When owning a home, you may not feel like landscaping should be at the top of your to do list. The interior items may have higher priority since they have the most impact on you. But landscaping isn’t just mowing your lawn, cleaning up leaves in the fall, or planting flowers in the spring. Landscaping includes designing your space to meet your own needs and adding some visual appeal. Landscaping combines two different elements of hardscaping and softscaping. Hardscaping involves hard materials incorporated into your area, think of patios, decks, or walkways. Whereas softscaping is all your living items, i.e. trees, plants, bushes, grass.
Landscaping has great benefits, including increasing your home value, beautifying your space, the potential to decrease heating and cooling expenses and potential health benefits.
Are you considering a move? Your homes outside design can help separate your home from other competing properties by leaving a lasting impression on potential buyers. When a buyer pulls up, the landscaping will be the first thing they see, and they will be picturing themselves there. You want them to get a good vibe and feel like they could spend their days at your home. Your home’s landscape could be the unique factor that will help get you your sale and you get you a return on your investment.
Even if you aren’t considering a move, creating and maintaining your homes outside design still has many benefits. It helps to set the tone for your home as soon as someone drives or walks by. A beautifully landscaped yard is eye-catching and viewing it is pleasant for neighbors and visitors alike.
A beautiful yard can also help your mental state. If your yard is covered in shrubs and leaves, it may leave you stressed, but coming home to a beautiful oasis that you’ve created for yourself can give you a feeling of peace and lightness as well as a sense of pride. In addition to mental satisfaction, greenery can help with other health factors including producing more oxygen, because grass is a natural air cleaner. You will want to spend more time in your outdoor area because of well-planned landscape. When you are working on a design take note of how you want to use the space, or what maintenance will be needed.
While working on a landscaping design, be sure to consider your monthly bills and how you currently use A/C or Heat. Is there an area of your home that gets a lot of sunlight or is more susceptible to wind? To combat this, you can plant trees in front of windows to cast shade instead of sunlight and therefore keep your room cool. In the winter, a wall of trees can be a great block for wind. These changes will help to reduce your monthly energy expense allowing you to use less air conditioning and heat. The trees can also provide some privacy and even create a noise barrier from neighbors and other outside noises – an added benefit for your home as well.