There was a time at the beginning of the millennium, after more than 20 years in business, when Lifescape Colorado focused its passion and creativity on landscape design and construction, its core competencies, and did not continue with ongoing maintenance. For the past three years Lifescape has maintained the “Charm Grows Here” property, a residence for which they completed the design/build work in 2004. Lifescape established a maintenance division in 2011 and the property owners reached out. Lifescape’s efforts were rewarded with ALCC’s Gold ELITE Award for Residential Maintenance.

Colorado Green spoke with Ben Pritchett, garden manager, and Matt Cloud, now director of onboarding and quality assurance, about caring for the property. Cloud likes to say, “Our design/build clients are those we date, but we marry our maintenance clients.”

Eye for detail is essential

“The crew has to focus continually on current site conditions and respond properly. For example, ‘proper pruning’ means doing the work ‘as needed,’ and removing only what is necessary.” Planting and maintaining seasonal color also requires the same attention to detail by the team.

When it comes to pest control, Lifescape uses IPM (integrated pest management) to minimize use of chemicals. Both Cloud and Pritchett say maintaining plant health is the best way to avoid pest manifestations, while acknowledging they have no control over pests in the ecosystems of neighboring yards. So far, there haven’t been significant pest issues.

The standard three-person crew visits weekly over 28 weeks, and they also provide one spring and two fall cleanups. Both admit they are fortunate to have loyal and experienced seasonal crew members. “It took a year or so for them to really get to know the property—the typical learning curve on a property,” says Cloud.

The irrigation system is old and has required repairs. The irrigation crew does three standard visits per season—for activation, midseason monitoring and winterization as part of the maintenance contract. Adding more annuals prompted adding new irrigation zones, which fortunately, the system could accommodate.

A new owner has taken over the property but to Lifecape’s delight, continues to use this team for its maintenance purposes! (Read the full article in Colorado Green magazine.)