emi’s Mowing Field Supervisor, Osvaldo, has been keeping turf in the Lehigh Valley looking great for more than three years. With a background in landscaping and a perfectionist mindset, the father of three ensures the high-quality service emi customers deserve.
Originally from Puerto Rico, Osvaldo joined the company back in 2018, after many years of experience working in the industry. The keen landscaper says that a large part of his impressive knowledge base has come from his peers, and he attributes his success to hard work and staying busy.
For Osvaldo, there’s no greater feeling at work than when a project is finished on time without mistakes. Osvaldo’s keen eye for detail has made him a master in quality control, and he works tirelessly each day to ensure perfection for emi’s mowing customers.
As a lover of winter, Osvaldo enjoys being outside among the pines, and can often be found exploring the great outdoors on his four-wheeler when he’s not working. His favorite movie is The Fast and the Furious, which perhaps explains his interest in all things motorized.
Everyone here at emi appreciates the hard work, expertise, and tireless commitment to quality that Osvaldo brings to the team. Without him, we wouldn’t be able to deliver the incredible results that we’re known for here in the Lehigh Valley.
Few things have the power to make your property shine like a lively display of annual color. Whatever the season, a burst of colorful blooms can brighten your entire landscape, accentuating existing features and bringing new life to your space. They can soften hard areas like patios or decking, cover-up gaps left by hibernating perennials, and help your home or business stand out from the crowd.
But what are the best annuals for commercial landscapes? And what are the benefits of annuals over perennials?
In this article, we’ll explore what an annual plant is, the benefits of this type of flower, and highlight some ways an annual color display can work for your landscape.
What Is An Annual?
Annual flowers start and end their life cycle in a single growing season, and need to be replanted at the beginning of each new year. Despite only living for one year at the most, annuals are known for their bright, showy blooms and long-lasting flowers.
Annuals are normally divided into three categories: summer annuals, fall annuals, and spring annuals. For winter we add holiday decor to flower pots.
Benefits Of Annual Color Displays
As mentioned earlier, annuals are the showstoppers of the plant world. Known for their colorful, showy blooms and extended flowering periods, they are key to creating a bright, beautiful-looking flower display, whatever the season.
As well as their aesthetic appeal, annual plants come with a host of other benefits, including:
Annual flowers grow fast and bloom for longer than perennials
Annuals are available in a variety of colors
Annual plants are inexpensive compared to perennials
Most annuals are very simple to grow and require little maintenance
Fall Annuals In Pennsylvania
When it comes to fall annuals in the Greater Lehigh Valley, there are two main options for adding seasonal color.
One of the most popular options is to plant pansies, which will flower in the fall and may return in the spring depending on the winter weather conditions. It might sound counter-intuitive, but heavy snowfall helps to insulate and protect pansies from the colder temperatures, increasing the likelihood that they will bounce back when the sun returns. With this option, we remove the pansies once they stop flowering in May and replace them with petunias. The biggest benefit to this option is the potential for stunning spring blooms, with a steady flow of color throughout fall, spring, and summer.
The second option is to plant a combination of chrysanthemums and kale, which will produce some of the most vibrant fall colors out there. The only downside is that these annuals will need to be pulled at the end of the season, so they don’t provide any color in the spring.
As well as being a good season for annual flowers, fall is also a fantastic time to get creative with fun seasonal accents. Some of our customers enjoy adding seasonal décor like pumpkins and hay/straw bales to their landscapes to create a more festive atmosphere. This is also a good time of year to add extra blooms to any plant pots or flower boxes.
Winter Decor Displays
Of all the seasons, winter is the one that can most benefit from a splash of annual color. It’s a common misconception that this chilly season is too harsh for plants to flourish, but in reality, there are plenty of cold-tolerant annuals that thrive in cooler weather.
The first week of December is prime time for adding winter greenery to large flower pots along with holiday decor. Accents like greenery boughs are a popular option for property owners looking to make their corporate entrances feel more festive. These are then removed in the first week of January.
Summer Annuals In Pennsylvania
Summer is another high point for seasonal color here in the Greater Lehigh Valley, with lots of gorgeous warm-weather blooms to choose from. Petunias are one of our star performers and begin blooming shortly after planting in early May. Not only are they very tolerant to hot, dry weather, but they also don’t need to be dead-headed, making them a low-maintenance and colorful option for commercial landscapes.
