Small’s Hits The Road

Monday, March 4th, 2013

LandscapingTrees

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Being located in Valparaiso we are less than thirty miles from both Illinois and Michigan. We commonly work out of state and have completed projects in California, Colorado, Tennessee, and, of course, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. When we do these out of state projects there are a lot more variables to consider. For example, we often have to find raw materials in other state simply because of variations in trucking laws. Thankfully we deal with these issues regularly so it is a matter of organization and orchestration.

While working in nearby states we can just use our crews, tools, plants, and materials. When we work on projects across the country we sometimes need to hire labor, rent tools and machinery, and find plants and materials. In Colorado, we brought two crews out to do the job and rented the machinery. In California we found everything there and completed the job by locating and selecting plants and stone materials from various wholesalers and using a local landscaper and excavator to install everything with Nancy’s direction on site. When we are only designing we can just do the work on site using pencils and paper then convert it to digital back at the hotel.

It is imperative to remember when creating designs that different plants grow in different parts of the country. There are variations in growing zones even between La Porte and Valparaiso! With decades of experience though, we have learned how to adapt our ideas to any climate or region. So between aligning supplies, labor and machinery as well as knowing the growing habits of all sorts of plants there are many variables to completing a project out of state. Just another day at the office.

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