Do You Make These “3 Costly Mistakes” With Your Long Island Condominium Landscaping?

Taking advantage of an insider’s perspective with landscaping problems you put-up with, is proactive and will save you from time-hassles, as well as over-budget dollars for sure. Even the smartest HOA’s & Property Managers make landscaping mistakes. It’s not their fault… first, it’s not their profession, and secondly, they don’t do it everyday. Discover 5 landscaping reports for HOA’s below. Stop wasting your time and HOA landscaping budget on avoidable problems.

Mistake #1 Not having a strategic plan
Mistake #2 Not understanding landscaping contracts
Mistake #3 Watering Issues

Even Being Informed Is NOT Always Enough.

In the book “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell; the point driven home is simple; when you know something well through study, experience and time, you can walk into a situation and in a blink, know the problem and usually the solution. Don’t you agree, you experience this in your profession? It’s not as simple as reading a manual; instead you live it and breathe it… the time it takes you to assess and conclude a situation is light-years from a layperson. Most challenges for many of us starts when our plates are full with a job, family, friends, and hobby’s… in other words, our life. Meaning, we can’t all be experts at everything. So when it comes to condominium landscape management you’re bound to make some mistakes. It may be an agreement in the contract you didn’t have to agree to; or it can be calling the wrong vendor for the wrong job… which can be a hassle as you play phone tag and have a hard time fixing the issue quickly without any non-sense. The time has come for you to beef-up your landscaping aptitude, and stop wasting time and money, as well as minimizing the hassles and aggravation fraught with mis-information and uneducated decisions. I’ve put together a small series of landscaping reports for you; they’re designed to help minimize costly decisions, and help reduce the amount of time you spend managing your HOA landscaping.

Condominium Landscaping Mistake #1:

Not Having a Focused Strategic Landscaping Plan

Not having a long-term landscaping plan for your community will cost you personally in time, aggravation, and… in over-budget expenses you didn’t see coming. Knowing every nook-and-cranny about landscaping is not necessarily your job… it’s your Landscape Company’s job. To take it a step further… it’s your Landscape Company’s obligation to help you gain the best results with little to no issues… isn’t that what good service is all about?

How-to Eliminate 99% of Your Landscape Management Issues

When your landscaping is strategically planned for the year… good service is predictable. As with most things, hoping for the best and planning for the worst usually proves to be a good ‘rule of thumb’. Take your car for example; everyone knows if you don’t change your fluids & filters on a consistent basis, you will certainly have ongoing costly issues with your car. With inconsistent car maintenance you will definitely pay more in the long-run, and find yourself aggravated by time and money issues. It’s the inconvenient time the car is in the shop, plus the extra money we didn’t account for on problems we could have avoided. You’ve heard the old saying; “Failing to plan, is planning to fail.” Below are three paramount reasons why you want to proactively plan and manage your condominium landscaping with an experienced condo landscaping expert. Not planning will absolutely cost you far more money, far more time, and far more aggravation in the long-run… so, if you’re ready to proactively plan & manage your community property and avoid these costly issues, please continue reading.

3 Prime Ways HOA’s Maximize Time & Budget Through Effective Landscape Planning

Landscaping Mistake #2:

Not REALLY Understanding Your HOA Landscaping Contracts

‘Status-quo’ landscaping contracts include 2, maybe 3 or 4 trimmings per year, and most HOA’s go with it because that’s what they did last year.

Unfortunately this common practice is the root to ongoing budget problems, and at the end of the day, negatively impacts the beauty and health of your community.

Scheduling a handful of arbitrary times to trim & prune a property with up to 25 or 30 different types of bushes & plants is the wrong way to go, here’s why.

A ‘status-quo’ trimming program inherently excludes many needs your plant life calls for

The typical landscaping contract itemizes services you will receive over the year. For example; you get ‘X’ amount of mowing, ‘X’ amount of weeding, and ‘X’ amount of trimming & pruning. You sign on the dotted line and you think you’re covered.

Now months go by and you start seeing potential problems that require immediate attention. Perhaps there’s an over-grown bush blocking someone’s window, or worse, it’s climbing up the side of the dwelling where unseen bugs are starting to infest the building.

