When considering an Association’s landscape program and maintenance operations, there are an enormous amount of variables that go into deciding on the best plan.

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iables iia ableables es n. n. By Josh Gelvan & Joe Perricone,

Directors of Landscape Maintenance and Operations, Perricone Bros. Landscaping

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OPERATI N: LANDSCAPE

There are many parts to the landscape “game.” Some are small, some large, some moving and some waving their arms frantically in the air, calling you over to handle the imaginary emergency that needs to get taken care of immediately or the world will end. But I digress. All of these parts are in perpetual movement, changing in appearance, size, color, and texture. It seems that the only constant among these parts is the level of attention needed to pull all of these pieces together without sounding the alarm. In order to do so, it seems a landscape expert has to be as deft and skilled as a surgeon… or at least, someone pretending to be one, playing the board game “Operation” without tripping the buzzer on the “patient’s” nose.

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When considering an Association’s landscape program and maintenance operations, there are an enormous amount of variables that go into deciding on the best plan. Let’s be honest, the term “landscape maintenance” could not be any broader. It leaves so much on the table. What Company “A” considers weekly maintenance, will likely be different than what companies “B” and “C” do. Every contractor will have their own spin on how they maintain a property. Is one right and one wrong? Not necessarily. What’s important is that, at the end of the day, the expectations of the homeowners and board members have been met. Meaning, they are getting what they are paying for.

The largest obstacle that we, as landscape contractors, will have to hurdle is controlling expectations. It is the job of the contractor to clearly outline, to not only the association’s board members, but also to its homeowners, the method behind the madness. Communication is the key to success. If the expectations are openly discussed and decided upon prior to operations beginning, the amount of “why” will be kept to a minimum. While weekly operations amongst contractors might differ, at the end of the day, it is a results-driven business. If the property looks good, most customers don’t really care how you made it that way.

Ok, now the plan is in place. The method has been laid out, expectations have been clearly discussed, and the staff has been trained. The game of operation is about to begin. As was laid out earlier, the parts of the game are ever-changing. The mowing, the trimming, the fertilization program, the weed control, the edging, the flowers,

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