Land Design Landscaping

Does your first hire still work for you?

Employee longevity and loyalty is rare today. And the cost of employee turnover is fairly high. Every employee you lose can cost a significant amount in lost revenue, time and training.

In addition to the significant savings in recruiting, hiring and training, the longer an employee stays with your company, the more they develop an understanding of your market, services and clients, translating into better customer service and product quality.

So it’s quite a gift to have employee loyalty in place at one’s company.

Facundo Rodriguez Miranda, crew leader/driver at Native Land Design, was the first person Ben Collinsworth, president of Native Land Design, hired more than 15 years ago.

To be a successful commercial landscape architect, one must possess three key qualities and traits.

• First, they must have good ideas for the commercial landscape that are based on the client’s needs and wants.
• But it’s not just enough to have good ideas. Next, a landscape architect must know how to present or sell these ideas to the commercial client.
• Finally, a commercial landscape design must have the persistence to realize those ideas, transforming them into actual usable and beautiful outdoor spaces.

All of these things come together in the visuals a landscape designer creates. If a landscape design professional has wonderful ideas but doesn’t display them in an attractive way, he or she might be wasting effort, time and money. If another designer doesn’t have the best ideas, but is able to create mind-blowing illustrations of them, that may elevate those ideas to the next level in the client’s mind.

This pushes visuals and presentation to the top of the list for landscape designers and architects. This process has evolved over the years for landscape professionals, including for us at Native Land Design.

If you’re a board member of a homeowners’ association (HOA), it can be daunting to look at a bunch of landscape proposals coming in and recognizing which ones are good versus which ones are not so good.

There are many reasons the process could be rocky.

First thing’s first: Make sure your request for proposal (RFP) is in order. Your RFP sets you up for a successful bidding process. The trick is not forgetting any of the fundamentals of a solid RFP. These include:

Did you know March 8th was International Women’s Day?

Around the world, people celebrated women and the amazing social, economic, cultural and political achievements they have made and continue to make every day. They also recognized the strong influence and impact women have on the world around us.

When it comes to the world of landscaping, women also make an impressive impact. In the U.S., the first third of the 20th century saw the rise of women in the fields of landscaping. Today, they are thriving in various areas of the business.

At Native Land Design, we celebrate our amazing female team members. Here is a glimpse inside what some of them do and what they enjoy most about their work making your landscapes better places to work, live and play every day.

Is the grass greener on your Texas commercial property?

Just because it is doesn’t mean that it’s also more environmentally conscious. Sustainable commercial landscape maintenance services performed by experienced professionals can ensure your grounds are greener in more ways than one.

As a Texas commercial property manager or owner, hiring a landscape professional who prioritizes sustainability presents you with some wins—namely decreasing your building’s carbon footprint while increasing your savings on energy and upkeep costs.

From using the right trucks and equipment to reducing runoff, evaporation and overspray with efficient irrigation to the effective use of pesticides and herbicides to limiting the use of high-water-use plants, there are many ways Native Land Design is increasing its sustainability efforts.

Do you ever wonder how you can be more efficient at your job or how you can be more accurate in taking notes or recording important details throughout the day?

Landscape professionals do, too. And they want to boost their accuracy of recording details on every job, as well as their efficiency and productivity in getting the work done. This way they can keep your properties looking good while also saving you time and money.

Here are some of the high-tech tools and strategies Native Land Design uses to maximize its precision, timeliness and proficiency.

Do the heat and humidity have your attention yet, commercial property managers?

With the intense heat, however, also comes challenges like drought. There are plenty of plants (some native to Texas) that are more drought tolerant and require less upkeep, but also deliver the same hit of daring drama and hues as their more high-maintenance counterparts.

Here is our list of the top 10 best plants for South Texas commercial landscapes.

Maintaining the common areas of your Texas homeowners’ association (HOA) is one of the HOA board’s most important responsibilities.

Maintenance requires consistent upkeep to keep your property values high and tenant and residents happy. A big part of that is the landscape. Hiring a landscape professional to keep your turf trimmed, weeds under control, beds neat and plants pruned can save you money on the cost of trying to do it yourself, while maintaining a consistent look that the community can be proud of.

While some homeowners or HOA board members might think the cost of professional landscaping is too high or unnecessary, there are, in fact, many reasons that budgeting for these services can be worth every cent.

It wasn’t that long ago that Texas experienced one of its worst droughts.

But sometimes the worst droughts show us which plants do best during extreme bouts of heat and drought.

For many Texas commercial property managers, water conservation and low maintenance are prime motivators when choosing plants for sustainable, thriving and aesthetically pleasing landscapes.

These unthirsty trees, succulents, flowers, ground covers and grasses will thrive with little water and care in Texas’ worst heat and drought.

We’re talking, of course, about weeds. Of all the things that can be problematic in a Texas commercial lawn and landscape, weeds have got to be the worst. Weeds are a given every year. It’s rare that we don’t see a single weed crop up on a property, but usually they don’t appear this early.

Not only do you hate seeing weeds on your property, but your visitors, employees and customers do, too. No one likes a weed causing a blemish in the otherwise perfect landscape picture you’re trying to portray. To make matters worse, once weeds invade, they require considerable effort to keep them at bay.

Here’s a look at what we’re currently seeing on Texas landscapes and some recommended control measures.

Are you micromanaging your vendor?