Most HOA’s call the landscaping company to alert them of these issues, only to find an inadequate response such as; “We’re scheduled to trim bushes in about three weeks.”

That’s the problem… three weeks with bug infestation will increase damage resulting in more budget dollars to fix the problem, and we can all empathize with the resident whose window is blocked by a bush… especially if that window adds to the quality of their home.

The typical ‘X’ amount of trimmings is clearly the wrong way to go because, a large condominium property has a wide range of bushes, shrubs & perennials demanding different care and maintenance throughout the year.

Each Season, and at different times within each Season, plants and bushes require different care to avoid over-growth issues, insect problems, and to insure long-term ROI from your landscaping budget.

Please understand… a ‘status-quo’ trimming program inherently excludes many needs your plant life calls for, ultimately leading to extra management, services, and plant replacement where more dollars from your budget are required.

As discussed in How Landscaping Plans Save HOA’S Time & Money while Improving Landscape Quality; Not having a long-term landscaping plan for your community will cost you personally in time, aggravation, and… in over-budget expenses you didn’t see coming.

How added cost & time are completely avoidable by adding landscaping essentials like…

Landscaping Mistake #3:

Not Calling the Right Landscaping Vendor for Watering Issues

All too often avoidable lawn care issues play out in Condominium communities all over Long Island. They’re avoidable by simply identifying the right vendor for the right job. It sounds easy enough… but cost conscious HOA Board Members must up-their-game if they want to keep their lawn care budget predictable, and free from unforeseen issues.. The right person, with the right tools will always be cheaper and more reliable in the long run. Avoid aggravating phone tag, or tracking down vendors every time a squirrel drops an acorn.

When You Don’t Know the Right Vendor to Call, Avoidable Issues will become Costly Problems

For example… Residents assume when they see brown spots forming on the lawn in front of their homes it’s from lack of water. Immediately they call the HOA Board to let them know the lawn needs more water. Then the HOA calls the Property Manager, and the Property Manager finally calls the irrigation company. Here’s the problem and why all those phones calls are a waste of everyone’s time. The irrigation company is the wrong vendor to call when you think you’re having watering issues. Here’s why…

Irrigation Companies are not “Turf” Experts… Instead, They’re Plumbers & Mechanics for Your Irrigation System

Irrigation companies do not diagnose lawn problems, instead they react to requests from your community for mechanical or plumbing services. You tell them you need more or less water, they make a paid visit to your community to reset the sprinklers. They support the mechanics and working condition of the system, in addition to setting up how often and what intervals the sprinklers turn on and off. As it stands now, irrigation companies typically do not detect or identity ‘turf’ problems until you let them know, and then it’s usually too late. A seemingly small problem grows worse over time because a few weeks of too much water exacerbates the problem instead of fixing it. Now you’re faced with costly treatments, replacement of lawn sections, and more unexpected dollars from your HOA budgets.

When Your Lawn is Browning, Call Your Landscaping Company FIRST

The vendor who mows, edges, weeds and shapes your lawn is of course, your landscaping company. They not only maintain your property, but they are knowledgeable on how to sustain the health and well being of your lawn, which includes watering. When an expert landscaper sees browning spots, they don’t automatically assume it’s lack of water… it could also be insects or a fungus. They also know, if you mistake fungus from poor watering… and then you add more water, the fungus will rapidly spread and potentially kill your lawn. Lawn care for Long Island Condominiums can be a tough job, especially when two different, but related vendors work for your community and do not communicate directly. You know the old saying? “One hand doesn’t know what they other hand is doing.” FACT: When your landscape and irrigation vendors are communicating directly, you avoid costly lawn problems commonly caused by watering issues. Again, the right person, with the right tools will always be cheaper and more reliable in the long run, discover more in-depth ways HOA Board Members can better manage their landscaping while saving time and money. Find-out How Expert Watering Methods Predictably Save Your HOA Real Dollars in Your Landscaping Budget Expert Watering Guidelines For Condominium Landscaping on Long Island