“All too often I see contractors changed every three years,” he complains. “It takes one to two years to learn all of the ins and outs of a property and the little quirks of the owners sometimes as well. For example, unit 12 wants to cut the front themselves but wants the back push mowed one setting lower while unit 17 likes to do their own gardening and unit 32 wants the hedges left high to provide privacy from unit 34.

“A change will be made, pandemonium ensues, and when everyone is finally settled and content, the board will change contractors again. I am sometimes asked to bid on a property, and am amazed while walking the property that they want to make a change at all,” says Schofield.

Sometimes with all the changes, landscapers are given mixed messages. The property manager may understand the level of care required to save the expense of remedying mistakes over the long term but the board wants to save money in the short term.

“One of my biggest problems is getting mixed signals,” explains John Larson of Garden City Groundskeeping Ltd. “The manager wants a top notch job but when you bid it that way, the board chooses the lower price so the quality of work suffers.”

Larson says it is important to meet in person on the condominium grounds to discuss the work required in order to make sure everyone is on the same page. He agrees that it is important to have a long term plan communicated between the property manager, the board and the contractor in order for the grounds to be consistently beautiful. The board and manager should develop a working relationship with the landscaper with regular communications. The landscaper will then be able to make recommendations based on observations made on the site.

“If the trees are in decline, it’s best to get a tree report and start planting new ones before these ones are dead so that the new ones have established,” suggests Larson.

Keeping an eye on the trees is well worth the expense since tree removal is a costly endeavour. While setting up a long term plan, hire a professional to access the health of the trees and do some preventative pruning.

“There’s always potentially pests and diseases involved,” explains Frank Aiello, a Canadian certified horticulturist with a degree in landscape architecture and 30 years landscape maintenance and snowplowing for the condominium sector who recommends paying a hundred dollars or more for a professional evaluation of the site.

“That will save thousands of dollars because to remove one standard 20 foot maple tree, by the time you cut it down, remove the root ball and replace it with a very small six foot starter tree, you’re looking at a minimum a thousand dollars right there.”

Aiello says that it’s the same thing with pruning. “If you’re budgeting a hundred dollars to prune a tree, which should give you three to five years’ control, it can easily offset the thousand dollar ticker going at a very fast pace if you’re going to start doing a few trees.”

Preventative maintenance is increasingly important now that the province is steering away from the use of chemicals in landscaping. To care for a lawn organically, it is best to take extra steps so that it is able to fight off diseases and crowd out any weeds.

According to Aiello, condominium boards rarely allocate enough funds for good, organic lawn care. “The way we’re moving without the aid of pesticides, we need to be implementing more IPM techniques (integrated pest management) so that in the long run we won’t have to replace the lawn or look at a poor lawn.”

He stresses the need for aeration and fertilization: two steps that are commonly overlooked. Aeration is simply pulling cores out of the soil to allow air, water and fertilizer into the root system. It’s typically done in the spring. Fertilization should be done based on a soil analysis though this step is often overlooked by landscapers.

“People are just running to the store (and I’m including contractors) and buying what they have on the shelf,” says Aiello. “They’ll use what’s leftover throughout the year. A major type of mistake is not using the appropriate fertilizer at the appropriate times of the year.”

Dean Schofield of Landmark Landscaping agrees that aerating turf is an important step in improving its overall health. He also reminds managers to overseed and add compost material to give it more resilience in the heat of the summer. “If the turf is sitting on 1 inch of topsoil sitting on top of rock hard clay, come July and August even irrigated turf will suffer. Adding compost material will make the turf much more drought tolerant.”

While taking steps to keep the lawn green, consider the irrigation system. It should be checked regularly to avoid pouring water, and money, down the drain. Spending money on rain sensors, replacing sprinkler heads and fine tuning the irrigation system comes with its own considerable pay off.

Schofield recommends tuning it to provide deep waterings less often to encourage root growth. He claims that an irrigation system overhaul can save a corporation thousands of dollars per season.

“I'm reminded of a time we took over a new site, tested the irrigation system and found that one the heads was missing and all of the water was pouring in to a drain right beside it every time the system ran,” explains Schofield. “There were a half dozen similar leaks all over the property that were costing the corporation a bundle.”

He also has a reminder for boards with a rooftop garden or those planning to put one in. Be diligent in keeping the plants appropriately sized and consider how big it will be in ten to 20 years.

“A condo in Mississauga recently had a special assessment in the order of tens of thousands of dollars per unit to rectify damages from plant material that had grown too large and heavy for the rooftop. The weight caused cracks and leaking in to the units below, causing the corporation to finally tear the whole rooftop gardens out,” warns Schofield.

Rooftop gardens that are properly planned and maintained are a real asset to the condominium, however. Instead of thinking of it as an extension to the ground-level gardens, they should be handled with a unique vision. Rooftops are a demanding and challenging environment in which to grow and few plants thrive in such extreme conditions. However, with the right plant material, rooftop gardens can be beautiful and require little maintenance.

Frank Aiello of Green Leaf Limited wholeheartedly recommends rooftop gardens as well worth the effort. He recommends and Arizona-style rooftop landscape, or zero-scaping, that will not require an irrigation system and they look great against the sky as a backdrop.

“When you have a very lush rooftop garden, you have to really maintain it. I’ve seen a lot of issues with irrigation and the rooftop membrane. When you have that catastrophe, and I’ve seen it, it’s an emergency. Eliminating that one item could really go a long way and it’s just as nice.”

When it comes to landscaping, it is important to have a plan and to divide the budget appropriately. Take an inventory and make a wishlist and get estimates to get an idea of what items will cost. Having a clear goal and a realistic budget that includes proper maintenance will save time and money in the long run.