One of the biggest challenges that people setting up new landscaping businesses often face is the fact that they are practical hands-on people who aren’t always the best when it comes to making use of all the modern technology that makes running such a business easier. If you are one of them, and you want to ensure that your new landscaping company run like a well-oiled machine, check out these essential tech tools that will help you to run a far more efficient, streamlined business even if your tech skills aren’t as good as you would like them to be. Greenius  Greenius is an excellent online training tool with more than 50 instructional videos which will make it really easy for you to train your landscaping team quickly and effectively, while also saving you money. If you’re new to the business, it’s important you hire the right people and providing the best training to keep them safe and your clients happy, and Greenius will certainly help with that. RapidAPI RapidAPI is a great resource for software APIs, which are basically software interfaces you can use to add certain functions to apps and software. Their weather API directory could be particularly useful to you because it will allow you to keep track of weather conditions so you can better plan your jobs, but they have APIs for just about everything so do some exploring and see what else you might be able to make use of. HR Downloads HR Downloads is packed with templates and sample documents that you can use to ensure that you stay on the right side of the law and are able to manage your team more effectively.  Fleetio Fleetio is a huge timesaver. This one application can manage and track your fleet for you so you don’t have to worry about tracking down timesheets or trying to remember the last time your vehicles were services, amongst other things. Landscape Management Network This excellent landscaping software is able to help you budget for your business, manage customer relationships, create estimates and track the time you and your team spend on jobs, amongst other things, all in one neat package. It practically runs your landscaping business for you! Go iLawn This is a neat little tool that is able to measure property online, which makes it far easier and much more efficient for you to work out estimates for your clients, leaving you more time to get on with the actual job of landscaping. Skitch In many ways, landscaping is a pretty visual business, which is why the visual communication tool, Skitch, is such a good one to have in your virtual toolbox. It enables you to mark photos with text, arrows, colors, and so on and send them to both customers and staff, saving you a whole lot of time, and potentially money, on your landscaping jobs. With these important landscaping business tools on your side, you will stand a much better chance of achieving success in your new business venture. Good luck!

It is common for people to think that in order to increase the value of their property that they need to make internal changes or even expand the property. Whilst these options will add value, it is also possible to increase the value of your property through garden landscaping. The garden is an integral part of the home and there is no denying that a well-designed and functional garden will add more value than a garden that is overgrown and unusable. So, what can you do to your garden to add value? Cut Back Overgrown Areas A garden that has overgrown hedges, shrubs and trees can leave a garden looking and feeling smaller. Opening up your garden and making it more inviting is easier than you might think, and it doesn’t take as much effort as you might think. By trimming and shaping hedges and removing old and dead shrubs, you can enhance space and bring in more light. Furthermore, if you have large trees that need trimming then you might want to consider calling on a team of Chelmsford tree surgeons to complete the work professionally and efficiently. Keep Your Lawn Maintained Believe it or not, a well-maintained lawn adds to the appeal of a home. A lawn that is mowed regularly and healthy will bring your garden to life. Whether it is sowing new seed or laying new turf, it is really important that you make your lawn the main focal point of your garden. This means that garden landscaping will leave it looking vivid, fresh and perfectly shaped. Shape Your Garden If your garden is a basic rectangle in shape or just basic in design, it can pay to invest in redesigning it. This means that you can install areas such as borders made from sleepers or curved pathways that are lined by shrubs and flowers to give your garden an element of character. It will allow you to get creative with the shape, creating designated areas that can be used for growing or relaxing. Add An Outdoor Space You can create designated areas that are made for use during the summer months. This can include installing decked areas or even a new and modern patio. This will add a level of practicality and functionality to your home that people will find hugely appealing. A garden that lacks any sort of seating area will become nothing more than an area that cannot be used and that will not add any value at all. Invest in New Plants The right blend of plants and flowers that bloom throughout the year will give your garden a lease of life. When the planting of flowers and shrubs is planned accordingly, it will ensure that plants can work together and create an established look that gives your garden a natural appeal throughout. Add Lighting Adding feature lighting to your garden will enable you to enhance those areas that are lacking light once the sun goes down. You can light up certain areas, add a dramatic effect and give your garden a sense of style, all of which will help to add to the value of your home.