This is also a great time of year to plant flower pots. As the weather starts to warm up at the end of spring, we take the opportunity to fill pots with gorgeous blooms like coleus, geraniums, and marigolds, as well as perennials like coral bells and hostas. These pots look lovely placed at entrances and on hardscape areas and can make an area look warm, welcoming, and more inviting to potential customers.
Color Your Life With Annuals
The simple addition of annual color displays can transform the experience of your property. The positive atmosphere created by a beautiful landscape helps to attract more customers, boost your reputation, and incentivize people to stay longer at your facility. Flowers not only revitalize the property but also the community around it.
At emi landscape, we have been transforming landscapes for more than 35 years. Our annual color service provides two seasonal change-outs to keep your grounds looking fresh and cared for, and involves planting, maintenance, and removal at the end of the season.
To discover what we could do for your commercial property, contact us for a free personalized quote.
Steve Royer, emi Field Supervisor, has been helping things run smoothly on-site for almost five years. From quality checks and team support to applying the finishing touches to jobs, Steve ensures that our crews have everything they need to succeed.
Before joining our team, Steve ran a woodworking business (and still crafts wooden signs alongside his day job!) He was introduced to the company via a friend in 2016, and initially, he had no intention of staying for more than a year. However, Steve’s persistence and eye for detail quickly established him as an essential member of the team, and after just twelve months, he was promoted to team leader.
Since then Steve has continued to rise through the ranks and, luckily for us, has no intention of leaving anytime soon.
He said: “It was a great decision working here. Knowing there are always opportunities for me to learn more excites me, and there’s a lot of room for growth.”
Now, Steve spends his days supporting our crews on the ground, making sure everything runs smoothly and applying the finishing touches to projects. For him, seeing a neglected site transformed into a beautiful one is one of the most rewarding aspects of the job, and he never tires of following the process.
As an active member of the emi community, Steve also loves taking part in our company cookouts and events and told us that the relaxed, family atmosphere here at emi is one of his favorite aspects of the job.
He said: “I’ve worked a lot of corporate jobs and I like the fact we get together and have cookouts and joke around. The days have a laid-back feeling to them, even though we get the work done to a high standard. This work requires persistence and being willing to challenge yourself, but it is always rewarding.”
When he’s not at work, Steve can be found doing what he loves most: writing historical fiction. A keen historian and psychiatry buff, Steve recently published a book on Allentown State Hospital and plans to author more in the future. In September, the wordsmith will take to the freeway for a two-week road trip to California, camping along the way.
Everyone here at emi appreciates Steve’s hard work, persistence, and supportive attitude. We’re privileged to work with such fantastic people, and Steve is one of the best.
With so much going on with your commercial property, you want a landscape that can thrive without too much input. This is why the best plants for commercial sites provide a high level of functionality and form without requiring too much maintenance. It’s no wonder then that perennials are the number one choice for commercial landscapes.
The hardy, low-maintenance plants not only look good but do well too, with a variety of beneficial properties for your landscape. In addition, with proper planting and maintenance techniques, perennials continue to grow stronger and stronger over time.
In this article, we’ll explore the key properties of perennial plants, and run through the benefits of using them in your commercial landscape.
What Is A Perennial?
The defining feature of a perennial is that it returns year after year without needing to be replanted. With proper care, perennial plants will return year after year, often surviving three or more growing seasons. A great deal of their energy goes into forming hardy, strong roots that go dormant during the winter, then return once the temperatures rise again. Due to this, they often do not flower as flamboyantly as annuals. Instead, they produce consistent foliage and short bursts of color. But don’t let this put you off!
One of the best things about perennials is that you can combine different species to prolong the bloom time of your beds. That means that when flowers start to fall from one plant, another is just coming into bloom! This creates a beautiful, ever-changing landscape that’s ideal for commercial sites.
Come Back Year After Year
The number one reason to love perennials on commercial sites is that they return year after year without the need to replant them. Many perennial plants continue to bloom for three or more years, depending on the species and weather conditions, making them a great low-effort investment in your landscape.
Because perennials have a strong root system, they can survive even when their aboveground parts are dormant in winter, and regenerate as soon as temperatures rise. Some even have hardy leaves that remain healthy through winter, offering fantastic year-round greenery for your site.
