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A low-maintenance garden is quite desirable in today’s fast-paced world, as many people don’t have the time or energy to devote to high-maintenance gardens.

It is a great solution for those who want a beautiful outdoor space without having to put in a lot of effort. In this blog post, we’ll explore what a low-maintenance garden is, its benefits and how to create one.

What makes a low-maintenance garden?

A low-maintenance garden is a garden that requires minimal upkeep, typically requiring less time and resources than a traditional garden. The idea behind a low-maintenance garden is to create a beautiful outdoor space that is easy to care for as well as sustainable. The focus is on using plants and materials that are hardy, drought-resistant and require little to no fertiliser or pruning.

Creating a low-maintenance garden

Creating this type of garden requires some planning and strategy. Here are some tips for creating a low-maintenance garden:

• Choose the right plants: When selecting plants, choose ones that are native to your area and are well-suited for your climate. Look for plants that are hardy as well as drought- and disease-resistant. Lavender, hardy geraniums and bergenias are some good options. 

• Group plants by water needs: Group plants together that have similar water requirements. This will make watering more efficient and reduce waste.

• Use mulch: Mulch can help retain moisture in the soil and reduce the need for watering. It can also help suppress weeds and improve soil quality.

• Use hardscaping: Incorporating hardscaping elements such as paths, patios and walls can add visual interest to your garden while also reducing the amount of grass or plants that need to be maintained.

• Consider low maintenance features: Installing features such as automatic irrigation systems, drip irrigation and rain barrels can reduce the amount of time and effort required to maintain your garden.

Do you want a garden with minimal effort?

A low-maintenance garden is a great option for those who want a beautiful outdoor space without the high-maintenance requirements of a traditional garden. By following the tips above, you can create a sustainable and easy-to-maintain garden that enhances the beauty of your outdoor space. If you need any help creating a low-maintenance garden you can continue to maintain then contact us today.

Opt for narrow borders and garden beds

Use the right tools

Bring in the professionals

Conclusion

Introduction

Mowing

Fertilisation

Irrigation and sprinklers

Conclusion

A clean environment can do wonders for your productivity. It boosts your staff’s morale and makes it easier for them to be organised and efficient. That said, maintaining a clean environment can be difficult, which is why we recommend hiring commercial cleaners.

Commercial cleaning teams are trained to handle various environments. They also have state-of-the-art cleaning equipment to deliver outstanding results. This blog post explores the scope of commercial cleaning to help you understand the value of your investment.

What does a commercial clean include?

There are two types of commercial cleaning services; general cleaning and routine cleaning. General or deep cleaning is more extensive than regular cleaning. It pays attention to all the hard-to-reach areas for improved sanitation of the space.

Regular cleaning, on the other hand, is more about maintenance. It involves sweeping floors, vacuuming carpets, disinfecting surfaces, emptying bins, dusting to remove cobwebs, etc. Besides regular and deep cleaning, you can request specialist cleaners. Special cleaning services with the biggest impact on your business include:

1. Hard floor care and carpet cleaning

Carpet cleaning is crucial for commercial spaces because carpets can harbour dirt, dust, and allergens leading to respiratory problems. Additionally, while cleaning floors with a broom and mop is easy, they need periodic scrubbing and waxing to maintain their glamour. Commercial cleaning teams are able to clean your floors on time without paralysing your operations. If you’re in the food or manufacturing industry, aim to clean your floors once every quarter to maintain a clean and safe space.

2. Commercial window cleaning

Dirty and cloudy windows send a bad impression of your business. Therefore, schedule cleaning at least twice every month, depending on your locale’s weather. Commercial cleaners have the tools, products, and expertise to properly clean your windows – even those hard to reach ones, so invest in professional window cleaning services.

3. Restroom cleaning

Toilets are an integral part of any commercial space. Without a strict cleaning regimen, you risk jeopardising the health of your staff and customers. If an outbreak occurs, your reputation could suffer irreversible damage, so always include bathroom cleaning in your cleaning budget.

If you’re looking for a commercial cleaning company, look no further than ACC. We have the experience, skills, and specialist equipment for any job. Get in touch with us today for a free quote.

Thinking about hiring a professional cleaner to help with your commercial property? There are many benefits of doing this, including freeing up time for more important jobs or removing the need for an in-house cleaner.

Here are 4 reasons that professional cleaning really is worth the money.

Your property will always impress

If you are in charge of a commercial premises, like an office, school or restaurant, you will be responsible for making sure that it is always spotless. As well as ensuring that visitors are happy with the cleanliness, there are also health and safety regulations like food hygiene ratings that need to be met.

Our professional team of cleaners are trained to the highest standard so that you can rest assured your workplace always meets every standard.

Cleaners can be flexible

Need someone to come and clean on a Saturday? Or perhaps you want to arrange for cleaning out of your working hours?

