A Simple Plan: Renovation

To make a home for Red River hogs, Congo buffaloes and turtles, Moore Landscapes had its hands full incorporating a jungle theme into the new African habitat section soon to open up at the Brookfield Zoo, Brookfield, Ill.

The zoo wanted to keep most of the existing 30-inch diameter, sensitive oak trees and ash trees in the area, while at the same time adding 20-inch diameter canopy trees, understory plant material and shrubs, noted Audrey Thompson, sales and marketing, Moore Landscapes, Glenview, Ill.

“Afterall, it has to look like an African jungle,” Thompson said, pointing out some of the design challenges. “It’s a trick getting around the already large trees to install additional trees with rootballs that are 100 inches wide. Also, we don’t have full access to the zoo all of the time because it’s open to the public daily. This project required a lot of preplanning.”

Preparation is required before any landscape installation. But for a landscape renovation, a project that takes a little more thought and a lot more customer communication and sensitivity to existing plant material, planning is everything.

TIMING. With a landscape renovation, a landscape contractor doesn’t start out with a blank canvas. Instead, there is an existing array of plant materials that need to be incorporated, preserved, supplemented or deleted from the landscape, while at the same time bringing other materials in to create a customer’s desired landscape look.

“Renovation is all about redoing the existing landscape to make the new fit in with the old,” said Dee Sanders, enhancement department manager, Gachina Landscape Management, Menlo Park, Calif.

A landscape renovation is called for when plants have become old, overgrown and infested with diseases or pests – usually every seven to 10 years, according to Jody Gibson, operations manager, N.L.C.I. Landscaping, Medina, Ohio.

“A landscape in need of renovation looks woody with material that has grown over home windows and gutters,” Gibson described.

However, the true deciding factor, pointed out Kevin McHale, president, McHale & McHale Landscape Design, Upper Marlboro, Md., is how much maintenance the property has received since installation or its last landscape renovation.

“Rapidly growing shrubs, perennials and trees could become weed infested or overgrown based on whether they were taken care of with water and proper nutrients,” McHale said. “If they weren’t properly maintained, a landscape renovation could be needed after only two to three years. With proper maintenance, a landscape can last 10 to 12 years.”

“Even with upkeep and maintenance, a 10- to 12-year-old landscape can need some renovation, depending on the original design,” Sanders added.

And sometimes, customers ask for a landscape renovation just because their current landscape isn’t pleasing anymore, according to Thompson.

“Many renovation projects involve adding a lot of desired perennial color,” Thompson said. “Even commercial customers, who usually ask for annuals, are requesting perennial beds instead because it gives them the same amount of color for a lower cost.”

SELLING RENOVATION. A landscape renovation can be very extensive or very simple, according to Sanders. “It can range from a $100 to a $300,000 project,” he said.

“Even though sometimes you’re saving money on plant materials, a landscape renovation costs about 25 percent more than a landscape installation because of the demolition involved,” Gibson explained. “But you bring in 5 to 10 percent more profit because you put in more work.”

To be worthwhile and profitable to a landscape contractor, a landscape renovation should cost customers 10 to 20 percent of the cost of their home, Gibson said.

“If they have a $200,000 home, then the landscape renovation, ideally, should cost $40,000,” Gibson stated. “If it is only budgeted for $10,000, we’ll try and push it to $20,000 so it’s at least 10 percent. We can do this by suggesting additional landscaping, irrigation or paving work.”

But cost can fluctuate based on the site, McHale warned.

Clearing the Land

When trying to open up an area to make room for new plantings, steering clear of mature tree roots and valuable top soil nutrients can be tricky, especially when using machinery, such as a sod cutter, according to Kevin McHale, president, McHale & McHale Landscape Designs, Upper Marlboro, Md. Instead, McHale suggested using a non-selective herbicide to clear out an area during a landscape renovation. “If the area isn’t too close to a tree’s roots, we’ll spray a non-selective herbicide and then till it in,” McHale explained. “We’ll do that on the first day of the project and then wait two days before we plant in that area again to avoid residual effects from the herbicide.” A non-selective herbicide treatment can solve the problem of removing everything from an area without causing any major damage, especially in heavy weed areas when it is important to get rid of all of the material that grew in that area, added Audrey Thompson, sales & marketing, Moore Landscapes, Glenview, Ill. “You can’t just strip back the sod bed,” Thompson pointed out, “and risk extra maintenance later on when weeds begin to grow in the new bed.” But instead of waiting two days after spraying an herbicide, Thompson waits seven to 10 days, the latter being the ideal. “We only use a non-selective herbicide if we’re not already ripping up the whole area and we need to make sure all of the material in that one section is cleared,” Thompson said. – Nicole Wisniewski