Native
Many of the perennials we use here in Pennsylvania are native to the state and so are perfectly suited to thrive here. In comparison to cultivated ornamentals, native perennials are more durable and easier to maintain and are more likely to tolerate natural swings in temperature, rainfall, and humidity. Furthermore, native plants have mutually beneficial relationships with pollinators and wildlife, helping to create a landscape that is less maintenance-intensive.
Low Maintenance
Unlike annuals which need to be dug out and replanted every year, perennials will return season after season with relatively little effort. Once their root system has embedded itself in the soil, most perennials will remain healthy with typically low maintenance, making property owners’ lives easier and leaving more time to focus on other aspects of the landscape.
As a general rule, it is advisable to trim perennials at the end of their flowering season to keep them looking tidy and encourage healthy blooms in the following year. This can also encourage a second bloom in the current year. Depending on the plant, landscapers might postpone trimming until spring to provide more interest to a commercial site through winter.
Benefit The Soil
The root systems of perennial plants aerate the soil naturally, helping to prevent it from becoming too impacted. This, in turn, aids the flow of oxygen and water to other plants in the area, promoting a healthy ecosystem without human intervention.
Furthermore, perennial plants can help to facilitate the filtration of water and nutrients from deep within the soil, giving nearby plants access to otherwise inaccessible resources. Also, since hardy perennials offer year-round ground cover, areas with a good selection of these plants experience better soil moisture levels.
Our Favorite Perennials
Here at emi we like to use a few of our favorite top-performing perennials on our commercial sites. Lilies and Salvia are hardy in Pennsylvania and are salt-tolerant as well for the winter months. Grasses such as feather reed grass, dwarf fountain grass, and little bluestem grass are also very attractive and flow in the wind throughout the year. Our teams regularly plant black-eyed Susans, coneflowers, hostas, dianthus, astilbe, iris, nepeta, sedum, daisies, and coral bells too!
Perennial Maintenance For Commercial Sites
‘Low maintenance’ doesn’t mean ‘no maintenance,’ and it is vital to maintain perennials if you want them to continue producing flowers and foliage year after year. With the right care techniques, perennials can be the foundation of an attractive commercial landscape, and deliver high rewards with little effort.
At emi landscape, we have mastered the art of caring for native perennials. Unlike other maintenance companies, we work with your plants and landscape, rather than against it. Our crews implement expert planting techniques and carefully select combinations that maximize the form and function of your landscape. That means caring for the right plants using the best methods at the appropriate time.
Snow removal procurement is based on a 52-week seasonal cycle, which commences in the spring. This timeline lays out every step of the process, from requesting initial information through to the conclusion of the contract, and follows the best practices recommended by the Snow & Ice Management Association (SIMA). Followed correctly, this timeline ensures commercial organizations can secure quality snow and ice removal contracts with reputable providers and allows ample time to finalize the details before winter arrives.
The following post will explain the key stages of securing a commercial snow removal contract and outline some important tips for working with a provider.
Spring
The snow service procurement timeline kicks off in early spring. This is when providers will start accepting requests for information from potential partners and share details about their services for the coming year. To ensure you don’t miss out on the best vendors, you should begin reaching out to companies as soon as possible.
By mid-spring, many providers will start to renew existing contracts. If you are happy with the snow removal service you’ve been receiving and want to remain with your provider, then it’s important to open the discussion before new customers start reaching out in early summer. This is also the best time to approach your current provider with any proposed changes to the contract.
If you’re on a multi-year contract then your provider will likely give you confirmation of continuation by mid-spring. If you haven’t heard anything then we recommend reaching out to the company to ensure everything is on track ahead of winter.
Late spring is when many property and facility managers begin making their requests for procurements. From now until the end of summer, snow service providers will be busy working out contracts with commercial partners. Our advice for making sure you get a great deal? Start early. If you play your cards right you could have your winter maintenance sorted before summer even arrives.
Snow service providers will normally carry out property walk-throughs in the cross-over between summer and spring. This allows them to provide in-depth answers to any questions you might have. Late spring is the ideal time to get into the nitty-gritty about what type of services you’re looking for and to identify the level of service your property will need.
Key things to consider here are:
What are your expectations for the Level of Service(LOS) – for example, “50% of the paved surface visible/regained by 10 a.m. for the majority of road lanes”
When do you expect services to be completed – consider what time/days the site experiences key traffic/patrons
Any areas that should be prioritized
Establish the trigger forecast required for dispatch of services and an accumulation threshold that specifies the maximum amount of accumulation acceptable on a site
Summer
Early summer is prime time to submit your request for snow services. One of the trickiest things about commercial snow removal is that you have to begin planning before the weather turns cold.