One of the great things about hiring a cleaning company is that it is flexible to suit your individual needs. Our cleaners can come to your premises at a convenient time to guarantee minimal disruption to you and your employees.

It’s cost-effective

You may think that commercial cleaning is expensive but it really doesn’t have to be.

We offer a wide range of packages to suit every budget, whether you’re looking for daily visits or something less frequent, like fortnightly or monthly cleans.

ACC works hard to make sure that you don’t pay more than you need to and still get a reliable, professional service.

It saves you time

As a manager or business owner, you probably have much more important things to be doing than cleaning.

It is still an important job that needs to be done, but is it worthwhile for you or one of your employees to be doing it?

Our commercial cleaning service is a hassle-free way to maintain the tidiness and cleanliness of your property while saving you hours of valuable time. So, leave the cleaning to us (it’s what we do after all!)

If you would like to discuss the needs of your North West business, we would be more than happy to help. Get in touch with us by calling 01204 495 222 or emailing us at info@acc.uk.com.

As you would expect, we fully appreciate the positive impression made by professionally-cleaned glass. But we know that this is only one part of providing an attractive and accessible business environment.

Maintaining property and premises

For those who work in, visit, or simply pass by your premises, the appearance of the grounds around your buildings contribute greatly to the impression you make. Understandably, in recent times, other cleaning priorities may well have meant that these areas have not been as regularly attended to as they would previously have been.

Returning or maintaining grounds to expected standards

What used to be a manicured lawn might now be more akin to rough grass. Weeds will have thrived through inattention, often invading every corner. Hedges or bushes might have expanded somewhat, especially if tending to them wasn’t a priority during last year’s growing season.

Bark and gravel areas might be looking a bit dusty or tired, and in need of refreshing. Flowers beds, placed to offer a bright and welcoming sight, could have been neglected over recent times.

Then there might be a couple of health and safety concerns

Those hedges or bushes might have encroached onto public areas and be causing a potential hazard. Another worry for those responsible for public and staff safety can be if slippery moss has taken hold anywhere.

Our ACC moss control process uses proven chemicals to loosen any moss infestation. Mechanical rotary brushes then complete the clearance for pathways, driveways, or car parks.

How can we help deliver the outside environment you want to see?

Some of our regular Associated Cleaning Contractors’ clients are surprised when we mention that we also provide a team of highly trained operatives who deliver superbly professional grounds maintenance services. We can deliver a general clean up or deal with any of the specific problems we’ve mentioned.

Call us now at ACC on 01204 495 222 for an obligation-free discussion of your needs. This is the first step towards ensuring that those areas around your buildings deliver the positive impression that you would want them to

School landscape, gardens, and grounds should be well-maintained not only for aesthetic reasons but because they directly affect the health and safety of students. To ensure you get the best results for your school, outsourcing garden and ground maintenance services is essential.

Here are the reasons why it is wise and prudent to outsource ground maintenance for your school facility…

High level of professionalism and expertise

Outsourced garden or ground maintenance services are beneficial because they offer an assured level of high professionalism. A professional service should have many years of experience, and better gardening tools, that a school may not possess. They know how to handle different situations and which equipment is suitable for your space and needs.

Saves time and costs

Outsourcing ground maintenance services saves your employees time and enables them to concentrate on other duties. Additionally, you will not need to invest in expensive tools or training on how to use them. Hiring an in-house employee to manage your ground will be more expensive considering their salary, compensation, health insurance, and benefits.

Variety, reliability, and stability

Hiring ground maintenance companies for your school offers not only many types of services but also ensures high flexibility and reliability in terms of scheduling and prompt response. They give you great consistency and stability since they are available whenever needed, and you don’t have to worry about challenges or delays such as a worker calling sick.

Better quality, cleanliness, and eco-friendliness standards

Due to expert knowledge, outsourced service providers provide higher standards of results and pay more considerable attention to eco-friendly details. They also have the tools to handle risky tasks that unskilled in-house workers may be afraid to do due to the possibility of accidents.

Does your facility require ground maintenance or gardening services? We have you covered with our professional and effective cleaning and maintenance services. Get in touch with us today and explore our wide range of services; we are dedicated to ensuring professional and high-quality services for your facility at a fair rate.

Looking to sell your office space? Whether you’re expanding your business because you need larger premises or you’re moving to a better location, you’ll want to sell up as quickly as possible.

The last thing you want is for your company’s growth to suffer because you’re unable to find a buyer fast enough. It’s therefore vital to make your offices as appealing as you can. You’ll want to give the impression that a buyer could move their own business in straight away without having to do any work on the place themselves. Here’s how.

1. Redecorate

It’s surprising what a difference a fresh layer of paint can make, especially if you haven’t redecorated for several years. Old paint can discolour, peel and accumulate dirt and dust, which isn’t a good look. Also, your existing colour scheme may not be suitable for the next company that wants to move in, making it harder for them to imagine what the space would look like if they took over.

