For the past four years, Moore Landscapes, Inc. has maintained the Chicago Park District (CPD) Floral Gardens, one of our company’s most high-profile projects in its nearly 60-year history. But the responsibility of maintaining the city’s beauty is far from a walk in the park. We plant 250,000 flowers over 214 square miles across 69 parks, all the while accommodating high-traffic attractions like Lollapalooza, Taste of Chicago and numerous political events, not to mention thousands of annual visitors.
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Each week, our industry experts will tackle a variety of topics that affect the industry and discuss how those issues can impact you as a green industry professional. This week, Jim Pearson of Moore Landscapes gives tips for maintaining large municipal projects. Be sure to share your thoughts on the Lawn & Landscape Message Board. Let's get the buzz going! |
Consequently, we’d like to share a number of tips we’ve gathered over the years to help fellow landscapers maintain a large municipal project:
1. Predict the unpredictable
In our experience with landscaping the Chicago Park District, we’ve come to expect last-minute demands in terms of events, from rock concerts to press conferences to charity runs like Race for the Cure. When maintaining such a large municipal project, you must expect some damage. After the Taste of Chicago, we were literally picking up fried shrimp tails and replacing flowers the day the event ended. When Chicagoans enjoy the Fourth of July fireworks over Lake Michigan, we know we’ll have to replace flowers around Buckingham Fountain that people have inadvertently walked on. The point is that we plan for these challenges, so we don’t see them as unforeseen problems, just a regular day’s work.
2. Put your best employees on your most demanding projects
We allocate nearly 50 full-time employees exclusively to the CPD, along with at least 30 sub-contractors. Coordinating schedules is easier because this one project is the employees’ only responsibility. Also, try hard to retain these employees to maintain the look and consistency of the job. It will gradually become your company’s calling card.
3. Meticulously maintain
If you turn your back for even a day on flower beds that you’ve just prepped and planted, they will go bad. We maintain the floral gardens in Lincoln Park and Grant Park around the clock. We check to see the flowers’ color, if they were stolen or if there’s any garbage or weeds around them. You can plan appropriately to ensure your flowers survive, but without someone actually looking daily at their condition, all that planning is pointless.
4. Don’t underestimate prep work
The next step is prepping the beds; however, a lot of landscapers underestimate its importance, if not skip it entirely. Landscapers need to study each site to determine the quality of the soil. The amount of organic material and fertility of the soil is highly important. You need to know what kind of soil you’re working with. You can then add peat moss and fertilizer to adjust the soil accordingly. That will give your flowers a better chance at healthy growth and your site more lasting beauty.
Jim Pearson is vice president of maintenance for Moore Landscapes.