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Garden landscaping is the modification of the visible features of an area of land, including living elements like flowers and trees, as well as non-living elements like soil, rock and water. It’s a way to get the most out of outdoor spaces and improves the aesthetics of the area and property values too. In this article, we’re going to learn what garden landscaping is.

What is garden landscaping?

Garden landscaping is the modification of the visible features of an area of land. Landscaping can include living elements like flowerbeds, natural elements like rock formations and abstract elements to create a pleasing effect or to improve function. Landscaping can be done for aesthetic reasons or functional reasons such as increasing soil stability.

Landscaping is not limited to flowers and shrubs but can include the use of trees, ground coverings, and even water features. In many cases, it may be possible to create quite an elaborate garden while still maintaining total control over what goes into it by using pre-grown plants or by making use of container gardening methods.

Garden landscaping brings multiple elements together

When you think of garden landscaping, you may envision a space filled with lush green grass and trees. While this is one type of garden landscaping, there are many others as well. Landscape design is the art and science of planning outdoor space for residential or commercial purposes.

Landscape design includes elements such as natural elements such as landforms, terrain shape and elevation or bodies of water; and abstract elements such as the weather and lighting conditions. A successful landscape design will incorporate all these aspects into an aesthetically pleasing space that works within your budget.

Using garden landscaping in business

Garden landscaping is a fantastic way to improve the aesthetic and overall functionality of an outdoor space. Bringing in a professional landscaping service guarantees a high-quality, seamless outdoor space with lots of functionality. If you would like to find out more about garden landscaping, then get in contact with our team at ACC and see how we can help you transform your business property’s outdoor space into a true feature.

Lots of companies understand the importance of using professional cleaners to create a safe and clean working environment. Not only does this create a better working environment for staff, but it is also vital for customers and guests to see that the company cares about its visitors and the sort of environment it creates for them.

Why your grounds are just as important as your indoor environment

However, not all companies consider the need to secure professional support when it comes to maintaining their grounds and green space. This is somewhat short-sighted when it comes to creating a positive impression of your company. After all, the outside of your commercial building is almost always going to be the first part that a customer sees. That first impression can go a long way towards creating a positive customer experience.

Whether you are a care home, an office complex or an educational facility – the maintenance and care an organisation puts into the outside of its building is likely to be a reflection on the organisation itself. Even with the best products or services in the world, customers may be concerned that poorly maintained grounds show a lack of care and attention.

How our maintenance services can help

Our experienced team have worked with many different commercial clients such as schools, factories, offices and residential care homes to keep them looking their best. We can offer one-off services such as helping you to clear over-grown areas, as well as regular ongoing maintenance of lawns, flower beds and shrubbery. Our professional staff take great pride in their work, and they are highly trained in using the most up-to-date machinery to create a perfect finish for your lawns and grounds.

We offer a general range of services including lawn care and maintenance, pruning and shaping hedges and shrubs, and planting and looking after decorative flower beds. However, we are also able to offer more specialist services to meet particular requirements, such as moss control and driveway maintenance. Get in touch today to find out more about the expert services we can offer, and to discuss your bespoke needs.

As summer approaches, many people are opting to spend even more time outside during their lunch hours or on their breaks, especially in a post-COVID world. Keeping your outdoor space well-maintained can not only improve staff morale but can also benefit your business as a whole. In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at a few ways professional grounds maintenance can benefit your business.

1. More outdoor space to use while social distancing

No matter what kind of business you run, your outdoor space is one of the safest socially distanced places for the people in your business to spend time together. Therefore, it’s essential to keep them well maintained. If you own rental properties, keeping them clear for your tenants is an essential service to keep them content and satisfied and can allow them to entertain guests outdoors. And, encourages them to look after the rest of the property.

2. Improved curb appeal

When potential and existing customers visit your business premises, your outdoor space is the very first thing to greet them on arrival, even before they enter your building. It can therefore boost your image to have aesthetically pleasing, clean and tidy gardens, grounds, pathways and car parks available for visitors to see. Tidy flower beds, weed-free lawns and neatly trimmed hedges are simple tasks that are worth their weight in gold. And, it has been verified that outdoor spaces improve moods…. who doesn’t want happy visitors!

