You want your Greater Chicago commercial property to look good. This typically includes thick, green grass, nicely shaped trees and shrubs, colorful containers at entrance ways and key focal points, tidy landscape beds, and clean and smooth pathways that get your visitors from A to B without delay or hazard.
While you want a nice looking commercial landscape, you also want to save money.
We get that. You have a budget to maintain. As a property manager, you’re likely weighing the different ways you can reduce the commercial landscaping costs.
Let’s look at some ideas that can enable you to have a great looking commercial property while also keeping costs in check.
How to Reduce Commercial Landscaping Costs
Whether the economy is impacting business and keeping budgets tight or your dollars are being pulled in different directions, cutting costs is sometimes necessary.
Having a service provider ally that can help you do that is important. This way you can gather some good ideas that fit your aesthetic needs, but also save you money when you need it.
Try these 4 ideas to reduce commercial landscaping costs.
#1. Make Your Mulch Last Longer
A fresh layer of mulch can really spruce up your commercial property each year. And it comes with a bevy of benefits.
Mulch insulates the soil, keeping it cool in the heat of summer. It helps the soil hold moisture to protect your plants from drought. It keeps unsightly weeds away. It improves the soil as it breaks down.
But when you have a year when you need to keep expenses down, there’s a trick with mulch that can help you stretch your dollar and lower your commercial landscaping costs.
Cultivating mulch or turning it over and freshening it up can give it a little more life. If you have to wait to add new mulch, this may be your best bet for ensuring you still get some of the benefits of mulch for that extra year.
#2. Limit the Number of Landscape Beds
Landscape beds full of lush plantings that add color and texture are great additions to your commercial property. They can draw your eye to entranceways, add nice spaces for relaxation, provide color to outdoor meetings or eating areas, bring life to school grounds, or add healing touches to health care facilities.
But they do take a little extra maintenance. During a year when you’re having a tougher time with your budget, you can limit your landscape beds by reducing plants, using stones or mulch, or focusing on turf.
Strategizing your landscape beds during a tight budget year can help keep your commercial landscape maintenance costs in check.
#3. Plant Perennials Instead of Annuals
Maybe you want to keep your landscape beds and aren’t willing to sacrifice the advantages they bring to your commercial property.
That’s OK. There are other ways to reduce commercial landscaping costs.
Annuals are a great way to bring amazing color to your commercial landscape. They grow fast and flower all season long. They can be changed out during spring, summer, and fall to shake up your color, drive interest and variety, and keep your landscape fresh and exciting. And they are usually not expensive when first installed.
But annuals can cost more because they last only one year and need to be replenished, which adds a recurring cost. They also can require more frequent watering and more maintenance to ensure continued blooms.
Perennials are a great way to add a lot of variety to a landscape bed and save money at the same time. They grow back each year after going dormant during Greater Chicago winters, so while they may cost a bit more than annuals up front, they eliminate that recurring cost.
They grow strong roots and can handle our area’s varying temperature fluctuations. And they usually require limited maintenance – you just need to cut them back in the fall or spring. What’s more, the provide repeat color and texture to keep your property looking fresh through the various seasons.
#4. Install Trees & Shrubs That Need Less Pruning
Want to save some commercial landscape maintenance costs? Try choosing some plants that are easier to maintain, therefore cutting some expenses, while also adding greenery to your property.
One great plant choice is boxwoods. Boxwoods are always ready for any spot and any season by being extremely versatile. In winter they keep their strong shape and rich, green color. Boxwoods have a naturally formal shape that can create emphasis in a landscape bed. In summer when the commercial landscape is in full bloom, boxwoods provide background and structure without competing with other plants.
Pick a Commercial Landscape Service Partner That Can Help You
As you look at your budget and your commercial landscaping, you want to feel good about your choice, knowing your dollars are being spent wisely on the most necessary services you need to achieve your specific goals.
But your time is already booked. Your plate is full. It’s hard to stop everything and research what areas you think might do your property the most good.
If you’re working with the best fit for landscape services in Greater Chicago, though, you shouldn’t have to do this. A knowledgeable service provider will give you options that can help you do the right things for your property within your budget constraints instead of just selling a service.
As a result, your commercial landscape maintenance costs can stay in check because your service partner is doing their job and noticing issues or concerns before they happen. Finding solutions to problems before they become extensive saves you money because when a problem is ignored and left to worsen, it can become much more expensive to fix.
Have you been noticing that your commercial maintenance isn’t meeting your needs? Maybe you’d like to save some costs or find some strategies that can reduce expenses but still give you a look that you’re after? Give KD Landscape a call. We have experience providing options to Greater Chicago commercial property managers so you’re not left with only one choice or one option.
Want to learn more about our commercial landscape services? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can feel confident and make a great choice.
