Your Association’s Landscape is a lifestyle statement!

What is the curb appeal meter reading for your association’s grounds? What message is transmitted by the property when you or a guest enters the association grounds? Is that first impression what you want?

This entrance is a definite lifestyle statement.

Landscaping is an easy job to forget but a hard one to ignore. Many condominium association members choose to live in a condominium so that someone else can take care of the chores. What with property managers, board members, landscape committee members, owners and tenants, it would seem easy for someone to get that lifestyle curb appeal thing right. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Curb appeal is not created with just a lawn mower yet many associations hire their landscaper based on the price to cut grass.

Hardly anyone can argue that landscaping is not a key component of the property’s value. The overall landscape is generally composed of five components. They are 1) the ornamental component such as specimen trees and shrubs, 2) the hardscape component such as patios and walkways, decorative walls and retaining walls, 3) the environmental component such as large shade trees and street trees, 4) the turf component and 5) the flower component made up of bulbs, annual flowers and perennial plants.

Annual flowers are the only landscape component that gives you a fresh start each year. All the other components are part of a larger, long range plan that needs careful study and planning to develop. These other components clearly set the overall tone of the property and cannot be ignored in a well-balanced landscape plan. No one can deny a well-manicured lawn area with sharply edged beds and curbs along the entrance way somehow expresses a better lifestyle than a spotty lawn with crab grass growing along the curb. Flowers, by themselves, will not set the “look” of a property but their presence certainly produces bonus points on the curb appeal meter.

Whether you are in a Home Owner’s Association or a Condominium Association, an association sign was most likely erected at the property entrance. This sign is one of the first beacons announcing the property and welcoming visitors. Surely a stark sign with peeling paint expresses a different lifestyle than a sign nestled in a carefully maintained shrub bed that has a splash of annual flower color.

Summer color programs are best if you (or your landscaper) choose a primary flower color to use in the main bed and then supplement that with an accent flower color using a different plant. An example would be a main bed composed of red geraniums surrounded with a dusty miller (silver leaf) and ageratum (blue flower) accent. Other shrub bed border flowers are best if kept to the primary color of the main bed rather than mixing colors and varieties of annual flowers.

Whatever the chosen annual variety and color, follow it through in the other beds around the property. As access roads split off the main road, look to install annual beds at the corners to complement the main entrance bed. If the property is just a loop road, look to other common areas such as mail box islands or sign posts to plant more color. How could anyone forget the clubhouse and/or pool area? These are heavy use areas by the residents and guests and should be planted with pleasing colors and well- maintained annual presentations. These are also good areas to add strategically placed planters or barrels full of flowers rather than just depending on beds.

Irrigation is becoming more of a problem with restrictions being generated by municipal water systems as to day and time slot that watering is permitted. If your association is facing this problem, talk to your landscaper about using Acrylamide copolymers as an additive to the flower beds. These copolymer crystals look like rock salt when dry and absorb moisture when it rains or the irrigation is turned on. The crystals swell up with moisture to look like small pieces of Jell-O and then slowly release that moisture back into the soil as it naturally dries. These crystals are also effective in fully irrigated properties by leveling out the soil moisture content from water cycle to water cycle.

An important key to any summer color program is staying on a fertilization schedule during the early months of summer to develop strong foliage systems and bright flower colors. Annuals should be fertilized every ten to fourteen days from planting time to the middle of August.

As an alternate, perhaps a perennial plan to supplement the annuals is something to consider. While it’s common to have annual beds of a single plant type, perennial beds are most often planted in variety groupings. Perennials have the advantage of more textures, sizes and colors to choose from and the beds, if properly maintained, will fill out and become more beautiful each year. Another distinct advantage of perennials is that they do not have to be replanted each year as with annuals. Be prepared for higher maintenance during the season but the results are well worth it when perennials are properly planted and nurtured.

In summary, to have the best curb appeal rating, make sure that the use of annual flowers is maximized within the budget constraints. If the budget is too tight, work to slide a few more dollars into the flower budget. Many will be tempted to cut or zero this budget line but, dollar for dollar, nothing expresses the lifestyle image so succinctly as a vivid splash of color at the entrances and congregation points within the property boundaries. The lack of any color presentation speaks just as loudly in the opposite direction.