There’s a lot going on in the green industry going into 2017. A new year always brings with it new challenges and obstacles to face, whether it’s related to staff, design or politics.
At the Midwest Green Industry Xperience (MGIX) in Columbus, Ohio, one of the education sessions looked at design trends in different parts of Ohio. And while knowing these trends may not help with more concerning business challenges, knowing what customers may be wanting in their designs can help ease some of your stress.
Tom Fryman, a designer with Natorps in Cincinnati, Ohio, said HGTV has had a major impact on what
Your biggest concerns, sharedWhile some people are focusing on design trends going into 2017, others are more focused on business trends. Good workers was the biggest concern on the show floor at MGIX in Columbus, Ohio, with people discussing both H-2B and just struggling to retain good employees. Gail Reinhart with Hidden Creek Landscaping in Columbus called the H-2B program volatile, saying it’s always risky to invest your labor force there instead of local work. “It’s not 100 percent,” she said. “You pay a lot of money up front and you’re not guaranteed workers.” Still, other attendees said they were having trouble not only finding good local workers, but retaining them as well. Competition offering higher wages often results in good employees jumping ship. But if you can’t raise your wages, what can you do to keep them? Mindy Moore with Cardinal Landscape, Tree Service, Lawn Care in Oregonia, Ohio, said her company tries to do things like offer picnics, parties and team-building events. “We found some guys look forward to it,” she said. “It’s something very simple and low key.” Cardinal also gives incentives such as giving pizza parties to crews that get a certain number of compliments from customers or even just having someone from the office stop on the job site at lunch to bring food or six-packs of Gatorade. “They feel like they’re being recognized,” she said. Whether you find employees from H-2B or locally, knowing what their capabilities are can help you solve another concern people seem to have: subcontracting. Kent Fullmer, of Fullmer’s Landscaping Inc. in Dayton, Ohio, said he found out one of his H-2B employees was an excellent mason, but they didn’t know about it for 10 years. Now when he’s here, they’re able to take on masonry work instead of subcontracting it out. Still, he said it’s important to look at each service for a job because some will be profitable for your company and some won’t. As someone who said he has a hard time saying no, Fullmer makes sure to see what customers want and decide if it fits with his company’s schedule, capability and cost. “I encourage you to take a look at which ones are profitable and which ones you should be doing and which ones you shouldn’t,” he said. |
customers in his area want out of their landscapes.
“That’s been a positive for our work, and a negative as well,” he said. What people see designed on TV shows ends up swaying how they want their own landscapes done, thus shaping trends in your market whether it’s in a way you want or not.
Tom Wood, with Wood Landscape Services in Columbus said he’s not a big trend guy. Although he does try to pay attention to what the tends are, he said it’s more important to make sure you’re doing things right.
“It’s important as a designer to honor the architecture of the house,” he said.
He has noticed a trend in outdoor living spaces, with people wanting their landscapes to evolve into outdoor rooms.
Hillary Henry with the Pattie Group in Cleveland agrees. “Outdoor kitchens are hot,” she said.
In the past, customers wanted a patio with just an outdoor grill, but now they’re looking for areas that become a mirror of the kitchen in their house, complete with built-in seating and sometimes a pizza kitchen or permanent cooking structure.
“Bringing the indoors out and the outdoors in,” she said. “A lot of our clients ask us to integrate areas they can entertain if the weather is not so conducive.”
This includes installing a product called Nanawalls, which are retractable glass doors that can be opened in good weather or closed in bad weather. She said it also offers a sense of security when the patios or living areas are connected to the house.
“It seems we have an aging population in the area, at least for our clientele,” she said. “So we have people asking for security on their properties.”
She said they’ve done gates at the end of driveways to make it harder for just anyone to enter, while also adding planters and landscaping to make the gate look welcoming. They’ve also done fences to do everything from block views of a pool to discourage people from entering the property to keeping deer out of the garden.
These older customers are also looking for ways to keep other members of their family happy.
“They want us to design their landscapes so that they can entertain multiple generations of their family,” she said. This could mean having an outdoor kitchen on one part of the yard, while another part is designed to include a playground for grandchildren.
The last trend Henry said her company is seeing is pond-less water features.
“Our clients love them,” she said, adding that they’re relatively easy to take care of. They also cost less than real waterfalls the Pattie Group has installed in the past.
Despite the different trends, Henry said it’s important to make sure you know what’s going on in the yard, so things don’t get out of hand in your design.
“Good design is a paradigm. Think of that,” she said.
