When you are designing or modifying a landscape, you might have thought of the design, the décor, the lighting, the plants, etc. But have you thought of landscape safety?
Remember that it’s your responsibility to ensure that the landscape you create is safe for all its regular users and visitors. So, you can’t overlook it. Here are a few tips from our structural landscaping company based in Sydney on how to ensure that your landscape is safe.
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No Low Spots in Turf
You should realize that a low spot in a turf can lead to tripping of pedestrians. They may fall and twist their ankle or suffer a worse injury. To avoid that, you need to ensure that all the low areas are filled with soil to level the ground. Seed or sod should be done after that.
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Eliminate Hanging Branches
It is also your responsibility to ensure that none of the branches of your plants or trees grow too low as people may walk into them and injure themselves. You must see to it that the branches are trimmed up and they are always out of the way.
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Make Kids Feel Safe
The next step in ensuring that your landscape is safer is to ensure that the play areas, especially those designated for kids have no harmful elements like nests of ground bees, poison ivy or tripping hazards at the edges of playscapes.
It is also a good idea to opt for kid-safe mulches that have softer edges and resist compacting. You can also opt for rubber mulch. Remember that regular bark mulch often gets so compacted that if a kid falls onto it, it feels like falling onto a concrete. You wouldn’t want the kids to hurt badly, would you?
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Clear Parking Lots and Driveways
If the landscape has out of control shrubs, they may obscure the vision of drivers and lead to accidents. So, you should ensure that they shrubs and tree branches are trimmed in a proper manner to allow drivers to have a clear view.
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Perfect Edging
The edging between the beds and the lawn should always be clear and defined as it will play a key role in preventing pedestrians from tripping.
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Get Rid of Sidewalk Weeds
Another way of ensuring that your landscape is safer is to get rid of weeds that grow in the sidewalk cracks as they can hide the edges of curbs and create a tripping hazard.
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Keep an Eye on Irrigation Heads
According to US based Irrigators LLC, it is a smart idea to keep an eye on irrigation heads as many times sprinkler heads get stuck and protrude a few inches above the ground. They may cause someone to fall or suffer from a foot injury so you should not let them be above the ground for long.
