Kramer Landscaping

Kramer Landscaping is a landscaping contractor based at 466 Memorial Hwy in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, serving residential and commercial properties throughout Berks County. The company was founded in 1989 by Bret Kramer and has operated continuously in the area since, building a client base that spans individual homeowners, estate properties, business parks and large institutional sites.

Bret Kramer holds Penn State certifications in Plant Health Care and in Lawn and Turf Management, and he is a Licensed Pennsylvania Nursery Dealer and Contractor. That combination of horticultural training and contracting credentials shapes the range of work the company takes on, which extends past routine mowing into planting, grading, drainage and hardscape construction.

The company and its crews maintain more than 500 acres of property across the region. Work has included federal contract projects, airport grounds, large scale business property maintenance, and ongoing care for private homes and estates. Project sizes range from single residential lots to commercial sites exceeding 100 acres.

How the Crews Are Organized

One structural feature that sets the operation apart is the way crews are assigned. Kramer Landscaping runs specialized crews dedicated specifically to homeowners, separate from the larger crews that handle commercial accounts. The arrangement means a residential customer is not competing for attention with a business park contract, and it allows for a more consistent, personal working relationship between the crew and the property owner over time.

The larger commercial crews are equipped and staffed for the scale and scheduling demands of multi acre sites, where mowing, bed maintenance and seasonal work have to be coordinated around business hours, tenant activity and, in the case of airport properties, site access requirements.

Residential Services

For homeowners, the core offering is a weekly maintenance program. Rather than a single service, it bundles the recurring tasks that keep a property in shape through the growing season:

• Mowing on a weekly schedule
• Weed control
• Flower and shrub bed upkeep
• Trimming of shrubs and small trees
• Mulch delivery and installation as part of the program

Beyond maintenance, the company handles landscape installation for newly built homes and renovation of existing landscaping that has aged, outgrown its space or no longer suits the property. That work includes tree and shrub planting and new lawn installation, areas where the owner's nursery dealer license and plant health care background are directly relevant to selecting species suited to the site and soil.

Outdoor Living and Hardscape Construction

Kramer Landscaping also builds outdoor living areas. Construction work covers patios, walkways and retaining walls, built using paver systems or pre-engineered block. Retaining walls in particular often serve a dual purpose on Berks County properties, creating usable flat space on sloped lots while managing how water moves across the site.

Commercial and Industrial Work

The commercial side of the business operates on a weekly maintenance program comparable to the residential one, scaled up: mowing and weed services, bed maintenance, and shrub and small tree trimming across properties that can run well over 100 acres. Current and past commercial accounts have included airport properties and business parks.

Commercial construction landscaping is a separate line of work. This covers new construction landscape installation, new lawn installation on freshly graded sites, and corrections to landscaping installed previously by others. The correction work is a practical specialty, since landscapes installed at the end of a construction project are sometimes put in without regard to drainage patterns, mature plant size or long term maintenance access.

The company groups several additional commercial capabilities under what it calls Commercial Plus+ Services:

• Conforming land to local zoning requirements
• Tree and shrub screening between properties or along boundaries
• Hydroseeding for rapid establishment of ground cover on large or sloped areas
• Erosion and run-off control
• Weed and border plant control

Erosion and Run-Off Control

Erosion and run-off management is treated as its own service area. The approach combines grading with planting, using the shape of the land and the root systems of appropriate plantings to slow water, hold soil and direct run-off where it should go. The company has completed federal contract work in this area, which typically carries specification and documentation requirements beyond those of standard commercial jobs. For developed or recently graded commercial sites in particular, run-off control is often a regulatory matter as much as a maintenance one.

Rough Cut Brush Hog Service

For overgrown fields, vacant lots, unmaintained lot lines and back acreage, the company provides rough cutting with brush hog equipment. This service is available to both residential and commercial clients and is frequently the first step before a property can be assessed, graded, seeded or landscaped. It is also used on an ongoing basis by owners of larger parcels who want unused portions of their land kept down without converting them to maintained lawn.

Service Area and Practical Information

The business is located on Memorial Highway in Fleetwood, in northeastern Berks County, and works throughout the surrounding region. Fleetwood sits along the Route 222 corridor between Reading and Kutztown, which places the company within reasonable reach of Reading, Kutztown, Blandon, Fleetwood, Temple, Oley, Topton and the surrounding townships and boroughs.

Inquiries can be made by phone at (610) 944-1510. Because weekly maintenance programs are seasonal and crew schedules fill as the growing season approaches, property owners considering a maintenance contract generally benefit from making contact ahead of spring. Larger installation, construction and erosion control projects involve a site assessment before any proposal, since grading, soil conditions, drainage patterns and existing plantings all affect scope.

When calling, it is useful to have a rough sense of the property size, whether the request is for recurring maintenance or a one time project, and whether any drainage, grading or zoning issues are involved. That information helps determine which crew and which service program fit the job.