These are more self-imposed rules than principles, but:

1. Determine with the clients whether they want their landscape/garden to remain "the same" from year to year (e.g. shrubs, trees, beds kept looking pretty much uniform, always), or whether they want "evolution" (e.g. trained new growth in shrubs and trees, new colors, additions of new perennials, beds and/or ornament). Gear your maintenance tasks and project calendar accordingly.

2. Don't mess with the owners' garden tschotchkes (knickknacks) or spontaneous plantings no matter how much you think they detract from the garden. If something looks terribly out of place, use diplomacy to try and get the client to let you make a change but don't push it.

3. Don't plunge with abandon into a weed patch until you have inspected it for nettles, poison ivy and yellowjacket nests.

4. Never use a pesticide or other chemical on a client's garden that you wouldn't use on your own. Try to find organic solutions to pest/disease problems before resorting to synthetics that don't break down and/or which pose a threat to native flora and fauna and necessary soil microorganisms.

5. Keep your cool and suppress your ego when the lovely garden you installed and maintain is constantly "amended" by the owners with the aforementioned tschotchkes and odd plantings. It's their little piece of paradise. Once the garden has been designed and put in place, our job as maintenance gardeners-horticulturists is to keep it healthy and well groomed, but not be the Fashion Police. Personally, I just got home and reorganize my own garden tschotchkes to make myself feel like I have total control over at least a small patch of the universe.

Inspect ALL patches for yellowjackets/evil plants- I got stung cleaning up daylillies, and at another property, the daylillies are full of poison ivy.

Another one for me-

Check the area from the owner's view- raised containers near a dining/seating area need to look good from a side view, not just how you see them as you walk past. If there are high stairs to the entrance, be aware of the view- more will be visible from there than to you at groundlevel.

1. Keep your power equipment maintained and use it safely.

There are others?

#1. Don't ask for things that you do not have the physical or financial commitment to maintain.

#2. Commit to the maintenance of what you want out of your landscape.

#3. Don't complain about the condition of your landscape if you asked for certain things without the resources and/or commitment to keep them up.

#4. Don't overestimate the availability and skill level of the landscape maintenance services in your area.

#5. Don't underestimate what your service provider has to pay for his help and realize that it has to be recovered along with all the rest of the annual overhead in a seasonal business - price per hour.

#6. Don't overestimate how much work will get done in an hour.

laag, it's interesting that your "principles" are for the buyer of services as opposed to the provider.

Maint. has a major pitfall in that if you are thorough and stay on top of things, the client can start to question whether it's a ridiculus expense because they don't see what you do to achieve perfection. IE, no catapillar damage on the redtwigs = no problem. Never any weeds can lead them to think none grow. Ultimately, those of us who serve part time residents, suffer budget cuts and then are looked at as incapable when the problems become visable.

We start from the point of recommending what it will take for perfection and they buy it for a few years. Then comes the letter that they must cut costs (usually because they are keeping up 3 or more homes) So they go through the contract and say they cut 2 of the 4 hedge shearings and or the see the big numbers with clean ups or mulching and slash those. They show up for vacation and the place just looks terrible, they can't discern that you have provided the services they bought, all they know is they are unhappy. No amount of explaining helps as they don't like you for pointing out that they are at fault. In that particular case, the client called my boss and complained about how I constantly pointed out what was and wasn't in the contract... it was a no win situation.

I lost a client this year because of the same situation, cut us back to every other week and then call all agitated that they are having to weed when they arrive... gosh, there were never many weeds when we get there (because they were doing it before we get in... UGH... Then, they try and save money by doing some stuff but not tell me. I arrive to do the lawn fert and find great green stripes looping around the lawn, clearly he did a fert with a drop spreader! So dammit, I had six bags of product and was not going to stuck for it, they didn't cancel so I went ahead. I'm certain my app masked his mess and they probably thought the resulting beautification was their work... I should have left it! arg I constantly suppress the desire to pull in there and see what it looks like now.

It's always a game and those who play it well do well. A gardening service analog to 'All Creatures Great and Small' could be written by someone who had had a lifetime of helping people with their gardens and estates (instead of pets and livestock).

Yes, I see that I forgot which forum I was in.

Rule #1: Report every problem and how you took care of it.

And report it in writing, or at least e-mail. I saw the owner out walking his dog and told him the irrigation wasn't covering some areas and a head had been damaged in the lawn. Of course, he forgot by the time he got back into the house. I followed up with an e-mail reminder to the wife, and eventually, the irrigation folks showed up. Unfortunately, several of the shrubs I put in this spring are not looking good after totally wilting.

Hire the best employees you can find, treat them like gold and pay them well, educate and train them, let them share in the profits, and keep them for years.

"Hire the best employees you can find, treat them like gold and pay them well, educate and train them, let them share in the profits..."

and they will still leave you and possibly even become your competition!

Yep, that happens all right. The rule still holds and still works.

I'll add 1 thing to the above, assign seniority to your clients based on years under contract. They should always get priority service, especially during the busy season, around the holidays and for special requests.

The only business lesson I've failed to learn is putting too much time into a new client at the expense of existing clients. For some reason new accounts look sexier.

Leave the dance with the person who brought you.