Planning commercial landscaping budgets can be stressful, particularly if you don’t have a clear idea of the costs you should anticipate. Surprise landscaping costs are especially frustrating. Nobody likes being hit by unexpected expenses.
Jump to section:
- How Do You Prepare a Budget for Landscape Maintenance?
- What Are The Hidden Costs of Commercial Landscaping?
- Choosing Commercial Landscape Maintenance in Greater Chicago
In this article, we’ll share helpful information on planning landscaping budgets, providing a better understanding of what landscaping costs are typically included, what should be added, and what unexpected expenses may arise.
We’ll talk about some of the landscaping costs that tend to catch property managers by surprise so that you can plan for the unknown.
How Do You Prepare a Budget for Landscape Maintenance?
Planning a commercial landscaping budget always starts with the gold-standard services that are included in every landscape maintenance contract.
The services that should always be included in a contract are mowing, trimming, and blowing, pruning and plant bed maintenance (including edging and flower bed rotations) and turf care.
However, property managers should also consider enhancements, tree care, and unexpected “surprises” that can arise.
We’ll discuss these when we cover surprise landscaping costs next.
What Are The Hidden Costs of Commercial Landscaping?
The four surprise landscaping costs that we find most property managers aren’t thinking ahead about include:
- Tree Care
- Enhancements
- Plant & Lawn Disease
- Property Damage
Let’s talk about each of these.
1. Tree Care
One of the areas that often becomes a significantly larger investment than property managers anticipate is the care of their trees. The problem with trees is that most people don’t think much about them until something goes wrong.
Unfortunately, at that point, it can be too late (or incredibly costly to try to fix things).
Having to replace a mature tree is a devastating situation. It can take many years for a replacement tree to grow and fill the space left by a lost tree.
This is why tree care should be included in your landscaping budget. While it’s often overlooked, we always urge property managers to think proactively about their landscape by investing in plant health care.
You don’t want to wait until a tree is infested or diseased to try to remedy a problem. As we’ve said, at that point, it could be too late.
2. Enhancements
While not exactly a surprise, landscaping costs should always be budgeted for around 30 to 40 percent for enhancements.
Sometimes, when the focus gets stuck on maintaining what’s already there, this gets pushed to the wayside. However, you should always strive to make improvements.
How can you make your commercial property better? Planning for the future with upgrades and new features helps to keep your property relevant and continually improve its value.
Additionally, landscaping has a limited shelf life, which is something that people often overlook. Shrubs and other plants will eventually start to show their age.
There will come a time when replacing plants and other outdated elements of the property will be essential to keep everything looking refreshed.
3. Plant & Lawn Disease
Even healthy landscapes are sometimes struck by disease. When the conditions are just right, fungi can spread and wreak havoc, even when you’ve done all the right things to try to avoid problems.
As we’ve mentioned, investing in plant healthcare can help avoid many problems. But sometimes we do need to treat an issue curatively. The faster that treatments are started, the better your landscape will fare.
In addition, a lawn and landscape that is already healthy will hold up better to problems than one that is struggling. This is another key reason why investing in ongoing care is so important.
4. Property Damage
Unfortunately, you need to “expect the unexpected” when caring for a commercial property.
Things like storm damage or snow damage can occur without warning, and if you don’t have an emergency landscape budget, you may scramble to come up with the funds.
Drought damage or irrigation system damage are other examples of possible unexpected landscaping costs that can arise.
Choosing Commercial Landscape Maintenance in Greater Chicago
Surprise landscaping costs can be avoided when you choose a commercial landscape maintenance company that is transparent and keeps you informed of what you should be planning for.
This includes a company that understands your needs and is prepared to help set you up for long-term success.
A company that has your best interests at heart will always provide helpful recommendations that can help you avoid problems and unexpected costs. A company like this will also provide suggestions for enhancements that can further improve your property.
The right commercial landscape maintenance provider will be focused on decision-making in your best interest and will work closely within the confines of your budget. This will help give you something truly invaluable to the busy property manager: peace of mind.
Want to learn more about KD Landscape’s commercial landscape maintenance in Chicagoland? Get started today with an on-site consultation. We’ll review your options together so you can make a great choice.
