n June 26, 1992, New Way Professional Landscape Services was awarded the achievement award in the category of medium commercial maintenance by the San Diego Chapter of California Landscape Contractors Associations at the Beautification Awards Program in San Diego. New Way received the award for the landscape maintenance it performed at City Scene Homeowners Association.

City Scene HOA is a 334-unit condominium association nestled on a bluff overlooking Mission Valley. The Landscape includes 2.4 acres of tall fescue turf and more than six acres of ground cover and sloped areas.

New Way's award for City Scene HOA was the only award for condiminium or apartment complexes. All the other awards were hotels, shopping malls or commercial projects. Because most of the other entries have a large budget for quarterly annual color replacement, competition was intense. City Scene has no annual color. It uses perrenial color (ivgeraniums) to save the homeowners money on water and plant material.

New Way has worked diligently in establishing a horticulturally sound and aesthetically pleasing environment at City Scene. Scheduling is the basis of

their success. Proper planning, irrigation management, strict scheduling and appropriate application of all chemicals and fertilizers have achieved the desired results.

Close inspection of the plant material

New Way's
commitment to
improving their
project made an
immediate impact. . .

of the grounds on an annual basis, and he praises the work New Way has performed.

Chuck Mosburg, the landscape chairman at City Scene, is pleased with and supports New Way's maintenance program. In his letter of recommendation he writes, "Our association has been pleased with the quality service and caring attitude New Way has exhibited. The grounds have improved aesthetically, and I feel confident with the water management throughout the complex. New Way has addressed all requests made through the landscape committee with professionalism and understanding. Emergencies are handled with quick response."

The contractor who was responsible for City Scene's maintenance before New Way did not follow proper irrigation and water management practices. Landscape architect Jerry Fischer had designed an irrigation program. However, the contractor never incorporated Fischer's program into his maintenance plan. Based on the saturated turf, water seeping from cracks in the sidewalks and curbs, it was evident the irrigation was being mismanaged. Because overwatering had created different fungus and disease problems, New Way had to correct these problems after initial irrigation programming and head adjustments were made.

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These figures truly represent the savings that can be acheived by qualified personnel who frequently adjust the irrigation schedule according to local weather conditions. Other horticulture practices that resulted in the tremendous water savings were: semi-weekly soil probing to check the watering depth and dehatching of the tall fescue turf.

Most of the plant material was in a chloritic condition from overwatering. With proper irrigation management and by placing City Scene on a closely monitored fertilization program, the site became even more green within a month.

Weeds were a major concern because everything from Sowthistle to Bermuda grass was out of control. As soon as the irrigation was properly managed, the weeds were removed, and a schedule for preemergent and chemical applicaiton began.

The next order of business was to address the pruning of the shrubs. Often when a contactor assigns a crew without experience or provides little or no supervision the crew will naturally gravitate to the pruning of the shrubs. Problems arise when natural free flowing shrubs are sheared in the shape of lollipops or squares, while the rear of the buildings were unattended. The unattended shrubs not only caused a maintenance problem, but they allowed the acacias to impede the irrigation, causing run off.

New Way's commitment to improving their product made an immediate impact and was the key to gaining the landscape committee's experience with the previous landscape contractor, trust needed to be earned. Two key ingredients in New Way's success at City Scene have been their proactive stance and open communication. New Way's motto, "Our clients are not loyal to the company, they are loyal to our quality," shows again in this project.