Planning Matters: Understanding the Landscaping Cycle

Planning goes a long way in the landscaping world. Every firm is different, but for us, especially with the landscaping maintenance, we take care of our customers and have their landscaping maintenance work renewed each year so we can always make sure your land is a priority and taken care of before opening up spots to new customers. For example, it’s the beginning of February and our lawn mowing roster is already close to being filled. Any new requests will likely suffer the fate of our waitlist. 

The unavoidable truth is that Landscapers work in cycles and those cycles revolve around the seasons. Summertime and the warmer months are when landscapers get the bulk of their work done and it’s also the time of highest demand. It’s when clients are staring out into their sunny yard thinking, “Wow, I really want to install a fire pit this year!” However, it can be challenging for us to respond quickly and provide an estimate in a timely fashion when we are also actively working in the field, and our project schedule is likely to be booked out through the end of the year by that time.

The best way to ensure your spot in the summer schedule is to start planning your project 3-9 months in advance. We know that long-term thinking is a rarity for the best of us, but the truth is the best time to engage landscapers for a project you want completed in the summer is right after the prior summer, so that we can assess the site during the time when you will be enjoying your yard the most, and design the project during the slower fall and winter months.  Elements like water flow, sunlight, wind exposure can all effect how landscaping is installed. The most risky time to implement work is immediately after purchasing a new home. We encourage clients to take a year or two after their home purchase to feel out what it is they really want and see how the landscape changes through the season, because that thoughtfulness will pay dividends later and will minimize making any mistakes.  

Timing is particularly important for planting and lawn renovation projects due to summer’s excessive heat and watering restrictions.  While we can continue installing hardscaping projects throughout the year, our window is much shorter for these “softscaping” projects.  Lawn seeding and sodding is typically completed from early May through early June, and is highly weather dependent.  Plant material can often be installed up to July 4th.  If your project cannot be completed within this timeframe, we will need to plan for late summer/early fall installations when temperatures start cooling off. 

If you’re thinking of doing some landscaping, we encourage you to engage with us as early as possible in the process. Talk to us about ideal planning and preparation and we’ll advise accordingly to help you realize your project.