FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions:
What makes designscapes stand out from other landscape contractors? Read our blog post titled #thedesignscapesdifference for answers to this very question.
Our clients can speak to this WAY better than we can check out our reviews HERE!
designscapes is a full-service landscape company. We offer a wide array of services that can make your property look amazing. The full list of services we provide is located HERE. We can also act as your liaison for other services check out our partners page!
Please visit our PRICING page for a general pricing guide.
Check out our service area page for details on which areas of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia we service.
Payment option#1: ACH Payment
Most of our clients love to automate their recurring expenses. We have made this possible with our ACH system. When the monthly email invoice is set over there is a link that allows you to set up automatic ACH payments. You can set this up for a one-time payment or set it to pay whenever an invoice is created on your account. As an added benefit of using our in-house system, you will easily be able to see all past paid invoices and open balances on your dashboard.
General notes for options 2 and 3:
- Please note unless the invoice number is noted on the check the amount will be applied to your oldest open invoice. We suggest writing the invoice number in the memo section of your check.
- All payments should be made payable to designscapes
- Please mail all payments to 20914 Camp Road, Bridgeville, DE 19933
Payment option #2: Your Bank Bill Pay
Some of our clients like to automate these payments via their bank’s online bill pay system. The option is fine but has a couple of drawbacks. Most banks use a third party to process the checks they send out for expenses you are paying. The money is removed from your account to the third party, so it looks like you have paid, but we have yet to receive the check. These checks tend to be WAY more delayed than what is promised on the bank’s website. This delay may result in you getting a past-due notice from our automated system and much confusion. In addition, any add-on services you had requested would not be automatically added to your check and would need to be manually included.
Payment option #3: Handwritten Check
We are getting less and less of these but some people still prefer to handwrite checks out monthly and mail them in. This is possible.
Payment option#4: Credit Card
We have the option that you can use a credit card for an additional 5% service fee.
Landscape Maintenance Questions:
In most cases, we will get your maintenance services up and running within (5) business days. This mostly depends on the season at which you sign up, the weather and what services are being performed at that time. The best way to know if you have any questions would be to reach out to your point of contact as they would have detailed insight on your upcoming scheduled work.
We work hard to keep the same crew on your property as much as possible. There will be times, say, for example, an employee calls in sick or weather-related schedule change that there may be a different crew that is servicing your property. This is another great reason that you should help us with the specific notes on your property so the communication will be seamless for whoever services your property.
Typically we run (2) man crews of a team leader and another team member. We find this is the most efficient way to service your property. During leaf season and mulch season, we increase the size of the crews to complete the work.
It is important to note that we work hard to put as many notes about your property into our system so that whoever services your property they will know what is important to you.
Communication between client and contractor will make or break this relationship! Only you know the specific details of how you want your property maintained. It is important that you let us know the aspects that matter the most to you when it comes to your property maintenance. We encourage you to set up a meeting with your point of contact so he can update the notes so everyone is on the same page. If you don’t want to meet please write us an email explaining in detail these aspects to Jason Hignutt, Owner. These notes will be added to our very advanced job management system that reminds the crew every time they visit your property for that certain task.
Ironically, most clients hire us to cut their grass but the perception of how good our quality is is based on how weed-free the beds are. designscapes understands this very fact. This is an additional service. These crews have dedicated time to weed your landscape beds every week during the growing season.
This is why part of our basic maintenance package has a three-pronged approach to landscape bed weed management.
We require all beds to be mulched yearly, pre-emergent applied to the beds twice yearly and weekly hand pulling/spraying to keep up with any rouge weeds.
designscapes is a full-service landscape company. We offer a wide array of services that can make your property look amazing. The full list of services we provide is located HERE. We can also act as your liaison for other services check out our partners page!
This is often one of the first questions that gets asked after signing up with our service. While it’s hard to give you an exact day, we can give you the overall thought process for how we determine your service day. In general, we try to service as much of our commercial clients in the first part of the week as possible and have our residential clients coming closer to the weekend. Having said that, we work really hard to be good stewards to the environment and your pocketbook by not having trucks going to service a property when we are not in an area. This means sometimes it makes sense to service a residential lawn earlier in the week to avoid having our trucks run all over creation to get sporadic properties later in the week.
We recommend pruning plant material 3-4 times throughout the year. We have dedicated knowledgeable crews that provide this service year-round. We only prune plants during the correct time of year unless otherwise instructed.
We give every client the option to provide specific notes on how they would like their plant material pruned. These notes get entered into our system so everyone stays on the same page. The more information you give us the better service we can provide.
