Having a beautiful house and yard is a wonderful thing — it enriches your daily life in ways that are hard to quantify, but everyone can feel the difference between an unkempt property and a lush and vibrant one.
However, there are also practical concerns to having a well-landscaped yard. You want to improve your property values, if only to compensate for the time and expense of installing such a gorgeous yard.
Sweat Equity Isn’t Too Hard To Achieve
We tend to think that the cheapest and easiest yard to take care of is a simple grass lawn and perhaps an ornamental tree or two. But not only is that quick dull-looking, the lawn is quite high maintenance. Lawns require weekly mowing, lots of water, and regular detaching and fertilizer infusions to keep it looking its best.
But because most homeowners are familiar with the requirements of maintaining a lawn, they are not intimidated. What they are intimidated by is the idea of planting dozens of new plants that they have no idea how to care for and wasting all that time and money.
But once you know a few principles, growing things other than grass won’t be too intimidating.
Step One: Plan For The End Result
Unless you have a fairly sizable budget, you won’t be able to do everything you need to do at once. You’ll need to take it in stages. But you will have to have a plan. You can hire a landscape designer or do it yourself. Don’t just think about plants; think about hardscaping, sculptural installations (like boulders or gazing balls) and what the garden will look like in ten years after everything is all grown up. I can’t tell you how many people plant cute little cedars next to their walkway, only to slowly discover them taking it over.
Step Two: Plan For Low Maintenance
Nobody wants a high maintenance yard, of course. But what low maintenance means will be slightly different for everyone. If you never plan to spend a weekend or two dividing perennials, then you’re best sticking to bushes. If you don’t mind watering, then you’re free to plant thirstier varieties. With the ample rain in Northern Virginia and a generous covering of mulch, most plants will thrive here, particularly if you make it a point to plant native varieties.
Step Three: Execute Slowly
The most difficult thing to learn is patience. The investment in your home’s curb appeal is a long-term one. If you are going to sell quickly, it will be hard to recoup your investment. But if you’re going to install a paver pathway, lighted curbside plinths, or decorative benches under flowering trees, you’ll want everything made as carefully as possible. Cutting corners will only mean you have to fix things later.
All that work will pay off, though, as everyone loves an attractive and well-maintained home and yard. If you’re making plans of your own, give the top rated Northern VA landscaping company, JK Enterprises, a call and we’ll show you some of the possibilities.
