4 Elements of a Great Landscape for Your Retail Store

Creating a good retail store location requires many elements. You have to give attention to everything from meeting ADA rules to the appearance of detail work on your doors and windows. And one aspect that often gets overlooked is landscape design. Whether your business has a lot of landscape to work with or just a little, the design can still have a significant impact on how your business appears to others. 
How? Here are a few key elements that will improve its impact.

1. Heavy-Use Design

Unlike residential landscape design, retail property has to accommodate a lot of people coming and going. At its most basic, the landscape must not deter customers by impeding pedestrian, vehicle, or bicycle traffic. It also must not be placed where it will block anyone’s view for safety purposes or hinder the visibility of the store’s signage.
But what you plant must also stand up to trampling by dogs, kids, pedestrians, and equipment. If you want people to be in the landscaped area — such as in the outdoor patio — it will need to be hardy as well as safe for children and pets. Even if you don’t expect people to walk in the greenery, the reality is that some will. So you should take that into consideration in the design.

2. Seasonal Attractiveness

Climates like Arizona’s can suffer from great swings in temperature and weather. So your landscape plan will need to look good under the heat of the summer sun as well as when the temperature drops. A green strip planted with a bunch of inexpensive annual flowers might look great during the mild sunny months. But it will quickly die out and turn unattractive when hit by a cold snap or an extreme heat wave.
The best way to create a good look all year around is to work with an experienced local landscaping service that knows the climate and can design a four-season plan.

3. Ease of Maintenance

If you don’t have a lot of time or money to put into landscape maintenance, your choices need to be easy to care for. A bunch of exotic flowers would certainly draw attention to a store that wants to project a colorful, global personality. But keeping those fragile, often-finicky plants happy and healthy takes time, energy, and skill. If you don’t have the means to do that, talk with a landscape service about easier options.
To create something beautiful and easy to keep that way, for example, landscape experts stress the value of using native plants that naturally do well in your region. A strategic irrigation system also increases success. And you’ll need a plan for keeping unsightly weeds away on a regular basis.

4. A Lighting Strategy

Have you given thought to how an outdoor lighting plan can boost the look of your business in daytime and nighttime? A lighting plan is more than just putting in enough lighting to keep people safe on the sidewalks. It might involve up-lighting trees, wrapping trunks and hardscape features with string lights, using LED and fiber optic lights, or highlighting particular garden groupings.
A quality outdoor lighting system will draw attention to the store. It should identify the best lighting for your signage. It takes into consideration effects of shadowing and colors on buildings and signs. And it uses specific light styles to create the right personality for each space.
To create an effective landscape around your store (or stores), each of these elements must be planned carefully. Need help finding the right plan? Start with a visit to Sunburst Landscaping today. Our local landscaping pros will work with you to design outdoor elements that will beautify your business no matter what challenges it faces.