Mother Nature sometimes likes to play with the scheduled work on your property. We are not meteorologists, but we work hard to pay attention to the weather to make the best decisions possible for your yard. This may mean that we get out to your property a day early/later in the week or do not service your property at all because it would cause more damage than good. As a general rule, we work hard to service all our properties during the work week even if we need to bring over additional crews to make that happen. As you can guess, we are just able to work with what mother nature gives us.
Please note, we do not work weekends. We will pull every string possible to get your services completed within a normal 5-day work week. If for some reason we do not get your services completed in the prior week we will reach out with an action plan moving forward.
Here is a general timeline of how we provide services:
January: Final round of leaf cleanups for the season and start of winter pruning
February: Continue winter pruning and start mulching properties.
March-May: Mulching/Pre-emergent of residential properties
End of March: Start of the mowing season, Irrigation Startup(Temperature dependent)
Mid-April-June: Spring pruning season
July-August: Summer Pruning
End of August: Second application of pre-emergent on landscape beds.
September-October: Aeration & Overseeding, Fall Pruning, Irrigation Winterization
Start of November: End of the mowing season up until Thanksgiving (Temperature dependent), Start of leaf cleanup
December: Pruning and Leaf clean up
As a general rule, we try to mow all properties at 4.25”. In the hot summer conditions, we tend to raise the height of the cut to 4”-4.5” to cause less stress on the turf plants. Prior to aeration and overseeding we will mow turf to 2”-2.5” so the seed has less canopy to fight to get established.
During the growing season:
There are often times when the grass is still growing but some leaves start to fall. In this situation, we either just cut them up, or if there is a good amount we blow them to a bed for later collection during leaf season.
During leaf season: (Late November-Beginning of December- Mid January)
designscapes offers every other week leaf clean up as part of our 4-visit leaf pick-up package. This roughly works out to be once before Thanksgiving, twice before Christmas and once in January as a final clean-up.
Please note that not all leaves will be removed every visit but over the course of the leaf season, all leaves will be removed if blowing in the natural areas is not an option.
Delmarva is one of the hardest places to grow grass on the east coast. Thinking you can set and forget the amount of time on your irrigation system is going to lead to poor results. In general, we try to educate our clients on how to water as you spend a great deal more time on your property than we ever will. CLICK HERE to see how we suggest you set up your system. We can provide services where we adjust your system throughout the season, prices start at $75.00.
Invoices are emailed out on the 1st and 15th of every month and you have until the end of that month to make an on-time payment. Please ensure you add [email protected] to your address book so these emails are received. Your invoices will follow the payment schedule laid out in your signed agreement. If payments are not received within 31 days you will get an automated past due notice every (10) days until the balance is received. If any questions arise about the invoice please email [email protected] with your concerns within the first (15) days. Open invoices past 60 days will result in services being suspended until the balance is brought to current.
Delmarva is the hardest place to grow grass on the east coast. We have the high highs of the summer and the low lows of the winter. There is not a perfect type of grass that can tolerate these conditions. Most lawns in the area are a blend of fescue. The hot summers are hard for the fescue plants and see a great deal of stress leading to a weaker stand of grass. designscapes recommends aeration and overseeding yearly to open up the soil for oxygen, water and to give the seed great soil contact.
We work very hard to ensure we meet all of our clients needs. The needs we don’t meet are mostly the ones we don't know about. Please make us aware of any concerns so we can get them taken care of ASAP. We want to ensure you have “Landscaping YOU are PROUD of!”
End of Contract: If you wish to conclude services at the end of the year contract then all that is needed is a (45) day written notice letting us know that is your intention. All payments laid out in the contract will need to be met for the account to be closed.
Mid-contract Termination: If you wish to terminate the agreement prior to the end of the contract a few conditions need to be met. All services rendered on your property must be paid for in full. A final invoice will be sent that includes a detailed breakdown of the services provided over the current year of the agreement. In addition there will be an early termination fee in the amount of one months monthly payment detailed in the signed agreement. Once these final invoice is paid the account will be closed.
NOTE: The monthly payment you pay is part of an overall contract where the total cost has been added together for the year and divided by (12) to get the monthly payments. The monthly payment DOES NOT directly account for what was done on your property that month. Some months we are contracted to do more work and others we are contracted to do less. This is why we track all the services we provide so we can provide detailed breakdown if early termination is required.
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Service Areas
- Bridgeville
- Seaford
- Laurel
- Delmar
- Lewes
- Rehoboth Beach
- Milton
- Georgetown
- Dewey Beach
- Bethany Beach
- Fenwick Island
- Millsboro
- Ocean View
- Frankford
- Bishopville
- Dagsboro