Summer Landscaping Maintenance Tips
With lavish greenery comes great responsibility. The landscaping space in HOAs can be shaped or flattened into hills or features that are appealing to the eye. For example, you can create shaded forest paths and open playing fields. People spend more time outside as the weather warms up, and every space between houses and sidewalks can get landscaped.
Between working at home social distancing, your landscaped spaces are more valuable than ever as a way for residents to unwind and relax safely. But more accessible and accessed landscape spaces also mean more need for continuous maintenance. In addition, the summer means fast growth and increased neighborhood use of your public outdoor spaces. So how will you manage your HOA landscaping for safety, comfort, and outdoor activity?
1. Curate Your Paths and Safety Precautions
Your first responsibility is safety. For paved and natural paths, minimize the risk of tripping or slipping for active, distracted, and less stable residents taking the courses. Give each direction a close inspection and apply maintenance wherever needed. For example, cut back reaching plant growth and repair cracks in the path.
Ensure each hand-rail is secure and smoothly finished with caps at each end. Make sure any grates and drains are in good repair so that both the grates and the water flow are safe. Walk the grounds and survey any unlisted elements that may also contribute to resident safety when traversing the settings on their own.
2. Stay On Top of Weed Growth
Watch out for weeds. Your selected plants love to grow in the summertime, but so do the weeds. Make your weed management plans with human contact in mind. HOA lawns are not so "Keep Off the Grass," especially not these days. With children, pets, and families on the grass, you'll want to make sure your weedkillers and weeding plans are completely pedestrian-safe.
The best time to plan for weeds is early in the season. Several grass fertilizers and weed-killing formulas are safe for family lawns and, therefore, neighborhood green spaces.
3. Create Shady Hideaways
Outdoor working spaces are popular in corporate landscaping and have some excellent potential for HOA design. With so many people working at home, a few outdoor working spaces as part of your park design would be a perfect upgrade for local professionals to enjoy. Every summer, we cut back tree and bush growth. But when creating outdoor working spaces, that extra growth can be helpful if shaped to your purposes.
You can use the same tools to create hideaways in the leafier spaces of your lawn. These can become your outdoor workspaces and meditation spots without drastically changing your plantings. Pull tree branches around cup-shaped benches, and shady craft escapes in tall-growing shrubbery. With care and cultivation, your green spaces could become breathtakingly grown-in in just a few years.
4. Plan for Shade Trees
Need something new to plant? Plan for shade trees. Any business in a hot summer region can make the landscaping more inviting and even reduce power bills with shade trees. Casting shade on the building minimizes the cost of AC in the summer by blocking some sun. Shade trees on the lawn make outdoor spaces more spacious and lawns more relaxing, not to mention leafy and beautiful.
This year, they may be small trees, but families will be gathering to picnic beneath the shady branches in just two or three years. Another great addition is fruit trees that the children can safely pick from during the fruiting season. Shady fruit trees are a great choice if they'll grow in your region.
HOA landscaping isn't limited just too grassy fields and flowerbeds. Improve safety, design outdoor workspaces, and gift your neighborhood with shade and even fruit in the future with your landscaping choices this summer.
Camille Moore
Jennifer Harvey
Staff Writer
