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Hedge trimming
Why?
Fire hazard
Location
Many times hedge trimming starts because plants anticipated mature size was not taken into consideration when they were planted. This means recurring hedge trimming costs to keep them small / contained to the area they were plants. This is typically done with noisy hedge trimmers and blowers that also pollute.
Location
Fire hazard
Location
Many times hedge trimmed bushes were planted in locations that are not ideal to have them trimmed and to be able to properly clean up. Look at the amount of room in the middle of this landscaped area where plants could have been planted to make it easier to maintain the landscaping. This photo shows two issues.
- Because of where vehicles park the time to trim and clean up is dictated by when vehicles are in parking spots, this also occurs at residential and retail properties.
- When the building needs work done the bushes will need to be drastically cut back or removed for access.
Fire hazard
Fire hazard
Many hedge trimmed bushes have an outer layer / crust of leaves. Just below those leaves is usually dry wood / branches. Think about the risks if bushes at your property catch fire.
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM
CONSISTANT LOOK
CONSISTANT LOOK
When bushes are hedge trimmed, the acceptable amount of growth between trimming is subjective and can make landscaping look unkept. What one person says is ok, another says not.
Since each round of trimming has a cost it is sometimes difficult to balance looks and costs. Who dictates how often bushes get trimmed? A certain number of trimmings are factored into most maintenance contracts, what happens to the monthly cost when this changes?
Fuel costs
CONSISTANT LOOK
Fuel costs
One of the major equipment manufactures put a gas use calculator on their website comparing their blowers gas use to others. The average gas use of six "brand name" blowers came out to just over one gallon of gas per hour per blower. Most gas powered landscape equipment is two stroke which means oil is mixed in with the fuel.
We used the calculator for running a blower 30 hours a week. This equates to about 1560 gallons of gas a year. Now consider how many machines get used at properties you manage or own and multiply that by the number of years it has been going on.
ASK!
CONSISTANT LOOK
Fuel costs
Have you ever asked your landscapers to break out the annual cost of hedge trimming at each property? Multiply that number by the number of years hedge trimming has been going on. As costs rise; so does the cost of hedge trimming.
Have your landscapers offered ways to reduce or eliminate risks of hedge trimmed bushes and the costs to maintain them? Why not?
We prefer to take a proactive approach to dealing with costs and it involves customers understanding that other landscapers silence affect budgets and how landscaping looks.
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM
BATTERY POWERED EQUIPMENT may not be the answer, yet.
Batteries for landscaping equipment can not run that long so landscaping companies would need to own lots of batteries for each employee to make it through the day which could add to their costs. Many times battery powered equipment is not as powerful than gas ones but can be quieter at the same time.
Using electric equipment may be correct for some properties but not for others. We are intrigued by the idea of using noisy and polluting landscaping equipment less or not at all!
Instead of customers paying for landscapers to convert to electric and buy new batteries when the others go bad or continue to use gas powered equipment we encourage potential and current customers to engage us in conversation about what can be done to eliminate or greatly reduce the reoccurring costs associated with using landscaping equipment, especially hedge trimmers and blowers. There are options that most landscapers are not talking to customers about. WE ARE!
Water waste
Water waste is a "hot topic" in the Vegas valley. Many landscaping contracts call for checking the irrigation system for leaks once a month. If it is checked today and a leak starts tomorrow there will be a lot of wasted water possibly costing the property hundreds or thousands of dollars.
There are “smart” devices that track water usage that may mean less wasted water and money.
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM
Fertilizer
Granular fertilizer is commonly used. It is typically is activated when it gets wet and the Vegas valley gets rain only a few times a year which means the fertilizer might not get activated when the plants need the nutrients so it is a waste of money and polluting.
There is an alternative that delivers nutrients to plants through the irrigation system. Water usually costs more per gallon the more is used so the less water that is used saves customers money.
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM
Grass
Grass
A Nevada law outlaws about 31% of the grass in the Las Vegas area by the end of 2026.
Many times desert landscaping can cost customers less to maintain, reduce their water bills and provide more visual impact than grass.
On Time Landscaping is a SNWA Water Smart Contractor and has a 100% pass rate with the SNWA.
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM
What is the answer?
It starts with the first conversation about the future.
- Continuing to use blowers, mowers, hedge trimmers, etc. may be the way to go regardless if they are gas or battery powered.
- Another option that you may want to explore is making changes to either how your landscaping is maintained or to the plants themselves. Hedge trimmers may become obsolete and the need for blowers reduced if existing plants get replaced by ones that do not need to be hedge trimmed. Many times doing this also means reduced hours landscapers need to be at a customers property, reduced waste and much more that could help with pricing.
Contact us to start the conversation.
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM
Bid and contract Specifics create a level playing field
Many landscape maintenance contracts use phrases like "neat and trimmed", “pruned as necessary”, “performed as needed” or "at the managers request" when talking about hedge trimming. If we ask five people we would get five different answers on the frequency of hedge trimming. It could mean weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually. Each time bushes are trimmed there is a cost. The generic phrases above does not allow for this to happen. How will an increase or decrease in frequency affect a maintancne constracts price? We talk to our customers to establish a base amount of hedge trimming and change the number if needed so everyone is on the same page.
It might be interesting to see how other landscapers would respond if you told them they need to hedge trim every week based on your definition of their generic contract wording How would they pay for extra trimmings? As addons? Reduce other services? Increase the monthly amount?
TELEPHONE: 702-348-8399
EMAIL: INFO@ONTIMEVEGAS.COM