For many business owners, maintaining lawns is about curb appeal. Hotels need to keep their turf lush and thriving to attract guests. Offices need to keep their ornamental trees healthy to appear professional. Even the flowers in a shop’s window box need to be blooming to have maximum charm.
But maintaining a lawn is more than just about keeping up appearances. If left unattended, your commercial lawn could not only deter customers but also harm them and your employees.
Learn about four threats that could spring up like weeds if you leave your business’ lawn unattended.
Crime
A huge factor that deters criminals is increased visibility. This is why a lot of municipalities install powerful lights around high-crime areas. If someone can easily spot an ongoing crime, they can immediately alert the police or assist the victims themselves.
Reliable lawn care for commercial properties helps increase visibility around your business by keeping plants and trees in check. Without routine pruning, shrubbery and trees can create areas of low visibility in your property. Criminals can use these areas to hide from prying eyes and law enforcement.
By keeping shrubs trimmed and cutting down low-hanging tree branches, you can make sure that unscrupulous individuals have nowhere to hide around your business.
Poisonous Plants
Weeding is one of the most tiresome aspects of lawn care, but it’s also crucial for the continued safety of your customers. There are dozens of poisonous plants in the United States. Some of the most important examples include hemlock, larkspurs, and goldenrod. Some of these plants may look innocent or even beautiful but contain fatal toxins.
For example, larkspurs have vibrantly blue or violet flowers, which can be tempting to young children or uninformed adults. However, the lovely plant’s seeds can cause agitation and depression, as well as upset the digestive tract if eaten. In sufficient amounts, larkspurs can even cause death.
Routine weeding and inspection by an expert is the best way to determine if the plants growing around your business are beautiful but deadly.
Insects
Overgrown lawns don’t just harbor criminals and poisonous plants, but they can also harbor swarms of insects. Tall grass, unraked leaves, and other plant debris provide insects and pests with the perfect nesting grounds. Ants can form colonies in the underbrush, and stinging insects such as wasps and bees can make hives undetected.
Even worse, disease-spreading insects could multiply in your lawn. Mosquitoes are carriers of different deadly diseases like dengue fever, malaria, and Zika. Ticks are notorious for spreading Lyme disease, tularemia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and anaplasmosis.
Depriving these disgusting creatures of a place to breed and live in is one of the best ways to keep them from infecting people.
Terrain Hazards
A poorly kept lawn can cause physical harm to yourself or your customers. Drifts of unraked leaves can be slippery, and someone could injure themselves just walking on them. Overgrown trees can drop dead branches on cars and passersby. Tall grass and turf can hide all sorts of ground-level obstructions, from potholes to cracks. If a customer gets injured because of your unkempt lawn, you could be susceptible to a lawsuit.
Keeping your lawn as neat and presentable as possible isn’t just about appearances. It’s also about ensuring the safety of your employees and customers. Remember these threats the next time you’re deciding whether to fire up the lawnmower or not.