New paint in neutral tones would make your offices appear bigger and brighter while eliminating years of dirt and marks. It would also create a blank canvas.

2. Lay new carpets

Your carpets will no doubt have seen more than their fair share of spilt coffees over the years, and will probably have the stains to prove it. What’s more, carpets can wear thin and lose their colour over time, so lay new ones to bring the office space bang up to date. Or, give the old one a professional clean.

3. Do a deep clean

When was the last time you carried out a deep clean in all the nooks and crannies? After growing so accustomed to the same space every day, your eyes may not spot the smaller problems that prospective buyers could pick up instantly, such as that little bit of mould around the windowsill. Pay attention to the smaller details with a thorough clean up, and you’ll impress potential buyers; the last thing they want to do when they move in is to clean but a ready-to-move-into property will be very appealing.

4. Tend the garden

Companies will be looking for a low-maintenance outdoor area to complement their office space, and the last impression you’ll want to give is that the garden is difficult to manage. So don’t forget to tidy up outdoors as well!

Need help getting ready for a commercial property sale? Associated Cleaning Contractors can provide all of these services and more, so contact us today.

Those in charge of schools often hire cleaners, to keep classrooms looking their best. School children are surprisingly messy and disorganised, even in such a structured setting, and a messy classroom can be a health and hygiene hazard as well as a bit of an eyesore.

But do you invest as much in the school grounds, beyond the classroom doors?

Here are 3 benefits of professional grounds maintenance for schools:

1. It improves indoor spaces

We’ve gone straight back to indoor spaces – corridors and classrooms. Why? Because they depend on good outdoor grounds.

Poorly maintained grounds, including school gardens and fields, can have terrible patches of mud that will find their way onto a child’s shoes and their clothing. That mud will be dragged indoors, stomped through corridors, transferred to chairs, rubbed into carpets and mats.

Keeping your school grounds in good, mud-free condition will make your school cleaner’s job far easier. It’ll also reduce complaints from parents about the condition of their child’s school uniform!

2. Well maintained grounds are safer

Poorly maintained school grounds can be a health hazard, with standing water and muddy puddles that will cause young children to slip over.

If the grass is too long it can make it hard for children to play safely during the summer months, and weeds like thorns and nettles can be a risk if they’re able to grow.

Another big risk, particularly through the winter, is moss. Moss can become very slippery and will grow even on concrete and tarmac. It may need to be cleared from pathways using chemicals and professional equipment.

Professional grounds maintenance goes far beyond bringing out the lawnmower. A professional can identify other areas of risk, and take them away before children are harmed.

3. It creates a good first impression

Your school is a business. To stay open, do well and receive funding, you need new pupils coming in. Think about how your school looks when people see it for the first time. Do they see poorly maintained outdoor spaces? Dead flowers? Weeds?

Good ground maintenance is a year-round investment. Your school needs to look good for open days, but your future pupils could be walking past with their parents at any moment.

Make a good first impression, and ensure that it lasts through the years, with regular school grounds maintenance. Get in touch for more information.

Gardening is a versatile profession or hobby that’s constantly changing, is your corporate garden up to scratch?

Each year, old trends wilt and new trends bud, so you can be sure that there’s always something to keep you on your toes. This is especially the case for commercial gardens, as it’s essential that visitors and customers enjoy the space they’re in.

Here are some of the best commercial trends for 2019:

1. Perennial and wild gardens

With the recent talk of how damaged our environment is, one of the most prominent trends of 2019 is letting commercial gardens flourish full of wildflowers and herbs to encourage wildlife to visit. That isn’t to say that a garden has to be unkempt, though – you can still hire a commercial gardening team to ensure that it’s in tip-top shape while remaining eco-conscious!

2. Upcycled interiors meet commercial exteriors

Along with an ecological focus, many commercial gardens are doing more to help the planet by reusing and upcycling old interior parts. This could be anything – from turning an old colander into a hanging, self-draining plant pot, to fully redecorating old tables and bringing them outside! A lot of this can be done yourself, but if your commercial garden is in need of more complex decorating work, consider hiring a professional.

3. Big, bold and bright

Gone are the recent trends of muted shades of green and minimalism; 2019 is the year of bold floral colours and contrasting plants of all shapes and sizes. The more colourful and varied it is, the more inviting it’ll appear to visitors – think of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Edinburgh, for example.

4. Shrubbery is making a comeback

In the last few years, shrubbery has been neglected in favour of other forms of simple plants. However, in 2019 shrubs and hedges are coming back into fashion in commercial garden areas, as they’re a simple way to create variation in height and shape. Shrubbery is stigmatised in part due to its apparent high level of upkeep needed. So why not get a professional to do it for you?

Here at ACC, we offer professional grounds maintenance for commercial garden spaces; whether you need grass cutting in your new perennial pub garden, or your bright, vibrant flower beds looked after on a university campus, we have you covered! For a range of our full services and to speak to a friendly member of the team, contact us today.