It’s a good thing you have a calendar, right? It reminds you of all the important stuff in life: holidays, birthdays, your dog’s vet appointment, the “buy a dozen donuts get a dozen free” days.
Your commercial property landscaping has a calendar, too. Every season has tasks that are crucial to the time of year.
While you’re taking Bruno to the vet, it might be time for fall cleanup on the commercial property you manage or your HOA. While you’re enjoying that bounty of donuts (save us a raspberry filled, please) your lawn needs fertilizer.
Here in Idaho, we’re lucky to have four distinct seasons. That means seasonal landscape maintenance is important — jumping on all the specific timely needs your landscaping has before the next season rolls around. Regular landscape maintenance happens all the time — mowing, blowing, weeding, trimming. There’s a whole checklist.
Seasonal landscape maintenance changes with the seasons — installing summer flowers, removing fall leaves, dormant pruning in winter.
If you skip a seasonal landscaping chore at your house, maybe you only have to deal with the disapproving side eye of your perfectionist neighbor. (That guy needs to get a hobby, right?)
But ignore an important seasonal task on your Idaho commercial landscaping, and it’s a big deal. First impressions matter. People judge your business by its appearance.
Ratty debris on your lawn looks bad. Brown, weedy grass gives the impression you don’t care. Icy sidewalks keep customers away. Dead flowers cause potential renters to move on to the next place on their list.
Here in Idaho, the changing seasons are stunning. But it means those shimmering golden leaves fall. Grass grows like crazy. Winter moves in with slick ice.
Seasonal landscape maintenance is a whole big thing, and it’s a crucial part of keeping your commercial property landscaping healthy, thriving, tidy and impressive.
What are your site’s top landscaping needs throughout the year?
Let’s get to it. And we’ll take a chocolate glazed donut, too, please. (C’mon — you got a dozen free!)
Table of Contents
- Spring Landscape Essentials
- Summer Landscape Maintenance
- Fall Landscape Strategies and Winter Preparation
- Winter Landscape Management
- Year-Round Landscaping Tips
- Hiring Commercial Property Landscapers in Idaho
Spring Landscaping Essentials
If spring is all about sunshine and twittering birds and cheerful tulips, why is your commercial property such a mess?
No offense. Everybody’s in the same boat. Winter finally left, like a bad houseguest, and left a mess.
Now it’s time for spring cleanup. And a few other seasonal landscape maintenance tasks.
What needs to happen out there?
Let Your Lawn Breathe Again
Winter is tough on lawns, from leaving all kinds of slimy, suffocating debris to causing damage with snowplows and ice melt products.
Clear the debris from your commercial property landscaping, from stray litter to old leaves to branches that fell during the winter.
Let the sun in so your lawn can thrive.
More Magical Mulch
You’ll want a fresh new delivery of the magical stuff to start the spring season. It’s a key part of landscaping in Idaho. Bark mulch conserves water so you need less irrigation. It keeps rain from washing away your soil, keeps weeds from popping up, adds nutrients to your soil, and just plain looks great.
Weeds! Get ‘Em Before They Sprout
Seasonal landscape maintenance means swearing at weeds. And waging a war on them. Spring means it’s time for pre-emergent herbicide to prevent pesky spring weeds from sprouting.
Pre-emergent has to be applied early in the season when soil temperatures are still below 50 degrees. So, spring landscape cleanup is the perfect time to zap weeds before they sprout.
Bring on the Bright Blooms
Commercial property landscaping needs colorful flowers. They attract attention, impress customers and visitors, and bring the wow.
Pick a few for a vase on your desk. You deserve it.
Check out these seasonal color tips.
Don’t forget to pop some of those flowers into big impressive planters.
We mean really big. Dinky planters don’t count. Most commercial property managers either don't use enough planters to make an impact, or their planters are too small to be noticed. You want to be noticed, right?
We’re talking impressive pots that can range from 2 feet wide by 2 feet tall to 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, or larger.
You’ll love the impressive difference they make in your Idaho commercial landscaping.
Next Up: Take Care of All Those Stunning Flowers
Once you install your great seasonal color, you can’t just forget about it.
Those awesome beds of cheerful yellow daylilies or brilliant red begonias need weeding. Without regular trimming, grass tends to creep into flower beds — not a tidy look.
