[guntruck]

Hello, a quick question regarding proper and regular maintenance on high end commercial properties. For those of you that may have some high end commercial properties ( Condo's, upscale business parks etc etc. ) how do you go about scheduling your maintenace for the season? By that I mean what do you schedule and when? Do you have certain times you remove dead wood and do ornamental pruning? When do you do your shrubs on a regular schedule or "as needed". In my contracts which vary, some are as many as 4 times per season which was mandated by the property in 05' as being mandatory. Im guessing the other contractor did them "as needed" and for some thats too late because there over grown at that point. I am just having some difficulty scheduling several properties with maintenance and staying efficient. Mowing, fert, pest, etc etc is pre scheduled for the season weather permitting as well as weekly spraying for weeds. But all the off the wall stuff is there certain times you put it in the schedule? Every week while were there mowing we remove any trash deadhead any perrenials and hand pull weeds. I noticed August here is popular for alot to do tree pruning, is this because were usually stressed by drought and we are on a 10 day or longer mowing schedule? Who knows. Any information shared is always appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[GLAN]

If you think about it.

Every thing kinda goes seasonal.

Spring for example is cleanup, preping the property for the growing season.....adding seasonal color, etc...

Then comes the first of the shrub trimmings.......when that is completed, we look to doing some tree trimming. Then it's fall lawn aeration and spot seeding, fall trimming and into fall color change over........then it's preperation for winter.

You are in a warmer climate than I am......your season is much longer.......so you would I expect have more trimmings in your agreements......But yeah, we do follow a seasonal thing.

Although it's very difficult to talk a high end commercial property to wait cause it's the wrong time...............they don't care. They are only concerned with appearances........As are we, as much as we try to do things at apporpriate times. There are just those times when Management wants and needs to have something done.

[Turtle]

Office buildings entrance ways are trimmed every week, lunch break area every week, perimeter every 4 weeks
We break the condos apartment buildings down into sections
In florida a shrub will get trimmed every 4 weeks so we break down into 4 sections and rotate. I can go on property and know where the guys should be at in their trimming and bed weed control.
Winter we our on property every other week we lift the tree branches if its in the contract do our bed cleanups etc. February we are doing final leaf cleanup and start mulching

[Mac]

It sounds like you are having your lawn maintenance crew do the detail work also. If that is the case, I believe you will find it more efficient to set up a TLC crew.

This TLC crew will be responsible for spring mulching/edging, shrub pruning, deadheading, bed weed control, tree uplimbing/light trimming, seasonal color, fall leaf clean up, and potentially aerations. If you look at your timing, you likely will see that once one batch of these services are complete, it will be time to move into another. Also, you will find that you will be able to keep your mowers mowing, thus increasing your productivity.