Landscaping | Useful Tips for Chicago Businesses

ServiceMaster Restoration By Simons’ Helps Chicagoland Businesses & Commercial Properties – Landscaping Useful Tips for Chicago Property Managers

 

While it’s true that ServiceMaster Restoration By Simons is Chicago’s trusted name in Disaster Cleaning, we also have other interests, including landscaping. While we do not offer landscaping services like some of the ServiceMaster franchises around the country, we certainly have a few landscaping tips that you can follow to ensure that your commercial property looks good during the spring, summer, and autumn months.

 

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”

Neither does your building. People—and potential tenants—begin making judgments and opinions about it before they pull into the parking lot… before they come in the front door. Exterior appearance matters as much as intelligent clothing or a good haircut to a job applicant.

What can you do to “smarten up” the exterior?

SPRING is an essential season in lawn and landscape care. Late winter is the time to inspect for winter damage and take corrective measures. The steps you take in the spring make a big difference in how well your lawn endures the summer, too — the proper nutrients plus weed and insect control will make a healthier lawn more able to withstand the heat and water stress that comes in mid-summer.

One of the most overlooked areas is the greenery. The first and last thing people notice about your property is the landscaping. A building’s “curb appeal” can make a decisive difference in attracting tenants and how tenants’ customers react to them, dramatically impacting sales, occupancy rates, employee morale, and net operating income.

Landscaping is an “investment” in your building—one with strong benefits but serious failings if not taken care of. Choosing the right people to care for your landscaping investment can make all the difference in achieving that successful image. You can “grow your business” from the outside.

 

Five Common Landscaping Mistakes. Landscaping can enhance and define your commercial property or be a detriment in attracting customers or tenants. Avoid some common mistakes to make your business shine:

The Missing Edge

• Definition is the key to any great landscape design. Your landscaping elements need to be separated from one another. Ensure your landscaping beds are crisp and clearly defined, and mulch or crushed stone is contained where it belongs.

Choosing Only Curves

• While the shape of a curve is soothing to the eye, designing landscape beds with too many curves conveys chaos. Use a combination of straight lines and curves in the hardscape and landscape to create an inspiring outdoor environment.

Lack of Lighting

• Landscape lighting should never be an afterthought. Plan your landscape beds with strategically placed lights – walkways to negotiate, low-level spotlighting for plants, or hardscape of architectural interest to transform your outdoor space.

Limited Plant Palate

• The diversity of plant materials creates a welcoming look and feel. Be selective in your plant choices, but remember to choose plants appropriate for your climate.

Lack of Unity

• Plants and landscape beds need a sense of order or unity; otherwise, the plant collection will look like a jumbled mess. Use hedges, continuous ground cover, and clusters of plants to unify the space. Identify key “specimen” pieces to highlight.

 

Comfort—Inside and Out. Most people associate comfort with interior design or structures inside the building, often ignoring or neglecting the surrounding areas. Follow these tips and guidelines to provide an attractive outdoor area and help give your company a new “personality.”

Here are some guidelines to provide a comfortable work environment for your employees through care and maintenance of the surrounding areas:

• Frequent cutting and trimming convey professionalism and high standards and provide a sense of security for your employees. When a building’s landscaping is maintained in a standard and orderly manner, employees and customers feel more confident about their work environment. A positive first impression can dramatically impact sales, occupancy rates, employee morale, and net operating income.
• Cleanliness—It is extremely important to keep the exterior of your building as clean as the interior. Most people overlook the exterior of their buildings. Ensure you have enough trash cans and ashtrays at every building entrance. Trash, cigarettes, and other debris everywhere can be very unattractive, so make it easy for employees to discard garbage. Be sure to hire a well-reputed company to maintain the outside of your building.
• Well-lit parking lot—Having a well-lit parking lot not only makes your building more attractive but also serves as a safety measure. Many employees will feel a sense of security when they work late and come out to a well-lit parking lot.
• Shrub Removal – It is vital to remove loose shrubbery and branches. This not only makes your facility look attractive but also helps to avoid accidental injuries. Have your landscaping company check for loose shrubbery and branches after a harsh storm.
• Environmental weed and pest control—A pest-infested brim of your building conveys one thing: lack of maintenance. Make sure you keep it pest—and weed-free to avoid gaining an unprofessional image to your present and potential employees and clients.
• Internal plants—Plants inside the building not only beautify the work environment but also serve as a relaxant. Studies have shown that working around plants increases one’s ability to work by significantly lowering the stress level in the office.

These tips will help you provide a comfortable, safe work environment for your employees and an attractive office setting for present and potential clients.

 

Interior Plants—The Landscaping Within. First impressions about your business are crucial. Use landscaping to help create a professional and inviting atmosphere.

Once a visitor enters your building, their next impression comes from factors like cleanliness, layout, design… and plants. The interior design of indoor plants — “Plantscaping” is crucial in making a pleasant and favorable impression… changing cold walls to warm and inviting interiors where people “live” for a third of their lives.

If you don’t have a green thumb (the time or the staff), look for a pro who can care for these areas. TruGreen-Chemlawn offers plant sales—or even leasing and maintenance—as well as “blooming plant” programs that can vary throughout the year, seasonal displays, or preserved plant displays for office environments that just cannot support living plants.