4 Essential Winter Commercial Landscaping Tips
Picture this—you’re looking for parking spots as you drive your car. You see two parking lots available. One has just been freshly plowed, while the other is piled with snow. Which one are you more likely to park in? Similarly, if you have to park on the street, are you more likely to park in front of a store with a darker, gloomier exterior or one that’s well-lit and appears well-trafficked?
The appearance of your commercial landscaping does matter, even if it seems insignificant. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to ensure your business looks welcoming to existing customers and prospects all year round. This means keeping up with exterior maintenance, including landscaping work. A well-kept landscape will ensure your business looks welcoming to customers, improve curb appeal, and even reduce slip-and-fall risks.
This winter, ensure your business looks welcoming by following these four tips.
1. Improve Curb Appeal With Winter-Friendly Plants
Winter landscaping doesn’t have to be leafless trees and dormant plants that can make your business look “closed” for business. Instead, plan to integrate a variety of winter-friendly plants into your existing landscape. Examples of winter-friendly plants include:
- Winter Jasmine: Winter jasmine is a hardy shrub that remains colorful all winter with its warm, yellow flowers and green, shiny leaves.
- Winterberry: Winterberry shrubs are available in a variety of sizes and shapes. Winterberry is also resistant to insect pests and plant diseases and produces red berries that attract cold-weather birds.
- Winter Daphne: Bearing pink blooms and a delightful fragrance, the winter Daphne is an evergreen shrub that will add a touch of spring to your commercial landscape.
- Camellia: Hardy Camellia shrubs bloom yellow, pink, white, or red flowers over winter to give any landscape eye-catching color. The Camellia beautyberry shrub also produces dark violet berries during winter.
2. Always Winterize Your Landscape in the Fall
Although winterizing won’t immediately improve the appearance of your landscape, it will ensure that you experience little to no damage throughout the season.
Winterizing tasks may include shutting off irrigation systems, draining ponds, fountains, and other water sources, trimming trees, and sealing concrete, but they vary based on the elements within the landscape.
3. Stay on Top of Snow & Ice Management
Snow and ice buildup can cause damage to exterior surfaces, including your building’s roof, sidewalks, and parking lots, as well as landscaping elements, including trees and shrubs. In addition to potentially damaging your building and landscaping, snow and ice buildup can also be safety risks for your customers and guests.
Before winter, gather a list of local snow removal providers and request bids from all of them. You should also keep a good supply of ice melt, shovels, and weatherproof mats readily available in your stockroom. When snow is light and dry, a snowblower will clean off sidewalks and parking lots quickly.
4. Start Planning Your Landscape Design for the Spring
Don’t wait until spring to plan your landscape! Winter provides the cleanest slate possible—many perennial plants, trees, shrubs, and hardscaping elements will still be visible, and you can easily find potential areas of improvement where you can add more hardscaping elements or annuals.
You’ll also have more time to consider your options—if you wait until spring, you’ll feel rushed, and most commercial landscaping companies will be booked up.
Get Professional Commercial Landscaping Help From Design One
Get more tips and commercial landscaping advice from Design One. Founded over 30 years ago, we’re Michigan’s premier commercial landscaping service provider, specializing in landscape design. Whether you want advice on what type of plants to install in your garden or have hardscaping ideas that you need assistance with, we’re here to help. Contact us today to learn more about our services and capabilities or to request a project consultation.
