May 2024

MANAGEMENT TRENDS

“Landscape, Landscape, Landscape” By Mariaellen Varelis, CMCA, RCP Management Company, AAMC, AMO

I t’s not only location, location, location, landscaping is often a large factor when considering your next home sweet home. It all begins at the community entrance. This is the first thing community members see when arriving home. Keeping a neat, bright, flourishing landscape area creates a welcome message to the community members, guests, and future owners. Focused landscape areas such as community entrances, parks, tot lots, and pool areas are just some areas to con sider in creating the landscape improvement vision for your community. In addition to the focused areas, it’s imperative to have regular treatments. Continuing efforts for flourish ing greens has many benefits. Grass is much cooler than cement and acts as a coolant, it absorbs dust and breaks down carbon dioxide into oxygen and carbon. Landscaping is a feature where community members can see a visual display of their monthly maintenance dues. Ensure landscaping improvement is in your association’s budget to allow for the wants and needs of the community to be visited from time to time. This diligent planning will ensure your community is able to continue restoring and beautifying the community as warranted. Once the financial capabilities of your community are clear, the next step is meeting with your landscape pro fessional to document the needs and wants, obtain the costs, and create a schedule. Having the schedule will allow accomplishments to be documented, to-do items to be budgeted for, and a readily available progress report to share with the members. Also, conducting annual inspections in the spring and fall with a member of your professional landscape and arborist team will help keep the schedule on track. Here are a Few Examples of Community Landscaping Needs: • Removal of dead trees and bushes • Installation of plant life to prevent washouts

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“Landscaping is a feature where community members can see a visual display of their monthly maintenance dues.”

• Installation of river jack stones and plant life to redirect overflows Examples of Community Landscaping Wants: • Aesthetic plantings around community entrance signs, pools, clubhouses, and community planting beds. • Fountains or other water features Sustainable landscapes create an environment for com munities that often engage their members through team work. Community gardens, for example, promote social interaction and foster neighborly relationships. Areas which are visually appealing provide a good feel ing to their viewers, which provides a sense of community pride. So, hop into spring, put on your sunglasses and sun block, and start that landscaping schedule. “The secret of making progress is to get started.” – Mark Twain n

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MAY 2024