Because of the extra planning involved and the extra cost associated with a landscape renovation, landscape contractors have different views on whether renovation is easier to sell to customers than landscape installation.

“A landscape renovation is more of a want vs. a need so I think landscape installations are much easier to sell,” Gibson remarked.

“But the customer can see the improvement with a landscape renovation,” Sanders countered. “And add-on sales, such as irrigation and installation, make landscape renovation a much easier sell.”

Landscape renovations can be suggested by the customer or by the landscape contractor, Sanders said.

“Sometimes they inquire about renovation or sometimes we suggest it,” he explained. “How renovation is sold depends on how much attention our customers are paying to their landscapes.”

Before and after photographs are a key landscape renovation selling tool that Gibson doesn’t leave the office without.

“Sometimes customers have to see it to believe it,” he said.

COMMUNICATING CHANGES. A landscape renovation project is only successful when customers get exactly what they are expecting, Gibson asserted.

“You can’t remove 20-foot trees and replace them with 3- to 4-foot material without letting the customer know what the expected visual is,” Gibson said. “If we tear out a huge tree in front of the house, we have to think of everything, including the possibility of a faded spot left on the house from where the tree shaded it beforehand so the customers know what to expect and are prepared for it.”

Communication with the customer is important during a renovation because each change can effect the look of the entire landscape, Thompson pointed out.

“You have to let the customer know exactly what’s going to happen at each stage so they know that changing one thing may mean we have to change all of the other aspects of the landscape at the same time,” Thompson said. “This is where planning is key again. With a renovation, a contractor can’t discuss just one area. You have to look at the whole site as an overall plan.”

There is also a difference between renovating a commercial landscape vs. a residential landscape, Thompson said.

“Usually, a commercial renovation is done on a larger scale and is easier to get access to,” she said. “Renovation is also done with a more long-term viability in mind because of follow-up maintenance and higher impact with additional traffic on the property. On a residential renovation, there is more emotion attached to the plant material on the site and how the new plant material being installed will effect it.

“Renovation preparation also takes more time with a homeowner because there is more discussion involved beforehand,” Sanders added.

INVOLVING THE TURF. Although turf, as long as it is planted in a well-maintained and aerated soil base, typically lasts up to 10 years, turf

renovation is almost always necessary when a landscape renovation takes place, regardless of time, Thompson said.

“We always budget it in,” she explained, “because there are always sections that need to be cut out, replaced or resodded because they were disturbed during renovation, although we try to keep that to a minimum.”

The customer usually doesn’t overreact to an additional cost for turf renovation as long as the cost is included in the budget beforehand, Gibson said.

“We always put in ‘X amount for turf repair costs,’” he noted, “just in case we need to bring a larger machine into the landscape that will disturb some of the turf.”

Ways to avoid tearing up the turf include using different machinery that is less harmful to the turf, doing most of the work by hand or setting down plywood over certain areas of the turf before bringing machinery in.

“If we need to get a skid-steer loader in the yard, we’ll put plywood across the area so that the machine’s weight is distributed and doesn’t make track marks in the yard or ruts from moving the machine back and forth,” Gibson commented. “If we use plywood, the grass is just smashed a little and we can easily fluff that up with a leaf rake after we’re finished.”

Diane Lease, president, Lease Landscaping, Grand Rapids, Minn., uses a soft-tracked crawler instead of a skid-steer loader because it doesn’t cause as much turf damage.

Minor turf damage, whether it’s caused by renovation, disease or insects, can be repaired early on using a slitseeder, a machine that cuts grooves down into the soil and then drops the seeds in, making peat moss or straw unnecessary, according to Gibson.

The author is Assistant Editor of Lawn & Landscape magazine.

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