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Two types of specifications are commonly used in contracts dealing with landscape and revegetation projects: Performance and Prescription.
A performance spec merely states what the final outcome of the project should be, e.g., ...perennial turfgrass cover, three deciduous trees per one thousand square yards, drainage that meets all current regulations and industry standards....
Such a specification leaves the method used by the contractor up to the contractor. Successful completion of work will be judged on the basis of the project's outcome.
Prescriptive specifications, on the other hand, tell the contractor exactly what to do and how to do it. He will have fulfilled his contract if he plants three prescribed trees at prescribed spots in holes of a prescribed depth; a 100 pounds of seed X and 50 pounds of fertilizer Y using equipment Z.
Nothing has to actually grow in order to meet the prescription. Caltrans, however, uses its projects with prescribed specs as a laboratory for monitored experiments. The prescriptions are not simply boilerplate generated by a government computer. Rather, they are carefully designed plans that are closely watched and evaluated by the Caltrans researchers. Conclusions are drawn and new methods and recommendations are devised.
For other purchasers of landscaping services there is often a lack of qualified inspectors to evaluate prescribed methods. In this case a better approach is to use performance-oriented specs. The contractor is left to his own devices but must deliver a finished, growing, healthy landscape, not just go through the motions. With performance specs, the contractor becomes the researcher and is free to develop cost-effective methods that benefit the industry.
Check with Albright for answers that make sense for your clients.

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