Over 5 million pre-existing homes are sold in the United States each year. If you are a first-time homeowner, you are probably a bit overwhelmed with all of the design possibilities at your fingertips.
Renting a home severely restricts your ability to alter your surroundings. Owning a residence means that you can change anything on the inside or outside of your home to fit your tastes.
If you are like most homeowners, spending time outside is something you love to do. With a few basic landscaping techniques, you should have no problem transforming your backyard into an oasis.
For some homeowners, working with professionals on improvement projects like this is a must. Getting a bit of professional guidance is a great way to avoid making mistakes.
The following are some of the things you need to do when trying to transform your backyard into a calming and beautiful sanctuary.
1. Basic Landscaping Starts With Choosing the Right Trees and Plants
The first thing you have to do beautify your yard is to choose the right trees and plants to use. While this may sound like a relatively easy job, it is anything but.
Ideally, you want to choose trees that will keep their leaves and needles all year long. This will help to ensure these trees provide the cover and color you need year round.
Most homeowners use evergreen plants around their home. Placing these plants in the front corners of your residence can help to soften the vertical lines your home’s architecture has.
Are you in need of some guidance regarding what plants to use in your yard? If so, be sure to check out the GreeneryGuide website for some helpful information.
2. Don’t Forget to Use Walkways
Do you have multiple points of interest in your landscaping design? Rather than letting these points stay by themselves, you need to use walkways to connect them all.
In order to create appealing and functional walkways, you will have to use bricks and stones. There are a number of decorative brick and stone options on the market. This means you should have no problem finding a look that suits your existing outdoor d?cor.
By matching the brick or stone with the outside of your home, you can make them more appealing. If you aren’t up to the challenge of constructing these walkways on your own, call in professionals to lend a hand.
3. Keep It Simple
One of the biggest mistakes that most homeowners make during the landscaping design process is over-complicating things. While you want a nice looking yard, you need to avoid making a design that is impossible to maintain.
If you are operating on a tight budget each money, you need a landscaping design that you can keep up on your own. Also, when the time comes to sell your home, you want to show prospective home buyers that you have a design that is easy to maintain.
Some inexperienced homeowners will be unable to come up with a reasonable landscaping design on their own. Instead of stressing out over this task, you need to hire experienced landscapers to help you out.
A professional landscaping company will be able to take into consideration factors like your needs and budget before suggesting a landscaping design.
4. Pruning and Shaping is a Must
Do you have a number of existing trees and shrubs in your backyard? If so, you may be surprised at how much a little tree pruning and shaping can do to your level of curb appeal.
If the trees in your yard are overgrown, it can lead to lots of problems in the future. The heavier the foliage on your tree branches becomes, the higher the risk will be of the limbs snapping.
Generally, hiring an arborist to prune and shape your trees is the best course of action. They will have the equipment and the knowledge needed to get this job done the right way.
5. Mulch Your Garden Beds
Adding more appeal to your backyard can be easy when putting fresh mulch in your garden beds. Not only is fresh mulch appealing, it can help to increase the health of your plants and soil.
Often times, homeowners will use either chipped or ground bark as their mulch of choice. This type of mulch is inexpensive and will last for a long time to come.
Before you lay down a fresh layer of mulch, you need to get all of the weeds out of the garden beds. Once you have done this, water the garden bed thoroughly.
Finish this job by adding about a two-inch layer of mulch to each of your garden beds. Once you have this layer of mulch down, you may want to put some water on it to seal it up.
6. Focus on Making Your Grass Healthier
One of the first things most people will notice about your yard is the condition of the grass. If your grass is looking a bit brown and lifeless, you need to work on getting it healthy.
Doing things like fertilizing your lawn can make it look more full and green. You should also work on pulling up any weeds that may exist. While this will take a great deal of time and effort, it will be worth it.
Need Some Professional Landscaping Help?
With the right basic landscaping and maintenance, you should have no problem increasing the beauty of your lawn. Often times, you will need to hire professionals to help you complete this work.
Are you looking for some landscaping design ideas? Check out our blog for information on how to bring your home’s exterior to life.