase the sustainability of your commercial landscape. If you want to boost the value of your property, consider the following:

1. Safety Value – Maintenance care prevents injury. Improved pedestrian walkways, parking lot surfaces, and structural pruning to improve visibility can all prevent trips, falls, accidents, and mitigate liability and risk. Strategic use of plant material can prevent flooding; drainage improvements can improve the absorption of rainwater and runoff; and tree-covered areas can reduce loitering – while also improving air quality.

2. Health Value – Landscapes have direct impact on positive well-being. Healthy landscapes start with healthy soil and the reduction or elimination of toxic chemicals. For tenants, employees, guests, or customers, the quality of your property’s landscape influences how people interact with, and feel good about, your business. An attractive outdoor space, with courtyards and well-designed landscaped areas is advantageous to you as an employer and as an asset manager. We recommend investing in a regular plant health care program that creates a healthy baseline for your plants and trees, nourishes your soil and encourages vigorous bloom and vibrant foliage.

3. Environmental Value – Conservation helps the earth and your wallet. Eco-friendly investments in green technology will improve your landscape’s water use and your cost through controlled irrigation and water audits; more trees contribute to using less heating or cooling energy; rain garden strategies and bioswales provide filters for stormwater and prevent flooding and puddling; flowering plants provide forage and habitat for pollinator insects, birds and wildlife.

Landscape Enhancements We Can Help With

ELM’s top ten most requested maintenance projects are:

• repairing walkways and footpaths impacted by winter storms
• fencing/retaining walls
• signage
• water features
• park-like amenities
• new plantings,
• turf aeration and plant healthcare
• tree and shrub pruning
• power washing

First things first. Prioritizing improvements is a task made easier by a master landscape maintenance plan. Knowing which improvement will offer sustained ROI depends on a few factors. One is the size of your property, the other is how it is used—where people gather, what types of amenities drive the greatest appreciation, and where fitness and pedestrian areas can be enhanced for greater health, i.e., walking and jogging trails, bike paths, bocce ball courts, green roofs, terrace and outdoor eating and meeting areas. A landscape enhancement process can be scheduled to install one or two areas a year over a few years, allowing you to plan fully for the transformation of your landscape based on your budget and goals.

If you’re ready to take advantage of ELM’s landscape enhancements and hardscape restoration expertise, perk up your high-impact focal areas with bold containers and lots of color; swap out underperforming turf for perennial meadows; try our new and improved plant health program (and its organic option), upgrade your irrigation system with green technology, or partner with us to drive LEED credits, but don’t know where to begin, contact Bruce Moore Jr. at 203-316-5433.