In general, you should be looking to secure your snow removal contract by mid summer at the latest. Quality vendors have a limited capacity to accept commercial clients, so if you wait too long, they will be fully booked. By the time Fall rolls around, only the less reputable vendors will be taking on new contracts. The longer you wait, the less choice you will have.
Once you submit your request, you should expect to hear back from the provider by mid-summer. Before the contract is finalized you and the provider will have time to negotiate and review the legal aspects of the partnership. For companies that submit their requests according to the timeline, contracts are normally in place by the end of summer/start of Fall.
Fall
Throughout Fall, snow service providers will carry out any training or prep work needed ahead of winter. By this point in the year, your contract should be steadfast, so for commercial customers, you can sit back and let your snow service partner take care of the preparations!
Winter
Winter is the season everything has been leading up to! As the weather turns colder, your service provider will begin monitoring the forecast to ensure they are ready to take care of your site. As snow and ice accumulate, they will remove it according to your contract, working with you to keep your property safe and accessible. Many providers also carry out in-season training in winter, putting into practice the theory learned during the Fall.
Winter is generally when companies tend to bill their clients, although this will depend on the fee structure agreed in your contract. These normally fall into one of four categories:
Per-Event Service: A set of agreed-upon fees to be charged each time an event occurs.
Per-Occurrence Service: Fees are charged each time salt is applied, the snow cleared, or both.
Per-Season Service: Predetermined monthly fees, based on an agreed set of services and paid throughout the contract.
Time & Material: Pre-agreed fees based on the amount of time and materials are used.
As winter draws to a close, your snow provider will start shifting any equipment from the site in preparation for spring. The process of repairs can usually begin once the weather starts to warm up, and the last of the snow has passed. Contracts generally end at the start of spring.
Commercial Snow Services In Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania
The winter months are a time when safety and accessibility are especially critical, so having a fleet available to you 24/7 is so important. At emi landscape, we never take half-measures. We have been partnering with commercial properties in Eastern Pennsylvania for more than 35 years, and are committed to helping our commercial clients through Pennsylvania’s tough winter season. Snowplowing, hauling, and de-icing are just a few of the services we provide.
Contact us today to discuss how our snow and ice services could help your business stay safe and accessible this winter.
Matt Mientus has been taking care of emi’s mowing clients for almost a decade, first as a crew member and now as head of the division. A former personal trainer, Matt switched out barbells for push mowers in 2012 to join our team!
He has since gained a roster of qualifications and awards, including SIMA’s operations employee of the year, demonstrating that you can achieve anything with hard work, ambition, and a positive attitude. Now, as emi’s Turf Division Manager, Matt is the driving force behind some of our biggest contracts, keeping our crews motivated with his unshakeable commitment to teamwork.
Matt starts his day at 5:45 am when he arrives at the office to prepare for site visits. He inspects the previous day’s work and checks on clients, somehow managing to be back in time to greet crews on their return to the office. After a day’s work, Matt returns home to his wife and their three-year-old daughter, sometimes squeezing in a family fishing session when the weather is good. In September, Matt will celebrate his fifth wedding anniversary with his wife – aww!
Outside of work Matt is a big outdoors guy and looks forward to the hunting season every winter. He is in the rare minority of people that prefer the snow to the sun, and actively enjoys plowing snow after a heavy storm. During the summer, he seeks out ocean breezes in Cape May and tries to fit in at least two games of golf each month.
For Matt, emi is more than just a day job. Over the years he says his colleagues have become like a second family, with Cindy taking on the role of mom and Bob the cool, older brother. Anyone who has worked with Matt will know just how hard he works to make everyone feel included, and will no doubt appreciate his expertise and can-do attitude as much as we do.
The weather is getting warmer, the wildflowers are in full bloom, and here at emi landscape, we’re gearing up for another busy summer schedule. Our specialized crews are also preparing for our annual summer trimming and pruning sessions alongside the year-round upkeep tasks like mowing and fertilizing.
