At Peer Landscaping of Fort Myers, FL one of our most enjoyable kinds of project is when we get hired to do a large-scale outdoor space installation. We love to have a blank canvas to create a new and exciting look for your landscape. Once you’ve signed the contract with us, the real work begins on both of our accounts. A landscape installation takes time and can be a bit messy. While on our end we will be creating a plan and a timeline, there are certain things you can do as a homeowner on your part to ensure the project goes smoothly and is finished on time and on budget. Once we give you a confirmed date to begin your project, you can follow this plan beginning at least 3 to 7 days before your installation begins. Taking these early steps will ensure everything goes easier on you and on our landscape crew.
Discontinue Any Ongoing Lawn Treatments
This is something you will want to do at least two weeks prior to our coming for your installation. When we are both excavating and installing your new landscape, our crew is there on the ground digging through your soil and touching your plants. The herbicides and pesticides used in fertilizer, pest control, and weed control applications are very poisonous and can be harmful. It takes at least two weeks for these products to naturally disintegrate, and be washed away by rains, making them much less harmful to our landscaping crew.
Identify Underground Utilities and Irrigation
Most major utility lines like your plumbing and sewage lines are far enough underground that they won’t interfere with our landscaping excavation, but cable lines, internet connections, and phone lines are closer to the surface, and are usually only a few inches beneath the ground and are not encased in a protective piping. All landscape installation requires us to dig, so if you know where they are, please mark them for us with a flag, or one week prior to installation, plan to have your underground utility lines marked by the utility company. It is usually provided as a free service.
Clean Up, Clear Up, Pack Up
Before we start your landscape installation, you’ll want to go through your entire landscape and remove any obstacles or debris that are in the areas that are to be worked on by us. Some examples include large potted plants, bird baths, playground equipment, or statuary. Remove anything that won’t be used in your new design, and take away anything that has personal value to you. Please remove potted plants so they won’t be damaged by our crew. If you can’t move it yourself, or don’t have a safe spot for it, simply inform the onsite crew about it and ask them to be careful around it. It is critical that our crew has easy and clear access to the areas they are working in for fast installation.
Stop Irrigation Prior to Install
One of the initial steps our landscaping crew will do is to excavate the soil and the grass from the designated area to be able to build a new garden, lay new sod, or dig to install hardscape elements. Wet dirt and sod is very heavy, approximately three times the weight of dry, making it much more difficult and time consuming to excavate. Dry sod can easily be removed quickly in nice simple sheets. We request that you stop watering your lawn three to four days prior to our install date, to ensure our work can be finished on time and on budget.
Mow the Yard
Just as a wet lawn will stop the progress of your landscaping project, an overgrown lawn means our team has to take extra time dealing with it. We do not bring our lawn mowing equipment or trimmers with us for on installs. Please be sure your lawn is not overgrown when we come. Keep your regular mowing schedule in the weeks before we come to work.
Remove Mosquito Systems and Dog Fences
Mosquito systems and electric dog fences have lines that run just under the soil line making them easily damaged with our shovels or spades. Mosquito control systems include lines and heads, as well as harmful pesticides in the lines. Prior to installation we ask that you drain the mosquito system and remove any heads and lines from the area designated for our installation project.
Make a Plan to Ensure Safety
Here is where you want to consider your everyday use of your landscape. Do you have children and pets that usually play in the yard? During our landscape installation, remember your yard is more of a construction site with all kinds of equipment and other dangers. It’s not a good combination with children or pets around. Please plan your day to day life around the fact that they will not be able to go out into the yard as they typically do while we are there. Plan on using a different exit and entrance into your home. Plan to take children and pets to a nearby park while we are on site. We don’t want either your pets or your children getting hurt, or unintentionally damaging the ongoing landscaping we are performing. The new plants we put in will be very fragile at first and need time to establish themselves in their new location. Keep pets and children away from the new landscaping for a few weeks after they are planted.
Create a Staging Area
In a large install, we will most likely drop off the materials for the project before we begin the actual installation. Please instruct our crew as to where in the yard you would like a designated staging area to store our materials so they will be easily be available to the Peer Landscaping crew to use, while being out of your way, in a location where they can’t be stolen or broken.
