If your community or site was landscaped over two decades ago, you likely have been faced with repairs and enhancements. Plant material has a life span, irrigation components wear out, drainage systems fail, gardens evolve, trees outgrow their spaces, pests invade. The list goes on. Landscapes are after all, are living and constantly changing.

Are you planning for the future of your landscaped site? Do you have budgeted reserves for future improvements? How willing are community members to accept a special assessment to fund projects?

Landscaping and water are likely the largest recurring items on your budget. Landscaping directly affects your community and property values. It’s what people first see when they drive in. It is an asset which should increase in value. But how?

What we find working with clients is a revolving door of band aid solutions. Each contractor offering their services and enhancements. Some landscape contractors and boards are successful and stick with a project long term to see the communities vision through. Others get replaced, the vision is lost.

A comprehensive strategy to guide landscape planning is necessary. This starts out, like any project, at setting goals. Each community has its own. We can then build consensus, rally residents around these goals to budget, fund, and move projects along. No more band aids to stop the bleeding.

Landscape Master Plans (LMP’s) are long range planning documents built around pre-defined goals. Some common goals are to decrease water consumption, decrease maintenance costs, build sustainable landscapes and enhance aesthetic appeal. LMP’s identify the what, how, when, why, how much of future landscape projects.

We work collaboratively with landscape committees, residents, boards and contractors to guide work with specific intent. Each recommendation in our LMP’s has an intent in the goals identified. The solutions are varied and there are a multitude of options to meet the needs of any landscaped site into the future.

Our LMP’s work to quantify savings over time to initially fund projects. Much of what we recommend goes back to the basics of horticulture, plant care and nurturing healthy landscapes in the dry environment of Southern California. Botanicon analyzes the site, potential solutions and recommends varying strategies, new technologies and local incentives.

Remember quick fixes are just that, and are generally expensive in the long run. Solutions abound to guide your communities landscape assets into the future. Landscape Master Plans are about working smarter, not harder, to achieve your goals.

5 Takeaways from Stakeholder Surveys on Your Landscaped Site

Some people love surveys, some people cringe. But when managing a large landscaped site long-term, the data a survey can provide decision makers is invaluable. Plants are living assets, which grow, change through the seasons, require ongoing maintenance and monitoring. There are so many choices in the market for landscape service providers, new plant cultivars, water restrictions, noise considerations, tree ordinances, demographics of site users, and so much more to each specific site. It is not one size fits all.

So why not ask them? We make it simple and user friendly to get the data to support smart decisions.

1. What is important to site users? It could be using less water, having colorful plantings at community entrances, safe and inclusive playgrounds or budget friendly maintenance services. Or maybe it is something you never thought of, a community garden, understanding the benefits one mature tree can provide a community, knowing the plants in their environment.
2. What is not important to site users? This is possibly better data than what is desired. This is an area of potential cost savings.
3. What results are desired? What level of maintenance do users expect? Do stakeholders expect to see someone on site every day, once a week? There are many ways to achieve a well maintained appearance, as long as the results are visible and apparent to the people who pay for it.
4. What percent of the communities landscape budget should be spent on what? This gets stakeholders who love numbers to understand where their money goes. Maybe a phased plant replacement plan is prudent for the long term budget.
5. What is the long range vision for the site? Users can imagine what their community will look like 5 to 10 years down the road.

From here we have data to develop a long range plan and budget to meet the landscape goals of our clients. We can write specifications for landscape maintenance to deliver results expected within our clients budget. We know our decisions are based on data with input from all stakeholders and site users. We can move forward to implement the plan collaboratively, in the best interests of the site and our client.

5 Advantages to Writing Maintenance Specs Specific to your Site

Specifications for landscape maintenance are instructions to the contractors performing the work – mowing, pruning, leaf clean up, irrigation management, pest monitoring and control, etc. They are written by professionals knowledgeable in horticulture, plant care, irrigation and landscape management. With a landscape inventory in place, maintenance specs specific to your site, and input from owners and managers, we can now drive effective long term landscape management plans within a clients budget.

1. Intent of the task – why is the landscape contractor being asked to perform the task? What is the desired result and how specifically will it be achieved? For example, turf care. Simply stating that the turf shall be mowed and green gives the contractor a lot of room for interpretation. It could be a patch of green weeds which gets mowed once a month and that would meet the requirement of the spec. Too vague.
2. Reference standards – in horticulture, standards for pruning, irrigation, mowing, planting, etc. exist. We do not have to reinvent the wheel. Simply make the bidders aware of the standards and how they will be enforced. The standards are accepted industry wide as best practices for landscape assets.
3. Include specs in contract – Specifications for landscape maintenance are a vital part of the landscape contract. Contractors can bid competitively because they are all bidding the exact same things. Sites should be writing their own specs and contracts, having the contractor sign their document. Not the other way around.
4. Consensus – all parties involved know what is expected, how to achieve it and how it will be monitored. Input from stakeholders is recognized to drive effective results on their site.
5. Planning – revisit maintenance specs each year and decide if there are edits necessary. Look at the budget and see where the most money is spent on landscape maintenance. Hedging 6 times a year, water leaks, unused turf areas, blowing away costly mulch with the leaves, heavy fertilizer use, etc. can all be mitigated with good planning. With hindsight, we can plan better into the future for enhancements and upgrades to make sites more resource sustainable.