Exciting progress has been made for the North Walsham High Street Heritage Action Zone project. North Norfolk District Council is thrilled to announce the appointment of Influence, chartered landscape architects who will be undertaking the townscaping element of the project along with expert partners. The team aim to provide sustainable solutions to urban planning and have extensive experience of working in conjunction with local authorities and communities to deliver landscaping and public realm services, including working on High Street Heritage Action Zones projects elsewhere in the UK. “High Street Heritage Action Zones are such a key part of the future for our towns – especially post the pandemic – and are often driven by a strong local community interest. Revitalising and regenerating our high streets whilst reinstating the heritage roots is critical to their success, now and in the future. North Walsham is a vibrant market town but has been waiting for a long time to bring forward a high street public realm project. Now that it’s here, myself and the Influence team are honoured to have been selected to work on this important project, and are pleased to be supporting North Norfolk District Council’s in-house team,” said Shona Hatton, associate director at Influence. “Our previous experience in delivering High Street Heritage Action Zones has given us specialist knowledge and understanding of the challenges and huge opportunities in our high streets -and we are using those assets to re-imagine the physical and social environment in North Walsham – to enable it to be a prosperous town where people want to live, work and relax.” Master planning and consultation will be led by HETA – a studio of architects, designers and thinkers. Their focus is on people and how to create better, more meaningful experiences for them. Having completed a site visit the team will implement a programme of consultation and community engagement to see how the people of North Walsham want to see the space in the town centre used. Other partners involved include Rees Bolter Architects as heritage consultants, BSP for highways and transport consultancy and Gleeds Cost Management, quantity surveyors. This work is a vital part of the programme’s wider “placemaking” objectives, inspiring people to re-imagine and re-engage with the town centre as the heart of the community. It will focus on making the town centre a destination which embraces its heritage and community, creating a shared space people can enjoy, take pride in and encourages others to visit. The Council and partners will seek to hear what residents, businesses and visitors want to see in North Walsham and foster a sense of community that maximises shared value by making it easier to move around the town centre and improve the appearance and quality of public spaces, starting with work which will see the improvement of the Lokes and alleyways that connect different areas within the town centre. As part of this, the Council intends to purchase a piece of land adjacent to Black Swan Loke, a long-standing derelict area on an important pedestrian approach to the town centre, and is exploring options to maximise the potential of this busy route.

Green lawns are a staple of suburbia, but how much do you really know about grass? If you’re like many people, probably not much beyond what’s required to keep the lawn alive. The fact is, lawn, lawn care, and the history of lawns in the U.S. is actually rather interesting — and might even surprise you. Check out these fun facts. 1. George Washington Had One of the First Lawns One of the first lawns in America can be found at Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home in Alexandria, Virginia. Washington was known as a farmer, and was one of America’s first landscape architects. After the Revolutionary War, he knew that he would be hosting many dignitaries at his home, and set out to make the landscape as impressive as the buildings. This included the building of a great lawn, or bowling green. Inspired by the drawings of such expanses of grass at European manors, Washington incorporated a large lawn in front of the home. The lawn was cut using scythes, and regularly rolled to keep it flat and even. 2. Grass is Food Grass is actually the most common food in the world. All grass is part of the Poeceae family, which includes everything from pasture grasses that feed livestock to varieties like wheat and barley that are processed into flour and other products. 3. Professional Lawn Care is in Demand More than 22 million Americans rely on a professional lawn service to take care of their grass. This gives them back an average of 70 hours of free time every year that would otherwise be spent on lawn care. 4. Without Grass, We Might Not Survive Grass is not only a major food source for most species, it also produces a significant amount of oxygen. In fact, the typical lawn is more efficient than trees when it comes to making oxygen. A 50 foot by 50 foot lawn produces enough each day oxygen for a family of four to breathe, while also helping to improve air quality by catching contaminants like dust. 5. A Healthy Lawn Increases Home Value If you’re trying to sell your home, a healthy lawn can attract buyers — and even spur them to make a better offer. According to the Lawn Institute, a healthy lawn can help increase your home’s value by 15-20%. And the National Association of Realtors notes that when you invest in lawn care, you’ll see more than a 250% return on investment when you sell the home. 6. A Lawn Requires a Lot of Plants Maintaining a thick lawn means lots of plants — several million of them, in fact. In a well-maintained, 10,000 square foot lawn, you can expect to find about 8.5 million individual plants. That breaks down to about six plants per square inch, or 850 plants per square foot. Given that every grass seed only produces a single sprout, that’s a lot of seed to cover an entire lawn. 7. Grass Isn’t What You Think By weight, the typical blade of grass is 75% water. However, the bulk of a grass plant’s weight, about 90%, is in its roots. The green color comes from chlorophyll, but each blade also contains carbon dioxide, ozone, hydrogen fluoride, and peroxyacetyl nitrate absorbed from the atmosphere. 8. Grass is a Natural Air Conditioner You might not realize it on a hot day, but your lawn actually helps keep your home cool. If you added up the cooling power of the front lawns of eight typical suburban homes, you’d have the effect of about 70 tons of cooling power. The average household air conditioner only produces about 3 to 4 tons of cooling power. In more practical terms, if your home is surrounded by grass, trees, and shrubs, they can lower the temperature by about 14 degrees. 9. Lawn Mowers Have Existed for About 150 Years Although there have been any number of devices and tools for cutting grass used over time, it wasn’t until 1868 that the first patent for a reel-type lawn mower was issued in the U.S.. The first patent for a rotary type lawn mower wasn’t issued until 1919. Although different types of sprinklers existed previously, the first sprinkler patent was awarded to J. Lessler in Buffalo, NY in 1871. 10. People Take Their Lawn Mowers Seriously Finally, some people are really into their lawn mowers. There’s actually a museum dedicated to lawn mowers in England, and in 1992, the US Lawn Mower Racing Association (USLMRA) was established, becoming the first sanctioning body for, you guessed it, professional lawn mower racing.