Valparaiso Indiana Service Market Opens

Suburban Landscaping is proud to announce in August 2009 the opening of the Valpariaso Branch service area. We are now providing our usual high quality service to the markets of Valparaiso, Chesterton, Hobart, Lake of Four Seasons, Portage, and Michigan City from this location.

Please feel free to inquire about service for your vacation home, rental properties, or business in these areas. We are now offering full service to these markets including lawn maintenance and landscaping. Snow removal is scheduled to begin for the Valparaiso market in 2013.

Multi-Family Landscape Maintenance

One of Suburban Landscapings most applauded expertise comes in our award winning multi-family landscape maintenance. Multi Family properties are slightly different from other large commercial or residential type properties, mainly because there are more owners with different needs and ideas, and they usually have a common ground that all families living in the association share. Another major difference is the controlling body of the property, usually a Board of Directors or Landscape Committee. These groups are made up of volunteer residents from the property and they are the deciding factor in how the property will look.  Often these groups are guided by a Property manager, who may or may not be on site.

Multi family properties would include:

• Condominiums
• Townhomes
• Home Owners Associations (HOA)
• Apartment Complexes
• Land Owners Associations 

Our customized programs and payment plans are tailored to the horticultural and budget needs of these unique types of properties. Our specialized crews are equipped with the proper type of equipment and trained in the techniques necessary to maintain all aspects of multi-family properties. 

Our managers are also trained in providing the highest quality service to these properties. From working with management companies and Board members, to customized by-laws and village regulations. Comprising the largest section of our customer list, multi-family properties gain an exceptional advantage having the expertise of Suburban Landscaping maintain their lawn & landscape.

Board Meetings

Suburban Landscapings managers attend many Board of Directors meetings per month. Often Boards request our presence at their meetings to discuss new plantings, drainage solutions, state of the property, and for future planing and budgeting. We are always happy to work with the Board of any property in any way that is needed.  

Walkthroughs

Our managers are on our Multi-Family properties every week. Whether checking crew production, quality control, or measuring for a requested estimate from the Board. We also conduct routine inspections of the property for disease and insect infestations as well as for drainage and shrub/tree care. We always welcome Board members to join us on our walkthroughs to see the state of their property first hand. Often, we walk through our properties with the Property Manager, discussing concerns or new plans for the property.

Property Managers

Since 1984, we have worked with most of the major property management companies in the Chicago Southland. We view property managers as our ally in our efforts to improve the conditions of our Multi-Family properties and as valuable assets in accomplishing that goal. Usually as the conduit between residents and contractors, property managers often aid in our efforts by notifying us of special events residents may have, or in other projects or construction that may be occurring. These details help greatly in our scheduling and performance while on the property.

Service

Landscaping is usually the biggest annual cost of most Multi-Family associations. Between landscape maintenance, enhancements, and snow plowing, landscaping usually accounts for more than 50% of most association budgets. Keeping this in mind, we try and earn your trust and provide the results you look for in everything we do. Some of the major things we do are condensed below.

Snow Plowing: Multi-family properties don't shut down for the night and they don't take weekends off. When snowfall occurs, there is no down-time that they don't need service. At Suburban Landscaping we recognize these facts and know what these types of properties need. Having decades of experience in Multi-Family snowplowing, we will be there for your association when you need us.

Lawn Maintenance: As the biggest part of our service, lawn maintenance has become our forte. Experts in Multi-Family lawn maintenance, we know exactly how to provide the professional service, premier quality, and knowledgeable advise you expect from your landscape service provider. With our trained crews and on-site supervision, we monitor your landscape so you don't have to.

Enhancements: Most associations budget annually for repairs and enhancements to their property. From shrub replacements to tree care, and from drainage issues to mulching beds, every enhancement makes a difference to the residents at a Multi-Family association. We are please to help in establishing, advising, and estimating for your budget and the projects you need to accomplish with it. Whether planning for this years enhancements or next years, we are able to help prioritize and analyse your horticultural needs.

Grub Control

One of the most insidious insects to infest a lawn are the larva of the Japanese Beetle and Chafers, also known as Grubs. Grubs live in the top 3-4 inches of soil under your lawn and feed on the roots of all types of grasses. You can typically find these grubs during the late spring and early summer as well as in the fall, but they are also there hibernating in the winter, but doing no damage during this period.

Often you won't even know you have a problem with grubs until it is too late. Heavily infested turf first appears a gray-green off color and wilts in the hot sun. Such infestations typically appear in oddly shaped and sized patches among healthy plants, creating an unsightly contrast. Continued feeding will cause the turf to die in large irregular patches. The tunneling nature of the grubs causes the turf to feel spongy, and it is easily rolled back, since the deep roots are consumed first, exacerbating the plants' problems with drought in hot dry weather. Grub populations also attract predatory mammals such as skunks, raccoons, opossums and moles that can hear the grub activity and dig into the turf in search of a meal - causing further damage to the turf.

Lawn Treatment For Grubs

Not all lawns with grubs need grub control. Once a lawn reaches a critical population, usually 10 per square foot or more, grubs can start to damage you lawn. The June beetles do most of their damage during the early summer, but the Japanese beetle damage you lawn in the fall.

Suburban landscaping uses three different chemicals in the control of the insects commonly know as Grubs.  All three are broad spectrum, systemic insecticides with long lasting residual effects, even at extremely low application rates.  These chemicals work both on contact and when ingested by the Grub larva.  The use of these chemicals is approved by the Environmental Protection Agency, and are proven as the safest chemicals to the operator, the public, animals, fish, and birds.

When applications are followed with sufficient irrigation, either by natural rain fall or client watering, the chemical will move through the thatch layer quicker, providing optimal control.  The effectiveness of this application will be non-effective until water has been applied.  This application will not harm pets once the chemical is activated by rainfall or in small quantities.

During the month of August an insecticide application should be made for the pre-emergent control of White Grub Larva.  Soil checks should be made every two weeks during July and August for the presence of grubs.

More Detailed Information

Grubs are the larvae of Scarabs, a stout-bodied beetle with bright metallic colors. They have distinctive, clubbed antennae composed of plates called lamellae that can be compressed into a ball or fanned out like leaves to sense odors. The front legs of many species are broad and adapted for digging.

Grubs are white or yellowish and have fleshy, wrinkled, C-shaped bodies with tan or brown heads and six spiny legs. They are quite small upon hatching, but at maturity are from 3/4 to 1 1/2 inches, depending on the species. June beetle adults are shiny reddish brown, up to 1 inch long. The adult European Chafer is light brown or tan and is about 1/2 inch long. The adult Japanese beetle is metallic green and bronze and less than 1/2 inch long. 

If you have Japanese beetles in your lawn, you will have better luck treating them in the late summer or early fall. During the fall they molt and over the winter they slowly turn into adult beetles,  emerging in the spring time as adult Japanese beatles, ready to start the cycle all over again. Your optimal window for killing white grubs is when they are in the grub stage of development. Insect growth regulators used to control grubs should be applied right before they start to molt, preventing them from becoming adults and reproducing.

Some of the well-known beetles from the Scarabaeidae are Japanese beetles, dung beetles, June beetles, rose chafers (Australian, European and North American), rhinoceros beetles, Hercules beetles and Goliath beetles.