3. Efficient business operations

When you have large or overgrown grounds, extensive grassy areas and high hedges, it can be a stressful and daunting task to take care of it yourself. However, enlisting a team of fully trained and experienced professionals to clean up your outdoor space can take the task off your hands and free up time for you and your staff to focus on running your business. Whether you are looking to simply get your grass cut or you need more extensive work such as deep cleaning overgrown and neglected outdoor spaces, contacting a team of specialists will make life easier for you.

Enjoy professional and efficient grounds maintenance and clean-up services with Associated Cleaning Contractors (ACC).

All businesses are aware of the importance of cleanliness inside the office. For health and safety, as well as aesthetic purpose, keeping a workplace clean should always be a top priority for employers. However, in keeping their indoors clean, many businesses neglect their grounds and outside areas. Untidy grounds are not only unpleasant for staff but could actually discourage potential clients and visitors.

Untidy grounds

Your grounds say a lot about your business. Overgrown gardens filled with weeds and litter reflect badly on your company, and can physically stop customers getting to your door if it’s really bad!
If a business is unable to maintain their grounds, then it poses the question as to whether they are able to maintain loyalty to their customers. Understandably, the Covid-19 pandemic has left a lot of workplaces neglected, with the majority of staff working from home. However, with offices now slowly reopening, it is essential to ensure that your grounds are looking their best once again.

Don’t tackle it alone

Many business owners may see their grounds as something they can deal with themselves, but often, this is not the case. Large grounds may have multiple aspects that need maintaining, such as grass, flower beds and hedges. Attempting to tackle this as an amateur could end up doing more harm than good. Professional and good quality equipment is expensive, and often difficult to operate. Also, large grounds can be very time-consuming to maintain, taking hours of your valuable time. Therefore, if you need to tidy up your grounds, don’t attempt it alone. Seeking professional help is the best way to ensure your business has the most inviting grounds possible.

How ACC can help

Associated Cleaning Contractors are experienced in grounds maintenance and can provide you with the help you need. They can undertake a wide variety of grounds maintenance tasks, from clearing overgrown areas to controlling weeds, trimming lawns and managing decorative flower beds. Whether you’re looking for a one-off clean up, or regular contract help maintaining your grounds, the professionals at ACC can ensure your grounds leave a professional impression.

For more information on grounds maintenance services throughout the North West including Bolton, Bury, Rochdale, Wigan and Manchester, contact Associated Cleaning Contractors today.

It continues to be a traumatic time for many businesses, manufacturers, and organisations. While many have carried on through the pandemic, with all its requirements, others will now be looking to begin to operate in ‘the new normal’.

So many will have had to undertake a raft of extra cleaning activities, as well as making major environmental changes within their premises. Through all of this vital work, it’s possible one other key area has been inadvertently neglected.

Are your grounds in good order?

The Victorian Poet Laureate Alfred Austin once said ‘Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are’. The same could be said for the public impression made by the grounds around business, commercial, manufacturing and public service properties.

Concentrating on inside cleaning might have become such a focus that the outside impression offered to potential clients, users of your facilities and services, and the general public, has been neglected.

However, whether your premises are still to reopen, or you are now getting back into the swing of things as they now are, your surrounds will be sending an important message to the public.

Perhaps the lawn in your grounds has been allowed to change from its usual immaculate condition. This is not so different from so many locked-down people being frantic about when their barber or hairstylist can restore their chosen look! It’s also possible that, around your buildings, weeds and wildflowers have found a place to, literally, put down roots.

Around the edges of your commercial property might be a hedge that’s taken advantage of a quiet period to thrive; especially after the favourable growing conditions throughout most of the spring. Importantly, it’s possible that walkways have been invaded by moss, and this could lead to troubling health and safety incidents with either staff members or customers being injured.

How ACC can provide that vital professional clean-up

Our experienced team can undertake a wide range of ground maintenance tasks. These include clearing overgrown areas, trimming lawns and hedges, controlling weeds, managing decorative flower beds, and much more.

Our professionals can provide that one-off clean-up, as well as regular services to ensure the grounds around your premises make the kind of professional impression that can be so vital.

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.