Stopping Hedge trimming may
- Save customers money due to reduced labor, fuel, machinery and disposal costs.
- Reduce the noise staff makes while trimming and cleaning up / blowing.
- Improve the consistency of how plants look.
- Increase flowing if the plants flower.
- Reduce the inconvenience from cleaning up.
Hedge trimmed bushes can be
A FIRE HAZARD
This is part of a Texas Ranger bush, a common bush used in landscapes in the Vegas valley that get hedge trimmed. It is the same "family" as the bushes at the top of this page. Have you ever looked beyond the outer layer of leaves on most bushes that get hedge trimmed? Usually there is a lot of dry and possibly dead wood that can be a fire hazard.
We want to minimize the chance of fires and is why many times we discuss options for customers landscaping.
DIFFICULT TO CLEAN UP AFTER
We took this photo in January 2025 at a HOA. The mature size of the plants was probably not taken into consideration when they were chosen for this spot or looks took first place over maintenance and clean up.
Yes, the bushes look "neat and trim". Lets not get into how they look between trimmings. For this lets focus on the proximity to the cars parked there. When blowing occurs or the wind picks up the cuttings from hedge trimming get under the cars and dust and dirt get onto and possibly into the vehicles. Most of us have forgotten to fully close windows on occasion or maybe seals are not perfect or there is an open bed of a pick up truck with personal belongings in it. This means cleaning up properly is VERY difficult, adds extra time which someone has to pay for and is unpleasant for the owners of the vehicles. Who pays to clean the cars when this happens.
IT ALSO HAPPENS AT HOUSES
IT ALSO HAPPENS AT HOUSES
In addition to hedge trimming consider blowing leaves at properties when vehicles are so close.
There are other issues in this photo and the photo to the left to consider including.
Roots - Where do the tree roots grow and how long till they damage things like curbs, blacktop, driveways or utility lines.
Branches - What happens when branches fall onto vehicles or structures?
About Hedge trimming
What looks good to one person may not to another.
Many landscape maintenance bids and contracts: phrases like “neat and trim” or “as requested by management” when it comes to hedge trimming. They leave a lot of room for interpretation and potential conflict. The truth is, everyone has a different idea of what “neat” looks like. What one person accepts another might not. Every hedge trimming has a cost. Labor, fuel, disposal, and rising insurance these hidden inputs add up for landscapers. How does each trimming get paid for if no one knows how many times it gets done? Why don’t most landscapers tell customers how many times per year they will trim? For their convivence?
Without clear expectations, there are problems. Want to test this theory? Try telling existing landscapers that your interpretation of “neat and trim” or their similar verbiage that you want bushes trimmed at each visit, 52 times a year, once a week. I am sure there will be many different responses but at the end of the day it comes down to dollars and cents.
LETS WORK THROUGH RESOLUTIONS TOGETHER!
There is only so much money to go around
A Businessinsider.com article from March 27 2024 says “… the average household … top 10 bills, up… 19% since 2019. Meanwhile, median US household income was up… 14%…The monthly cost for utilities… up 25% since 2019… health insurance is up 30%... 11% for cable and internet to 16% for auto insurance…”
Channel 13 KTNV website October 16, 2024. According to a recent study by Bankrate, the income needed to live comfortably in the valley has skyrocketed to $111,416 per year—a sharp increase from last year’s figure of around $98,000.
Each time bushes get hedge trimmed there is a cost. How is each trimming being paid for especially if a maintenance contract does not say how many times a year it happens?
Location makes a difference
It does not matter if bushes are at a single family home property, in the common area of an HOA or at a commercial / industrial property location makes a difference. In the case of the photo to the left the bushes behind the truck mature around six feet tall and six feet wide so their location within a couple of feet of parking spots was probably not the best choice to begin with but this property owner has kept them. Trimming and properly cleaning up is difficult at best and if people leave vehicle windows open the dust that can get into the vehicle adds a new issue. There are time of day restrictions on when noise can be made with hedge trimmers and blowers and cars may be in parked at all hours so trimming becomes an elongated task but does not need to continue. Why not remove the hedge trimmed bushes and install ones that do not need to be hedge trimmed?
