You have spent the winter making improvements to the inside of your home. You have refinished cabinets, repainted bedrooms, and recarpeted the basement. Although the inside projects have kept you busy during the winter months, you woke up on this Groundhog’s Day hoping for the folklore that would indicate that winter would soon be over. The fact that the news is reporting that the famous groundhog saw his shadow has you dreading the thought of six more weeks of winter.
In an attempt to calm your nerves and avoid finding another indoor remodeling project to work on you have instead decided to start making plans for a new backyard landscape design. You may not be able to go out and start doing any real work and the seed catalogs have not yet started appearing in the mailboxes, but you are ready to make your plans any way. After a few years with exactly the same landscape design you are ready to do some experimenting and see what you can plan for the area that used to be occupied by the kids’ swing set. With that our of the way, your plans for this summer include new landscape designs in that space, and you might even rework the flower beds in the front of the house.
Your husband likes to be in charge of the general lawn care, but he does not mind if you take care of the landscaping. In fact, when it comes to landscape design he has few requirements. He only asks that the beautiful landscaping that you design allows him a fairly easy way to mow and edge without too much extra work. He loves the look of the finished product, but he really does not need to be a part of the planning.
Home Landscaping Can Improve the Look of Your Home and Add Value to Your Property
Although many people spend the majority of their time making improvements to the interior of their homes, others find great satisfaction in planning for the landscaping of their yard, their flower beds, and other special locations on their property.
While we typically think of landscaping as a way to visually improve a property, landscaping can also improve the environment. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy indicates that energy-efficient landscaping can save as much as 30% on home heating bills. In addition, dense trees can block as much as 95% of sunlight and 75% of its heat. All told, trees can reduce an unshaded home?s summer air-conditioning costs by 15% to 50%. Planting the right kind of landscaping can also help home owners collect and make better use of much needed rain fall. In fact, depending on design, soil type, paving material, and rainfall, permeable paving can infiltrate nearly 70% to 80% of annual rainfall.
Another side benefit of landscaping is that trees can reduce bothersome noise by up to 50% and it can also mask unwanted noises with pleasant sounds, according to The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
In addition to the environmental impact of well planned and well thought out landscaping, these additions can also add color and curb appeal to a property. Some home owners select a color scheme that matches their exterior paint and others go for a wide variety of colors. Either way, a well landscaped yard with color that is blooming all year long will improve the look of your home, and attract buyers who are looking for new homes. Some realtors indicate that well designed landscaping can speed up a building’s sale by as much as six weeks.
Outside of individual residences, landscaping can also improve the appeal of other kinds of properties. For instance, among retirement community residents, pleasant, landscaped grounds were important to 48.5%. In fact, 50.5% of these residents indicate that landscaping is essential.
When the winter weather finally leaves what are your landscaping goals? Do you plan to start a new bed of flowers, or are you making plans to have a garden of vegetables and herbs that your family can make use of for many months? Planning for your landscaping work is the perfect way to pass the last days of cold weather.