People are sometimes surprised to learn that early summer is a key time for trimming and pruning. Often associated with the dormant winter months, cutting back trees and shrubs after they flower is an important part of ensuring their long-term health. In addition to improving the immediate appearance of your landscape, this type of maintenance increases the longevity of your trees, shrubs, and flowers. It should never be missed from your summer schedule.
In this article, we’ll take you through everything you need to know about summer trimming and pruning, from the correct timing and technique to the benefits of expert maintenance.
Trimming Vs Pruning: What’s The Difference?
Although people often use the words trimming and pruning interchangeably, there is a significant difference between the two. In general, pruning applies to trees and larger shrubs, whereas trimming is reserved for smaller hedges, and although both serve a similar purpose, they require different tools and techniques.
Pruning
Pruning is used to help trees and shrubs produce healthy fruit and flowers. It involves removing dead branches from the plant, giving new growth access to sunlight, and stimulating fresh growth.
Pruning is also used to control disease or pest infestations, to prevent the problem from spreading to the rest of the tree. If a tree or shrub is required for decorative purposes, then pruning is used to shape the branches.
Hand shears or lopping shears are the best equipment for this type of pruning.
Trimming
Trimming is a technique used to spruce up the look of small hedges and shrubs by cutting off over-grown branches. In general, the aim of trimming is simply to make the plant look neater, but it has the bonus of clearing the way for healthy new growth.
Landscapers normally use hedge trimmers for this task.
Why Is Summer Pruning Important?
Although winter pruning gets the most attention, there are a host of reasons that summer pruning should be on your seasonal maintenance schedule. In addition to the obvious aesthetic value, proper trimming and pruning have myriad health benefits.
Small fruit trees like crab apples and cherries benefit from summer pruning, as it helps to remove overgrown branches that block their short flowering spurs. By giving these smaller twigs room to breathe, you can help encourage new fruit bud growth.
Pruning in early summer can help to protect your trees and shrubs against fungal infections, as it removes the spores before they become airborne in early September. Prevention is always better than the cure!
Regular summer pruning helps to encourage healthy growth, particularly in climbing plants like jasmine and wisteria.
Summer prunings can make your outdoor space safer by removing any loose, rotten, or low-hanging branches. This not only reduces the risk when bad weather strikes but also helps to prevent any unexpected accidents caused by falling branches.
Pruning Tips For Summer
Although many trees and shrubs benefit from summer trimming and pruning, it’s worth noting that this technique isn’t suitable for all plants. When you prune depends entirely on when the plant flowers. The best time to prune a plant is after its initial flowering phase, as cutting it back too early could remove buds before they have time to bloom.
At emi, we focus on six main categories for summer trimming and pruning:
It is important to trim or prune shrubs and trees at the correct time to avoid causing damage to their growth pattern. If you aren’t a qualified horticulturist then it’s recommended that you use a professional landscape company with specialist knowledge of the local growing conditions.
At emi, we have dedicated crews for every task, including pruning and trimming. Over the last two decades, we’ve developed the best techniques, timing, and equipment for landscaping in beautiful Pennsylvania, and provide annual summer services for clients across the region. In addition to trimming and pruning, we also dispose of all discarded branches properly, so they aren’t left to cause problems in your landscape.
To learn more about emi’s summer trimming and pruning services, contact us via our maintenance page.
If you live in eastern PA, you may well be aware of the rising concern over the Spotted Lanternfly in our area. The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture is urging people outside the quarantine zone to report suspected sightings immediately, with Ohio State University professor Maria Smith describing the situation as “a ticking time bomb” if we don’t remain vigilant.
While this might sound alarmist, the arrival of spotted lanternflies could be devastating for Pennsylvania’s natural habitats. These insects are one of the most destructive invasive species to arrive in the United States for decades, so it’s important that everyone understands how to stop them from spreading.
This guide will help you to understand this invasive pest, from identifying the eggs, larvae, and adult flies, to the steps you can take to protect your landscape from infestation.
What Are Spotted Lanternflies?
The spotted lanternfly is a colorful, moth-like insect originally from Asia. It is classified as a plant hopper, which means that although it can fly, it prefers to jump from tree to tree. It feeds on a variety of different trees and plants and is particularly partial to fruit, ornamental, and woody trees. As it eats, the spotted lanternfly excretes a waxy sap that causes black sooty mold to grow on tree trunks and branches.
Spotted lanternflies cause an incredible amount of harm to crops and trees, and because they are an invasive species, they have very few natural predators to keep their numbers under control. Eventually, the insect’s feeding style will kill the plant or tree from the inside out, as a result of the irreversible damage they cause to its internal structure.
