Designing and planning a commercial landscape is complicated. With so many stakeholders involved and a strict budget, there are plenty of mistakes you can make along the way. Partnering with an experienced commercial landscape design and maintenance company like JFC Grounds Maintenance is essential to your success. What are the biggest mistakes to avoid when planning a commercial landscape?

Settling for DIY Landscaping

Landscaping is about much more than what color of flowers you choose. Instead, it’s about choosing the right elements for the landscape, ensuring the soil is right for the plantings, thinking critically about drainage and more. Without proper training and certification, you could end up investing a ton into a landscape that is actively detrimental to your business. If you don’t pay up front, you’ll be paying extra to have a professional fix DIY mistakes.

Forgetting Functionality

While you might be able to force guests to use the stone pathway up to your home instead of walking through the grass, you can’t make the same assumption when planning a commercial landscape. Think about how customers and visitors use your landscape. Is there space for a delivery truck to drive close to the entrance without hitting a rosebush or tree hanging into the road? Will the landscaping create visibility or security issues? A professional doesn’t just think about aesthetics, but also about how the landscape will function.

Using the Wrong Plants

Selecting plants for a commercial landscape isn’t as easy as pointing at what is pretty and adding it to the landscape. Many people mistakenly assume every plant that looks great in a residential landscape will also look great in a commercial landscape. While oak trees look stunning in a wide open space, they are inappropriate for parking medians or accents due to their long lifespan and big root size.

Crowding the Landscape

One of the most common landscaping mistakes is forgetting how large mature plants will grow. Placing plants too close together will lead to a cluttered landscape and could lead to the death of some of the plants, as more dominant plants will suck up water and nutrients before they reach weaker plants.