When potential customers shop at your retail center, patients utilize your healthcare facility, employees work at your office park, or homeowners drive into your HOA, you want them to notice your property in a positive and productive way.

You want them to feel safe and welcome in your environment, drawn in by your commercial landscaping and encouraged to spend time in your common spaces.

Nothing attracts more attention than the right commercial landscaping projects that can create curb appeal and entice your visitors and guests to stay a while. Even in fall, you want to add just the right impressive finishing touches to your commercial site to create a big impact without breaking the bank.

Let’s discuss the best commercial landscaping services for property managers to focus on in the autumn months in the Greater Chicago area and the key benefits to maintaining and enhancing curb appeal for maximum impact this fall and winter.

Commercial Landscaping Services That Boost Curb Appeal

It’s natural to see the outside of a commercial building in Greater Chicago and make an assumption about what it’s like on the inside based on how the exterior looks. It’s just human nature.

commercial landscape planting bed with perennials, annuals and ornamental trees

If your building is attractive and the landscaping is healthy and tidy, customers will think it’s a good place to work, shop, visit, or live. But if it looks run down or shabby, they likely won’t think that much of your business or brand. By elevating your curb appeal with fall lawn care, you can give your potential visitors, shoppers, tenants, and customers more reasons to enjoy your establishment.

This can also help you build trust and a positive perception with potential customers. An exterior that reflects the interior gives them confidence in your business. They know you pay attention to important details and this implies you’re committed to high quality and excellent service. This can even increase foot traffic into your site.

What kind of improvements can make an impact? You’ll be surprised at the number of small and large things you can do.

Embrace the Fall Season With Color

For people in Greater Chicago, fall is a special time of year – in fact, it’s many people’s favorite time of year. And the colors that match the season are very specific and unique.

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As a commercial property manager in the area, taking full advantage of this season can really help to amplify your business’ image.

Seasonal color is a great fall landscape option to boost your visibility in the community and attract positive attention and interest. Do this through well-placed containers and annuals planted in your highly visible landscape beds. You can use a variety of combinations to bring fall color and themes to the forefront.

Use Your Budget Dollars Wisely By Investing in Fall Planting

The autumn months are actually great times to get planting done as part of your commercial lawn care services.

In fact, from September through November you can still get plants installed, and those perennials, trees, or shrubs will have enough time to dig their roots solidly into the ground before it freezes. This gives them a head start before the next growing season, so they can better handle summer’s heat and drought, as well as any pests or diseases that may come their way.

landscape installation crew member transplanting a shrub in residential front yard

Maybe you’ve been looking at a potential area to renovate or a plant bed that needs some sprucing up or replanting. You can try incorporating fall- and winter-tolerant plants and trees to extend your fall foliage and give your landscape a new look as summer plants wind down. For example, evergreens are full and green all year long and can even be decorated for the winter season to attract more customers.

Fall is the perfect time to use any leftover budget dollars to tackle this task. It will improve your entire commercial property … and give your curb appeal a boost, too.

Give Your Commercial Lawn a Little TLC

Your commercial lawn does so much for your Greater Chicago facility throughout the year.

The lawn you maintain not only boosts your property’s aesthetics, but it also produces oxygen, and by absorbing carbon dioxide it also helps to reduce greenhouse emissions and shrink your business' carbon footprint.

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So the least you could do is conduct some fall lawn care to help prime your lawn for better health and growth. There are some turf renovation tasks that can do just this.

Aeration and overseeding your commercial lawn are great services to perform before winter to improve its health and vitality. Aeration is the removal of small plugs of soil using a machine called an aerator, and it can give your worn out, tired, and compacted turf a chance to more easily receive oxygen, nutrients, and water at the root level where it’s needed most.

After aeration is complete, you want to overseed your commercial turf. Why is fall a great time? Because those holes left by aeration are perfect for new lawn seeds to grow by maximizing seed-to-soil contact and germination. Basically, this makes overseeding more successful, and your bare spots or thin areas will fade away, resulting in a stronger, thicker commercial lawn.

Don’t Neglect Fall Landscape Cleanup

Keeping your commercial facility’s entryways and walkways neat and tidy goes a long way toward boosting your company’s reputation.

Through fall, you want to keep beds free of leaves, trash, and other debris to maintain a neat appearance. This includes raking or blowing leaves into piles and disposing of them. Not only can this make your lawn look fresh in fall and winter, but it also prevents disease from developing on your lawn when snow and ice cover the leaves and smother the turf.

commercial maintenance technician blowing cleanup 2

You also want to reseed and patch any bare spots on your turf. After that later in the season, we will conduct your last mow, where we cut your lawn just a bit shorter to prevent snow mold and other issues. This also helps your lawn look tidy going into winter.

Finally, fall landscape cleanup includes managing the perennials on your commercial landscape. This includes deadheading perennials or cutting back ornamental grasses to get them ready to grow again in spring.

Consider Landscape Enhancements

Even if you have a clean commercial building interior, you can’t let the landscaping and hardscaping around your facility fall into neglect. Weeds, wilting flowers, and nasty turf can all give you a bad name.


When areas have become overgrown or hardscapes need repair, enhancements may be a necessary part of commercial landscaping services in autumn.

You can take a hard look at your entire commercial landscape design and assess your needs, determining if you can plan for some key improvements that can fit within your budget. Doing this in fall can also bring landscape enhancements right before a seasonal or holiday time of year when your property image needs the extra boost.

There’s a Lot You Can Do With Your Fall Commercial Landscaping Contracts

Fall landscaping projects can encompass many options that can fit into your commercial grounds maintenance budget. While you may think the growing season is over, there is still time to make some great improvements and polishes that can take your Greater Chicago property to that next level.

Don’t leave this important season out of your commercial planning. And if it seems overwhelming or you’re not sure where to target your focus this fall, give KD Landscape a call. We can help you prepare for a successful autumn season, so you can have a property with better curb appeal and business outcomes.

Want to learn more about our commercial landscaping maintenance services in Greater Chicago? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can feel confident and make a great choice.

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