Quotes
“…the value of… a landscape improvement increases over time since the growth and maturity of trees and shrubs enhance aesthetic appeal.”
...landscaping with a good aesthetic value added approximately 7% to the average rental rate of a building
Respondents preferred landscaped roadsides and report positive retail behavior such as willingness-to-pay 8.8% more for goods and services in well-landscaped malls. Roadside management guidelines are proposed based on the research results.
Linn Mills was as a horticulturalist and worked for the SNWA, UNR and others. "Note what happens to shrubs when we are constantly shearing them... Pretty soon, you have… unhealthy plants with bare patches in the canopy. And you the gardener end up with very few flowers...Look inside the plant…dead branches… (which may be a fire hazard)
Identify your problems but give power and energy to solutions.
Tony Robbins
Success is a series of small wins. Don’t aim for perfection; aim for progress.
Emma Isaacs
Enhance Your Property with On Time Landscaping Landscaping
At some point the costly and noisy cycle can be stopped but it takes understanding and action.
Sharon Penman said “Just because something has always been done a certain way does not make it right”
Tony Robins said “Identify your problems, but give power and energy to solutions.” We look forward to hearing from you so we can take care of your landscaping differently!
Environmental and health concerns Many landscapers use gas-powered equipment, which can be noisy, polluting, and messy especially when it is windy, when there are cars around and near buildings. This can be disruptive. Additionally, many times hedge trimmed bushes have dead branches that pose a fire risk below the outer layer of green leaves. If bushes have flowers many times hedge trimming negatively affects that. Leaves, flowers and structure play a vital role in plant health and longevity.
Exploring alternatives If you decide to keep hedge trimming then knowing the parameters of what initiates new trimming is important. If you feel the hedge trimming is too costly, disruptive, environmentally harmful, it may be time to considering alternatives. Open communication between / with property decision makers and On Time Landscaping may create an opportunity to find a solution that works better than how hedge trimming is being handled by many other landscapers.
Solution It is beneficial to work with a landscaper like On Time Landscaping that listens to what people want so we can present a bid and have a contract that explicitly defines the frequency and standard of hedge trimming (e.g., “hedges will be trimmed every 6 weeks” or “trimmed x times per year”). Since we work with customers after contracts are signed, we can always amend the contract to trim more or less frequently and adjust the monthly price we charge. This transparency can prevent surprises down the road.
702-348-8399
landscaping equipment
Its more than the pollution
- Gas powered landscaping equipment bans are beginning to spread. According to a April 2023 article on USA Todays website "Among cities and states with bans or limits: California; Burlington, Vermont; and Washington, D.C. Vancouver, British Columbia, also have restrictions in place.”
- “…the best-selling commercial leaf blower, one hour of operation emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a 2017 Toyota Camry about 1,100 miles, or approximately the distance from Los Angeles to Denver." (source)
- “…operating the best-selling commercial lawn mower for one hour emits as much smog-forming pollution as driving…a Toyota Camry, about 300 miles — approximately the distance from Los Angeles to Las Vegas...” (source)
At the end of the day gas powered equipment is still less expensive to purchase and operate than battery powered equipment. At some point this may change.
Battery powered equipment may not be the answer.
From the New York Times website, Oct 20 2023. "Cordless battery-powered blowers... run time can be an issue... the best models we’ve found top out at around 30 minutes...Couple that with a charge time of around an hour (at least, usually more)... To deal with this, additional batteries are available for purchase..." This means that most landscapers will need multiple batteries to do their daily work and charge them overnight. Storage of the batteries during the work day also poses an issue in Vegas extreme climate. At some point battery powered equipment may be viable but right now it might play a small part in landscapers work.
What is the solution?
There may be a few ways to deal with this and a lot depends on the customer.
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.