Those giant containers we told you about need regular fertilizing to stay looking great.
Of course, everything needs irrigation to keep it fresh, healthy and thriving, especially in the heat of summer.
Spring for Some Landscape Enhancements
Spring is a great time to give your Idaho commercial landscaping a bit of a refresh.
Add a boost or two to bring fresh eyes to your property and impress the eyes that have already seen you a few dozen times.
Add new no-maintenance vinyl fencing. Update your playground with kid-safe rubber mulch. Install steel edging around your lawn and eliminate the need for painstaking hand trimming.
Time to Start Fertilizing
Spring means the grass is hungry again. Didn’t you just feed it last fall? Yup. It’s like a high school football player — always starving.
Lawn fertilization — a crucial part of seasonal landscape maintenance — kicks off here in Idaho in early spring, adding crucial nutrients to your hungry soil and giving your grass that nice pop of green, fast.
You want a blend of quick-release and slow-release fertilizer to deliver both immediate and long-term results.
Plan on mid-to late-April, once the soil temperature reaches 55 degrees.
Spring Sprinkler Start-up
Winter is kind of a jerk to your irrigation system. Sprinkler heads get clogged with debris over the winter or bumped by snowplows. When the holes are clogged, water sprays weirdly all over the place — a huge waste.
Spring start-up irrigation maintenance makes sure everything is ready to roll for a new season of efficient watering.
Spring irrigation maintenance includes cleaning out clogs and replacing any damaged nozzles.
Irrigation technicians will turn on your water, check each zone of your system, and take care of any fixing, replacing, or adjusting so your commercial property landscaping will thrive.
Summer Landscape Maintenance
Is there a better word than summer?
Summer means ice cream cones and flip flops and river rafting and icy margaritas and grilled everything.
But summer’s no vacation for your commercial property landscaping.
Summer means hot sun that dries out soil and roots. Invasive pests that munch the life out of plants. Evil weeds determined to take over your lawn. Irrigation systems that don’t get a break.
Kind of makes you feel guilty about that cherry popsicle, right?
No need. Stay on top of your seasonal landscape maintenance and all your commercial property’s needs will be in the bag.
What kind of needs? Hit the lounge chair and let’s take a look:
Watering Woes
It’s hot out there. And sunny. You’re on your third Yeti mug of water and you’re tempted to turn on the sprinkler and just let it run, like, for a week straight.
Be strong. Seasonal landscape maintenance means being strategic about summer watering, so your grass gets the water it needs, but not too much.
Don’t water every day. Don’t water every day. We said it twice, for emphasis.
If you water too often, even in summer, it encourages shallow, needy roots.
Your goal: water less often but deeply, and roots will grow deeper and healthier, to help keep your commercial property landscaping’s lawn green through the challenging summer.
Fertilize, Fertilize, Fertilize
That’s right, you need to fertilize your lawn three times each summer as part of your seasonal landscape maintenance.
It’s always hungry out there.
Plan on mid-May, around the end of June, and in early to mid-August.
Don’t Let Weeds Take Over Your Idaho Landscaping
Weeds love the summer heat. It makes them powerful, like evil super villains, daring you to take them out.
Take the dare. You’ll need a multi-step process here as part of your seasonal landscape maintenance, following up that spring pre-emergent we told you about with broadleaf applications to hit dandelions and clover, and spot treatments when pesky intruders sneak in.
Summer Pest Problems
Oh, boy, these little munchers are big trouble.
A gang of summer pests can invade your Idaho commercial property turf and devour it down to the roots.
Billbugs. Grubs. Sod webworms. It’s a terrible trio.
There’s no one treatment for all summer lawn pests, as they each have different life cycles.
Grubs and billbugs are best controlled by systemic products — insecticides that are absorbed by the grass. When lawn insects eat the grass blades or roots, they die. (Insert sinister laugh here.)
Others, like sod webworms, need a contact insecticide to be applied because they’re top feeders rather than feeding on your lawn’s roots.
In any case, year-round landscaping in Idaho means keeping an eye out for these destructive little beasts before they destroy your lawn.
Fall Landscaping Strategies & Winter Preparation
If you’re ready to put lawn and landscaping tasks behind you once fall bursts on the scene, we get it.
Fall is amazing here in Idaho, with shimmering golden aspen leaves and the fiery red foliage of the spectacular burning bush.
