Curb appeal is a term that most people associate with homeowners trying to make a house for sale more attractive to potential buyers. Using landscaping to improve the curb appeal of your business is a form of advertising that works. You can see this for yourself by checking out the parking lots of businesses with no landscaping and businesses with attractive landscaping.
The Importance of Landscaping for Your Business
Potential customers, clients and patients get their first impression of your business from the outside. A building with nothing but grass, asphalt and tinted windows seems severe and unappealing. A poorly maintained parking lot, unhealthy grass and untended flowers are customer turn-offs. Customers prefer an office or store with a neat, welcoming exterior.
A Landscaping Checklist for Your Business
Checking out other businesses will give you some ideas about what you need to improve at your business. Landscaping basics to consider are:
• Grass
• Drought tolerant plants
• Trees
• Hardscaping
• Flowers in window boxes or large planters
• Shrubs
You can choose a simple or exotic them for your landscaping. Read on for some easy ways to spruce up your business right away.
Plant Suggestions for Your Business
Artificial turf is an option for the grassy areas of your business’s lawn, especially if you haven’t been able to keep real grass alive. Your landscaper can also show you resilient grasses. If you choose real grass, you don’t have to worry about maintaining it. A landscaper will do everything from mowing grass to pruning trees.
Native grasses are a good choice for parking lot islands. Pampas Grass is a common landscaping plant, but it requires a lot of care to avoid a winter “ugly stage.” Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens) is less dramatic but more interesting than Pampas Grass. It’s also low maintenance.
Crepe Myrtle is a perfect flowering tree for your business. When pruned correctly, it won’t grow too tall or look unkempt. The dramatic red or deep pink petals provide weeks of beauty in the spring. The tree produces no fruit, so there’s no mess. Customers love a parking lot with decorative trees just big enough to provide a little shade. If you have enough room for several Crepe Myrtles, consider planting them in a row before parking spaces.
Hardscaping includes features like rock gardens and retaining walls. Succulents and rock gardens go well together. Hens-And-Chicks, also called Biddies-And-Chicks, are succulents that reproduce and require so little water that they are referred to as “air plants.” They grow best on top of natural pebbles.
Flowering plants in containers outside your windows and flanking your door are an easy way to have year-round color. Your employees can water and deadhead flowers, and your landscaper can replace flowers on a seasonal basis.
Lavender provides beauty and smells fantastic. It’s most often used at parking lot entrances and exits, but it can go in your sunny flowerbed.
Things to Remember:
• Good landscaping makes customers stop at your business
• An attractive workplace improves employee morale
• Customers love shaded parking areas
Contact us today to arrange a makeover for your business. No business is too large or too small.