7 Tips to Improving Commercial Exterior Landscaping

Get your offices outdoor spaces ready to impress clients and customers

With a very hard winter finally out of the way, now is the time to inspect and review the exterior  spaces around your commercial premises. On first glance, things may appear to be perfectly normal however, on closer inspection there could be a number of winter related exterior landscaping damages or problem areas to repair or evaluate to ensure they do not become bigger headaches later on.

Even if the issues may only appear to be cosmetic, it pays to make a good impression on visitors to your premises and with good, regularly maintenance, you’ll limit the time and expense required to make major repairs to any areas that have deteriorated too far.

Follow the following 7 tips to help you stay on top of your exterior hard landscaped areas:

Visual Checks

Firstly, you’ll need to scan the perimeters of your premises for obvious signs of wear, tear or damage. Don’t just look from a distance. Make sure you look closely at areas that could easily have succumbed to weather related damage.

Whether its a few broken pot plants, pavement slabs or steps, deteriorating brickwork, mortar and pointing, debris or developing holes in areas that could cause a potential hazard, it all starts to add up.

Some issues may simply be a few unsightly weeds and moss developing on walkways, structures and surfaces. Or you may have found some shrubs or trees have become uprooted or damaged during storms and inclement weather.

With a pen and notepad at hand, you’ll soon discover that one winter is all it takes to make a long list of damages to your prized business premises.

List & Prioritise

Once you have a complete list of issues noted down, make a list that prioritises each of them by urgency.

Problems areas that pose a potential health hazard or danger to public safety must take precedence, whilst areas that look to be structural damage or deterioration shouldn’t be put off for too long to prevent worsening. Anything cosmetic can be dealt with once you are satisfied all other pressing matters have been addressed and resolved.

Planned Maintenance

If you do not already have any form of planned maintenance schedule in place, then perhaps now is the time to implement one.

Simple tasks such as regular grass cutting and trimming of shrubs, hedgerows and borders are all problems that seem to accelerate out of control during the warmer months, as the growth rate increases dramatically. Grass cuttings, leaves and debris also starts to build up and will need blowing and collecting to make your outdoor areas look clean and pristine. Clearly jobs like regular landscaping can be outsourced to a specialist contractor who can visit your premises and take care of these matters as and when required.

You may also find that piles of leaves and debris that had fallen during the previous autumn and winter months did not biodegrade and need to be removed in hard to reach places. A build up of fallen foliage along rooftops, gutters and hidden corners will encourage mould and moss growth which will spoil your hard landscaped areas and lessen your buildings curb appeal to visitors and clients, not to mention increase your repair bills over time.

Fertilise

Once your grass has been cut back, you may find there are various brown spots where the grass has died off due to lack of air or overgrowth. Grass is usually very hardy and will eventually recover however, a good spray of fertiliser will go a long way to helping it bounce back quicker and stay greener for longer.

It’s not uncommon for staff and visitors to want to enjoy the lawned areas during the summer months, so make sure your green spaces look as good as they can in time for the sunny days.

Lay Mulch Bark Chippings

If your hedgerows and planted areas suffer from persistent weeds and unsightly growth, then put down a good layer of bark chippings to keep them at bay. Not only will they lessen the job of having to keep your flowerbeds and hedgerows weed free, they also make the finish look nice and tidy too.

Jetwash & Weed Kill

Sometimes weeds find their way into all sorts of nooks and crannies. One in particular is the gaps in paving slabs and slates. A build up of soil from foot traffic and natural migration will help to encourage weed growth, surface moss and green shoots to appear on sandstone surfaces and in mortar gaps. No matter how tight, they still appear over time.

A good jetting with a pressure washer followed by a seasonal spray of non-toxic weedkiller should help to bring your footway slabs back to life, and they should be good as new in no time.

Be Prepared

Every year, the same jobs come around season after season, yet so many of us are simply not prepared for when the time comes. In most cases, a reliable and reputable scheduled maintenance contractor can handle all of these jobs and take the load.

Many businesses avoid hiring specialist contractors to do these jobs believing it will cost too much however, many examples have shown that the cost of repairs due to long term damage far outweigh those of a planned maintenance firms fees. So if you are faced with a external hard or soft landscaping maintenance decision and need to get on top of various jobs, you either need to implement the above regimes year after year, or hire a specialist to do the job for you.