Oh, right — leaves. So. Many. Leaves. Blanketing your commercial property and making your lawn gasp for air.
Sure, there’s football to watch and cider to sip and caramel apples waiting to be munched.
But your commercial property landscaping needs a hand before winter sets in.
Here’s a look at some Idaho landscaping tips for fall:
Fertilizer
That’s right. Your commercial lawn is STILL hungry. (It’s a good thing it can’t get into your fridge, right?)
Fall fertilizing is actually the most important feeding of the year.
This fertilizer burst, which should happen around Halloween, when you’re setting up that 13-foot tall skeleton out front, is all about feeding your lawn’s roots.
While you’re buying all those mini Twix bars supposedly for trick or treaters, this feeding goes to work making your grass strong and healthy from down below the soil’s surface.
Don’t forget to feed your trees and shrubs, too.
Poke Your Lawn Full of Holes (It’s a Good Thing)
Fall is a great time to aerate your Idaho commercial landscaping lawn. Take advantage of it. The tiny cores of soil that are removed to allow better air circulation and moisture break down nicely during the winter, and will help feed your lawn and soil.
Follow it up with a nice fall seeding. All those holes are perfect for great seed to soil contact.
Fall is actually one of the best times to seed, too, with its cool air temperatures and still-warm soil.
Don’t Give Up on Weeds
Think weeds are tired after a long summer of being a huge pain for commercial property owners?
Don’t bet on it. (It’s OK for you to be tired. Weeds are exhausting.)
Sure, pesky weeds are most obvious to you in the summer, when they’re spending all their energy working on the top growth that everybody sees.
But in the fall, they’re just as busy, storing energy in their root system, which means they’re more susceptible to herbicide applications.
Zap them now, as part of your seasonal landscape maintenance.
Collect Lawn Debris
If you don’t collect all that lawn debris before winter, all the leaf litter, grass clippings, and debris is a big welcome mat for pests, like voles and mice.
These rodents love to live in messy lawns during the winter. Then, they’ll tunnel all over your lawn and destroy it.
Plus, grass needs sunlight to thrive. Scoop up that mess.
Landscaping in Idaho: Keep an Eye on Irrigation
Fall lawn care includes adjusting your irrigation system as the weather cools down.
Remember, it’s not 90 degrees anymore. More like 60. If you’re still watering like it’s July, time to turn back the watering. Too much water can encourage fungus.
Then, in late fall, it’s time to shut down your irrigation system for the winter as part of your seasonal landscape maintenance.
Freezing temperatures can quickly destroy an irrigation system that wasn’t properly winterized. It’s crucial to remove all the water from the pipes, valves, and sprinkler heads.
Irrigation pros have the right equipment and skills to remove all the water from your irrigation system.
Protect Trees and Plants for the Winter
Your trees and shrubs seem pretty sturdy. But Idaho winters can be harsh. Learn how to protect your precious trees and shrubs from winter damage.
Winter Landscape Management
Three seasons down, one to go in our year-round landscaping in Idaho whirlwind.
So, Idaho often spends much of winter covered in snow, right? How much seasonal landscape maintenance could there be?
Absolutely not as much as we just covered in fall. That was exhausting, right?
But a couple things are going on:
Dormant Pruning
Ever notice there are a bunch of trees and shrubs around here?
Well, winter is great for pruning your commercial property landscaping.
Pruning? In winter? You bet. A sunny day in January or February is a great time to prune.
This time of year, your trees and shrubs are dormant. You’ll do less damage now when you prune, shape and thin your deciduous plants than if you had at it in their prime growing months.
Those fresh pruning cuts you make heal faster during the dormant season — and are less likely to attract insects, which can carry diseases.
Snow and Ice Management
This is obviously a big one.
If you’re a property manager responsible for keeping your facility safe during winter’s onslaught of snow and ice, peace of mind is everything.
Turns out you can buy it — with a seasonal snow removal contract.
But in a nutshell: Pay one fixed price to have your property plowed for the season, no matter how many — or how few — times it snows.
You lock in the price for three years. Then, rest easy. You know Outback snow removal crews will show up every time it snows at least one inch, from November 1 through March 15.
Your commercial property landscaping budget will love it.
