Build the landscape once, so the maintenance bill is small forever

Full commercial projects — design and installation across a site, covering hardscape, planting, irrigation and lighting — run $15,000 to $150,000 and up depending on size and scope. Smaller works such as bed renovation, an entrance refresh or a targeted planting scheme are typically $800 to $5,000 and up. How much has to be phased around an operating business is a real cost factor, and we price it openly rather than absorbing it.

Yes — $2M liability coverage, licensed and bonded, with certificates issued to the correct entity as part of the contract paperwork rather than on request. On installation work with excavation, heavy equipment and a live site, most owners and procurement departments treat that as a prerequisite rather than a reassurance, so it goes out with the proposal.

Yes, and on an operating property we plan it rather than offer it. The proposal includes a written phasing and access plan: which areas are affected and for how long, where deliveries and parking move to, and which operations happen outside trading, clinic or tenant hours. The landscape improving is the point, but tenants remember a fortnight of closed car park far longer than they notice new planting.

Office parks and corporate campuses, retail centres, HOA communities, healthcare facilities, industrial and warehouse sites, and municipal or institutional properties. The horticulture overlaps substantially; what differs is what the installation is actually buying — a leasing impression, clear access, something a board can defend, or simply a perimeter that needs very little attention.

Yes, both installation and ongoing maintenance. For installation the priority is usually entrances and amenity grounds, built to look established quickly and to cost the association less every year afterwards — which for a volunteer board is the argument that actually lands. Our HOA page covers the recurring side, including board reporting and how proposals are presented.

We run a 24/7 route for contract clients, prioritised by whether the property can operate safely — a limb across an entrance or a blocked access route comes before cosmetic damage. Damage is photographed before anything is cleared, which matters for the ownership insurance claim and is the step most easily lost in the rush to make the site presentable again.

On installation projects you receive a phasing schedule during the works and an as-built record at handover, including the irrigation zone layout and programming, plant schedule and an establishment care plan for the first year. That record matters more than people expect — it is what lets whoever maintains the property afterwards do so without guessing at what is buried where.

It is one of the strongest returns available on a large site. Turf is the biggest single share of a commercial irrigation bill, so reducing it to where people actually walk, converting bed areas to drip, and commissioning a smart controller typically produces a substantial recurring saving. Where utility turf-conversion rebates apply we document the claim, and on commercial acreage the payback is often measured in months.

Renovation is usually better value where the hardscape and drainage are sound and the problem is tired planting or an overgrown scheme — that is a bed renovation, not a rebuild. Starting again makes sense when the drainage is wrong, the hardscape is failing at the base, or the original layout does not match how the property is now used. We will tell you which one you have rather than quoting the larger job by default.

Regularly, and on new construction the earlier we are involved the better the result. Sleeving, conduit, grading and drainage all want resolving while the ground is open and the contractor is already on site. Coming in after the paving is down and the slab is poured means cutting into finished work for every service run, which costs several times more and never looks as clean.

Design and approvals typically take four to eight weeks. Construction depends on scope and on phasing: a frontage renovation is one to two weeks, a full site installation four to twelve weeks or longer where the work must be broken into phases so the business keeps operating. Phasing extends the calendar without extending the labour, and we set out both in the proposal so nobody is surprised.

Yes, and continuity is worth having. The crew that maintains a property we built already knows what was planted, how the irrigation is zoned and what the establishment plan says — which is exactly the knowledge that gets lost at handover to a third party. It is not a condition of the installation contract; we quote maintenance separately so it stands on its own merits.

Most Montgomery County commercial sites need the property manager’s sign-off and, on newer developments, the deed-restriction committee or the municipal utility district as well. Submitting the planting plan and irrigation layout before mobilising avoids a rebuild. We have seen approved schemes torn out after installation because a species on the drawing was not on the district’s permitted list.