The species was first found in the USA in 2014 when farmers in Pennsylvania discovered egg masses on fruit crops. Experts think it probably entered the country by hitchhiking on timber transport ships from Asia. Despite efforts to contain the species, it has been spreading across state borders ever since.
Identifying Spotted Lanternflies
A spotted lanternfly’s life cycle includes four distinct stages: egg mass, early nymph, late nymph, and adult insect. Luckily, it maintains a distinct appearance through all four stages.
Egg Masses
Spotted lanternfly egg masses commonly contain between 30 to 50 eggs, which stick together in a flat, light grey clump. Often this mass will be covered by a light grey or brown waxy seal. The mass tends to be around 1.5 inches long and is normally found on hardwood tree trunks. Individual eggs look a little like grains of rice, with pointed ends that resemble sharpened pencil tips. Female lanternflies lay their eggs in rows, which are visible if they are not covered by the protective waxy coating.
Young Nymph
When they first hatch, lanternfly nymphs look like small black beetles with white spots. Generally, they measure around ⅛ inch long. Hatching occurs between early May and late June, so now is prime time to spot young spotted lanternfly nymphs.
Mature Nymph
Towards the middle and end of summer, lanternfly nymphs begin to develop a distinctive red and black body with small white dots. They grow to around ½ an inch long.
Adult
As they reach the end of their nymph stage, lanternflies start to shed their skin and grow wings on their backs. The adults measure around one inch long, have a black head and legs, and grey wings with black spots. When they are resting their bright red and white hind wings are visible. In autumn the weather begins to get too cold for spotted lanternflies to survive.
The Damage Caused By Spotted Lanternflies
Although you may observe spotted lanternflies in the act, it is more likely that you will detect them by the damage they leave behind. This is the most common way that infestations are identified.
The insects survive by sucking huge quantities of sap from trees, which leaves “wounds” along the trunk that seep sticky fluid. This sticky substance may have a fermented odor, a little like rotting fruit. The flies themselves also secrete a gluey fluid, which can cause buildup on and underneath affected plants. In addition to the “honeydew” left by the insect, you may also find a build-up of sooty black mold on the tree if flies have been on it for a while.
How To Deal With Spotted Lanternflies
If you suspect you might have an infestation of spotted lanternflies, then the first thing you should do is report it as quickly as possible. Spotted lanternflies are notorious hitchhikers, and are very likely to spread to other areas if not contained. As well as keeping a keen eye on your trees and plants, you should also check your vehicles for insects. If you find them you should kill them immediately.
Eggs should be destroyed as soon as you find them, but beware: this must be done properly to prevent further spreading. Begin by scraping them off the plant or tree, and transfer them directly into a double-bagged container. If possible, you should then cover them with hand sanitizer or an alcohol concentrate, before disposing of them in the trash.
This invasive insect can be tricky to handle alone, so you must seek professional help if you suspect an infestation. emi can help you to assess the risk of an infestation at your property, and conduct inspections to check for signs.
Don’t hesitate to give us a call to talk about how to protect your outdoor space.
When people describe someone as “having a green thumb” it usually means that they have a special talent for helping plants grow. A green-thumbed person has more than just experience, dedication, and knowledge about horticulture. They also have a magic touch when it comes to the natural world.
Under their care flowers bloom brighter, leaves are greener, and trees seem to reach that little bit taller than usual. They possess an exceptional gift for nurturing living things, that goes beyond what you can learn in books. When we describe our Horticulture Team Leader Donna Danenhower as having a green thumb, this is what we mean.
Donna joined emi back in 2011 as a part-time assistant and helped Cindy to manage a particularly busy fall season. She brought with her more than 25 years of experience at a local garden center, as well as an extraordinary ability to spot things that most people would miss. As a former member of the US army, this attention to detail makes a lot of sense.
One year on we realized we couldn’t do without her, and asked her to join the team full-time. Luckily for us, she said yes!
Now, Donna leads our horticulture team. As well as cultivating all of our annuals and perennials, she manages weed control in our client’s plant beds, tree rings, and stone areas, putting her pesticide license to good use to keep our properties thriving. Her extensive knowledge of plant species means that she is the team’s go-to for questions and advice. If a plant is worth knowing, Donna is probably an expert on it.