Year-Round Landscaping Tips for Idaho Commercial Properties
Some landscape tasks don’t have a specific season. They’re important year-round.
Keep your lawn mowed and tidy. Stay on top of irrigation system needs. Leave your desk once in a while and step outside to enjoy all those flowers you paid to have planted.
And, here’s a big one: sustainability.
We all know it’s important to take care of the environment — year-round.
Sustainability doesn’t just help the earth. It benefits you, too. Sustainable landscaping saves you water, needs less maintenance and can lower your utility bills.
How can you add sustainable landscaping practices to your Idaho commercial landscaping?
Use Native Plants
Native plants thrive here, because they’re from here. They need less water and maintenance once they’re established.
And there are some real Idaho beauties here for every season, making native plants an easy add as part of your seasonal landscape maintenance.
Common yarrow’s lacy flower clusters last all summer. Burning bush is as impressive as it sounds, with a fiery scarlet hue in the fall that makes a stunning hedge.
Sustainable landscaping also means choosing plants that match your commercial landscape’s conditions. Make sure full-sun plants end up in your sunniest spots. And group plants together that have the same water needs.
Speaking of watering…
Stay on Top of Irrigation Needs
Yes, we’ve talked about spring start up and fall winterization as part of your seasonal landscape maintenance, but your irrigation system needs attention year-round, and it’s a key part of smart sustainable landscaping.
Make sure your system is set for the current season’s watering needs. Your landscaping needs more water in the hot summer than it does in chilly fall, so adjust it accordingly.
Set it to run in the early morning so you don’t lose precious water to evaporation in the hotter part of the day.
Have your irrigation system checked regularly as part of your Idaho commercial landscape maintenance.
Sprinkler heads can break or need adjustment. New technology means upgrades that add efficiency, saving water and money.
Check Your Drainage
This sounds boring, but stay with us. Drainage is one of the most common and significant commercial landscaping problems.
Make sure rainwater has a clear path on your commercial property landscaping and doesn’t puddle up and hang out for days.
You might need to regrade some areas to encourage the flow of water in the right direction or install a French drain.
Lose Some Lawn
Sure, lawn is lovely, but it’s pretty needy, too. Are there areas where you can add more sustainable alternatives? Permeable pavers? Easy care ground covers?
It’s worth a look
Hiring Commercial Property Landscapers in Idaho: What to Look For?
Let’s start with a few no brainers to get warmed up:
- Check their Google reviews
- Look at examples of their work
- Talk to their customers
Then, dig a little deeper:
Communication Counts, Big Time
You have a lot on your plate, so you need to know your commercial property landscaping company will keep you up to date on exactly what's going on out there. When will they show up? What services did they complete? And when you have a question or concern, you need to know you’ll get a prompt, reliable response.
Can They Do It All?
If you’re hiring separate vendors for your Idaho commercial landscaping — your lawn care, your irrigation, your construction projects, and your snow and ice management — what the heck are you doing? That’s a lot of unnecessary stress.
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Make your life way easier by hiring just one commercial property landscaping company for all your needs.
Why? So many reasons, from streamlined budgeting to a team of skilled local
pros who work together to really understand your property’s many needs.
Look for A Detailed Contract
You want to know exactly what services you’re getting and how they’re delivered.
A good company will be up front about all contract items and be happy to explain them.
Ask Lots of Questions
Not sure what to ask? Check out these questions to ask a commercial landscaper.
There’s a lot at stake here. You want the best commercial landscape maintenance in Idaho.
Check out a few more things to look for when choosing a landscaping company.
Need Expert Year-Round Landscape Maintenance in Idaho? Trust Outback
Here in Idaho, every season brings unique challenges to your commercial property landscaping.
Let’s meet them together, head on.
Outback Landscape offers full-service landscape design in Idaho Falls, offering landscape design, installation and maintenance throughout Southeast Idaho and Wyoming.
We install beautiful, functional landscapes. But our work doesn’t stop there. We’ll stay with you for the long haul, taking care of your property through all four seasons.
We serve residential and commercial properties in Idaho Falls, Rexburg and Pocatello, Idaho, as well as Bonneville, Madison and Bannock counties.
Call us at 208-656-3220. Or fill out the contact form to schedule a no-obligation meeting with one of our team members.
We can’t wait to hear from you.
Image Source: Grubs