Stopping Hedge trimming may
- Save customers money due to reduced labor, fuel, machinery and disposal costs.
- Reduce the noise staff makes while trimming.
- Improve the consistency of how plants look.
- Increase flowing if the plants flower.
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.
Planting a bush that matures around six feet wide in a smaller area typically starts the hedge trimming cycle. Sometimes they are planted in spots close to buildings and where vehicles park which makes cleaning up from hedge trimming difficult and time consuming. Many landscape maintenance contracts say something like "neat and trim" or at the discretion of the manager. This means something different for everyone. Does it mean once a week? Two times a year or more? Since each round of trimming has a cost there is no way to have a set / fixed monthly price for maintenance contracts. Customers pay for this service month after month and year after year. As costs including labor, fuel, insurance and disposal increase; so does the cost to hedge trim. If you have a contract that uses vague language have you ever considered telling your landscaper that you want bushes hedge trimmed at each visit? Have you asked how much you pay for hedge trimming each year and how much that has increased over time?
Other landscapers silence is their acceptance of taking their customers money when things can be done to reduce their costs, noise and reduce their environmental impact. 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!
Fire Hazard
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.
A few years ago a customer insisted on keeping their hedge trimmed bushes. Months after the conversation they called us frantic because one of their hedge trimmed bushes caught on fire at the entrance to their drive through, maybe from a cigarette being flicked into it. This customer had to shut down their building and the shopping center while the fire department dealt with it. Thankfully no one got hurt and no property was damaged besides the bush.
We want to minimize the chance of this happening for other customers and why many times we discuss removing the improperly placed plants and installing ones that will not need to be trimmed.
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.