It may not seem like it in January, but taking care of your property is something that happens year-round. You won’t hear lawn mowing and trimming going on when the turf is dormant, in fact, you’re more likely to hear our plows and shovels – but believe us when we say that a lot of work is going on here at emi in planning for the upcoming season!
This is the time when we reach out to our clients – we want to see how your property is looking and make sure you’re happy with the work we’ve done over the past season. We’ll also ask about your hopes and dreams for the property and if you want any changes to your contract to achieve these goals. Ideally, we like to meet with our clients at renewal time, but many of them just ask us to email over the new contract and they sign it and get it back to us. Here at emi, we celebrate that fact. It shows a level of trust in the relationship we have with the folks we work with!
If you’re looking to put out bids for the upcoming year and are interested in having us give you a bid, this is the prime time to do it. Here’s why: what we call the growing season starts March 1, so if you’re a property manager, you’ll want to lock in your contract well before then. A proactive vendor wants to be ready at least 30 days before the season starts. Ideally, you don’t want to leave the month of February without having that contract in place. This will go a long way in getting the schedule and quality of service you deserve.
In early spring, your commercial landscape company has a lot of timely tasks on its to-do list.
You’ll find the emi team:
- Applying crabgrass preventer on your turf. We use two different preventers for the best defense against pesky weeds.
- Edging and mulching before the mowing season happens. This allows us to remove any debris and winter weeds – we get those beds sparkling clean!
- Applying weed preventer in your beds. The timing on this is absolutely critical. Many weeds must be controlled from growing early on, and are tougher to control with post-emergents if they’re already growing later in the season.
- Looking at degree-day charts. We know it’s a race against the clock for the products that we use to prevent weeds so we check the temperature of the soil as well as follow the “forsythia blooming philosophy”. Haven’t heard of it? Generally speaking, when you see those forsythia petals drop, it’s the right time to apply pre-emergents. Mother Nature definitely knows the right time.
Early in the season, we’re also taking stock of your property. We’re estimating what needs to be done to get and keep your property in tip-top shape. We’re taking inventory of your trees and shrubs, so we know what we’re dealing with. We’re setting up a holistic approach that will allow us to best take care of your property. Once we get your signed contract back, you can rest easy. We’re doing all the dirty work!
All these important steps need to be finished by mid-April at the very latest. If you find yourself renewing or signing a contract sometime in March, that can really cut that time frame down.
We know proposal review takes time, especially when it comes to commercial landscaping contracts. When it’s just a property manager, it can be very different than when there are layers of stakeholders involved. But usually, when the numbers get into all the right hands, it’s typically only a week or two until the decisions get made. Bringing in a third party to review bids can add a month or so. The key is just to be proactive in getting the process completed.
And a final hot tip: the opposite advice is true for commercial clients reviewing or seeking snow removal contracts. The best time to work on those? Right in the middle of summer!
Please let us know how we can serve you this season.