If you live in a Homeowner’s Association community, you know the value it can provide for your property. Along with access to amenities, compliance standards, and a stronger community engagement, HOA memberships often include landscape maintenance, which many find as a compelling reason to join. Selecting a qualified and experienced company that understands CC&Rs and has experience working within the constructs of an HOA board will make all the difference in your landscape management experience. The company’s attention to the following points are an indicator you will be maximizing the advantages that can come with living in an HOA community. If you are brave enough to join your HOA board, these points will help guide you when selecting a contractor or reviewing your current provider.
As mentioned in previous Landscaping Lessons, curb appeal can be an important contribution in the overall value of your home, or in this case, collective neighborhood. A community that has uniform design, tidy outdoors and colorful aesthetics is a benefit to all who live there. When it is time to upgrade an area of your HOA’s landscape, it is important to keep with a consistent palette and theme. We recommend working with your landscaper to create a list of plants that are pre-approved to use in designs and future upgrades. Too often we see communities that have suffered from inconsistent designs, which can take away from curb appeal and increase maintenance costs.
Irrigation management is a critical part of the package and a way to help preserve the landscaping and budget of your HOA. With water rates on the rise and no end in sight, it is important to make sure your irrigation system is designed and operating efficiently. A great system poorly managed can have poor results, so it is important that you hire a landscape company that can manage your system and adjust it as needed as the seasons and needs of your landscape changes. If you don’t have a separate irrigation meter from the city, we recommend installing one yourself so you can track and monitor your monthly usage. It’s important to have an irrigation standard for all the properties in your community; stick with one type of sprinkler, one type of controller and one type of valve. This makes maintenance, replacement and upgrades much more efficient. When it comes time to upgrade your system, be sure to explore bids from companies that specialize in irrigation system retrofits, or you could be missing out on the latest and greatest like internet based controllers and wireless weather stations.
Being part of an association means you have a collective purpose, and one common interest for a group like an HOA, is safety. The landscaping on your property plays a large role in the safety of both the homeowners and their guests. Hardscapes like driveways, walkways and decks should all be free of cracks, bumps or tripping hazards. One of the biggest issues I see in Santa Cruz is walkways being lifted up by large Redwood roots, which creates stumbling hazards and leads to injuries and even lawsuits. Leaves should be routinely swept away to prevent slipping accidents and bushes trimmed back for visibility. Tree or branch failure is another issue we often come across, but it is usually preventable. We recommend having a certified arborist review your property annually in October/November for potential tree hazards. Make sure your landscape provider is bringing these safety concerns to your attention on a monthly basis. Over time, these seemingly small tasks can have a drastic effect on your association’s responsibility to keep its residents out of harm’s way.
Desirable neighborhoods have many things in common: prestigious schools, low crime rates, and well-manicured yards. Let landscaping maintenance enhance the charm of your HOA, keeping the community’s value high and your quality of life even higher!