Great Idea: Are You Prepared for Award Season?

The deadlines to submit awards in the landscaping industry are approaching. So, how do award-winners prepare for upcoming submissions?

You'd be hard pressed to find a more highly decorated landscaping company than McHale Landscape Design. They're a perennial favorite with the judges and are consistently recognized for their stunning residential landscape designs, high-quality installations, and detailed maintenance. Their team holds 400+ awards from the Landscape Contractors Association (LCA), National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP), and the American Horticulture Society. But how do they manage it?

They're going to go into detail during our Field Trip at McHale Landscape Design on September 23-24, which we'll host in partnership with the team at NALP. Because of their strong track record in awards, we're dedicating a whole session to the operations behind winning all those awards. As the person who plans, writes, and submits award nominations for Grunder Landscaping Co., I'm looking forward to this session myself. 

You'll learn more about everything they do at the Field Trip, so this week I thought I would share with you what we're doing as we prepare Grunder Landscaping Co.'s 2025 submissions:

1. Identifying which properties to submit.

Each year, the categories we submit differ. Last year, we—the sales team, leadership team, and I—looked at properties that we maintain where we had done significant design-build work within the last three years. I've found that the properties we maintain tend to age, grow, and photograph better than the ones we don't, so we prioritize those for submissions, even if it's for a design-build category. 

Sometimes the choice is obvious based on work done in the previous year or two, which is the case for us in 2025. 

2. When properties are identified, collect photos.

I schedule our professional photographer to take photos of the property, and I ask the sales team to organize and send me any before photos they have. Our production team uploads progress photos in Aspire at the end of each day, so I also pull the property up there to see what we captured that might be usable. 

Some tricks I've learned: I have to be specific with my photographer for the number of photos I need. Many award submissions want to see more photos and angles of a property than what I would typically need just for marketing purposes. When I'm sending him out for a potential award shoot, he takes more photos than usual. 

Getting the right photos is often the hardest part of this process. What's helped has been reminding the sales team to get before photos for ALL projects, just in case. I can always go get more completed photos, but I can't go back in time if we didn't capture photos of our starting point. 

3. Organize your submission.

Before drafting the submission, I like to talk to the team to ensure I have the full story on the client's desires, any challenges encountered during installation, and any changes made to the initial plans. Then, I draft our submission based on the template and requirements provided, usually in a Word Document, and circulate it to the team involved in the project for comments. They review the submission for accuracy and send me any changes they have, and then I submit the award.

These three tricks will only help you if one thing is true: the company does quality work. This is undoubtedly the case for McHale Landscape Design, whose business model is built around delighting clients with high-quality residential work and exceptional customer service. I can't wait to tour their operation, learn from their team during our scheduled sessions, and reconnect with old friends in Annapolis, MD this summer. Will I see you at this year's Field Trip?

Emily Lindley
Content, Events, & Marketing Manager
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.