As you might expect for someone so in touch with nature, Donna is a keen walker, and can often be found exploring the coast with her dogs. She loves being outdoors and is also a skilled horse rider. When the weather isn’t cooperating, Donna enjoys curling up with a good book or working on her latest knitting project.
We hope you’ll all join us in giving Donna a big (green) thumbs up for everything she does here at emi. Nobody works harder or attracts more praise from clients, and without her, EMI just wouldn’t be the same. Thank you, Donna!
Commercial lawn mowing; it’s one of the most essential components to maintaining a professional site. A neat, well-maintained lawn adds value to your property and helps to establish your business as a professional organization that takes pride in its work. By taking care of your surroundings, you take care of your reputation.
Deciding which Lehigh Valley mowing provider to entrust with your site can be overwhelming. From huge national conglomerates to local one-man setups, there are a plethora of companies all claiming to be the best choice for your business.
So how do you decide?
In this article, we will run through everything you need to know about commercial lawn mowing to make the right choice for your company.
Commercial Grade Equipment
They say an artist is only as good as their tools, and the same applies to lawn mowing. Commercial sites tend to encompass significant patches of turf, and as such, require sturdier equipment than you would use on a standard backyard.
Standard residential lawn mowers have blade widths of around 21 inches, however, the best Lehigh Valley providers will use mowers with cutting decks that are at least 48 inches wide. This means they can cover more ground in less time, minimizing disruption and ensuring quality every time.
At emi landscape, all our mowers have decks of at least 48 inches, with a variety of larger models available depending on your site. Ask our team for more details about our commercial-grade equipment.
Specializes In Industrial Sites
Industrial complexes can be difficult to navigate due to specific and complex needs. Chances are your industrial site will have large acreage, populated by a variety of specialized equipment and buildings. This type of site requires a mowing provider with the necessary equipment and expertise to get the job done.
Below are a few examples of industrial mowing:
Factory mowing
Manufacturing site mowing
Medical industrial complex
emi landscape specializes in providing mowing services for industrial sites, including factories, warehouses, and manufacturers. With more than 35 years of experience serving businesses in the greater Lehigh Valley area, our expert team has the wisdom your site needs to flourish. Our clients include manufacturing giant Mack Trucks, among other leading industrial businesses in the Lehigh Valley area.
Attention To Detail
If you’ve ever paid for a mowing provider that neglected the finishing touches, then you are not alone. Clients report to us all the time that their former mowing providers ignored curb lines and vertical edges. Not only does this leave your site looking messy, but it can also affect electrical equipment if areas of grass are allowed to grow out of control.
The best mowing service providers will always include edging in their services to guarantee quality results. At emi landscaping, we handle edging, weed control, trash pick up, and trimming as standard, and will never leave a job before it’s perfect.
Specialized Crews For Different Jobs
You would never hire an electrician to fix your plumbing, for obvious reasons. And yet somehow, a trend of using the same team for all aspects of a maintenance job has developed in the mowing industry.
There are a few problems with using this approach. Firstly, it means that you lose out on a bunch of expertise, with mowing specialists handling jobs like bed maintenance and pruning. Secondly, it means the team is less likely to spot mistakes or issues on your site.
Unlike our competitors, emi landscaping has different crews for every task. This means that all aspects of your site benefit from expert work. From our detailing teams to our bed maintenance crews, our landscapers stay on top of potential issues, allowing them to prevent them before they arise.
Prioritizes Long-Term Results
Giving your turf regular haircuts is all well and good, but if you don’t maintain its long-term health, you’ll never achieve the results you’re looking for. Many mowing companies in Lehigh Valley provide basic lawn services but fail to offer essential add ons like fertilization. This means that while your grass looks neat, it isn’t getting the care it needs to grow strong, healthy, and consistent.
We offer comprehensive fertilizer packages along with our mowing services, to help establish the long-term health of your site. When grass is given the nutrients it needs to grow strong, it is less prone to disease and irregular growth. The thicker your grass becomes, the more resistant it will be against weed growth, pests, and flooding.
The Best Commercial Mowing In Lehigh Valley PA
emi Landscaping is made up of experienced, detail-oriented experts who specialize in Lehigh Valley lawn care. Because we are constantly striving for efficiency, we can deliver services on a schedule that suits you, so that you can enjoy your outdoor spaces without interruption.
