As a homeowner, you should understand the importance of cleaning, maintenance, and repairs. From cleaning your home's exterior siding to replacing a broken shingle on the roof, these tasks are imperative for your home's appeal and value. Unfortunately, many homeowners do not realize how their landscaping affects their home. Considering good landscaping can increase your home's value 28 percent, ensuring your lawn, trees, shrubs, and flowers are healthy and attractive is essential. By utilizing one or more of these landscaping trends, you can easily improve your home's look and total value.
Sustainable Plants
From recycling and carrying reusable shopping bags to driving a hybrid car, there are many ways to live an eco-friendly lifestyle. Thankfully, your landscaping can also become a key part in your green lifestyle. Conserving water and energy using different plants and materials should be more than just a trend, and it is becoming a popular way of life.
To get started creating a sustainable landscape, choose plants that are drought resistant. Bermuda grass not only requires less water to maintain but also thrives in the heat and sun. For color and texture around your landscape, plant the drought-resistant coneflowers, hydrangea, and lavender.
Creating shade around your home by planting trees is also a smart option for living green. Install shade-producing trees on the west, east, and northwestern sides of your house to block the heat from the summer sun. This can reduce your cooling costs by up to 35 percent. Here are a few shade-producing, fast-growing trees to consider for your landscape.
Lastly, your landscaping can become sustainable by your reducing the grass around your home. Your lawn requires a great deal of water to ensure it remains green and lush.
To reduce your grass, create natural areas around your home. Fill areas with pinestraw or mulch and add a few of the above drought-resistant plants. Arrange outdoor furniture in these natural areas as well. Natural areas reduce the amount of watering that you need to do, but they also add appeal while creating an outdoor living area for you and your family.
Edible Plants
Adding a large garden is a trendy and smart option for your landscaping. Consider replacing a plot of your lawn with a functional garden. An edible garden is not only appealing but also useful for your family.
Many people are choosing to grow their own fruits, vegetables, and herbs to ensure their family eats healthy and organic foods. Not only will your garden improve your family's health and home's value, but it will also reduce your monthly grocery bills.
Of course, you most likely cannot fill your entire yard with an edible garden. So choose an area of your yard that offers the following:
Water Features
Your landscaping should include numerous plants, but you should also incorporate a water feature into the design. The sound and sight of water is not only appealing but also proven to be relaxing. Incorporating a water feature into your yard will make your space more attractive, inviting, and peaceful.
Consider a simple freestanding fountain, which can be found in a variety of home and garden stores. Or, hire professionals to install a small pond or rock waterfall in your landscape. Surround the space with lounge chairs so you and your family can entertain and relax outdoors.
Protecting your home's value is possible with maintenance and periodic updates. With these landscaping design trends, you can easily improve your home's look and value.
Share8 November 2016
About a year ago, I realized that part of the reason the plants in my yard kept dying was the fact that they were planted in the wrong places. I didn't pay much attention to which plants needed certain amounts of light, and it was costing them their lives. Several of the plants were really struggling to live, and it was really hard to see. I realized that if I ever wanted to make things right, I would need to create a landscaping plan that would work well for the natural landscape of my yard. This blog is all about understanding landscaping.
