Landscaping is the act of taking care and improving the look of a certain patch of outdoor area. Although it is often confused with gardening in the context of households, it is far more all-encompassing — while gardening often only encompasses plants and trees, landscaping encompasses changes in architecture, design, and greenery of an exterior of a home.
Learning the basics of landscaping or hiring a landscaping agency is not the only key to improving how your home looks but also increasing its value. In this article, we’ll go over what landscaping is precisely, the basics of getting it right, and how it can increase the value of your property.
Landscaping – The Basics
A well-landscaped exterior makes all the difference — sadly, many homeowners don’t know where to begin. There are some basic elements of success that you need to keep in mind if you want to have a well-kept home exterior.
Always Extensively Plan the Landscaping Before You Start
Failing to plan is planning to fail, and this couldn’t be truer when it comes to landscaping. Landscaping is an incredibly complex task that involves designing the exterior, choosing the right elements, deciding on the plants, determining the color scheme, and much more.
Landscaping has many complex elements and getting even a single one wrong can ruin the entire endeavor. For example, you can choose the perfect plants, decide on the perfect garden furniture, and place everything immaculately, but if you get the color scheme wrong, the exterior of your home will look wrong and out of place.
This is why, regardless of whether you plan on hiring a landscaping company or doing it yourself, you should always thoroughly plan your landscaping efforts first. You need to clearly be able to answer the following questions:
- What exactly do you want your home to look like after all the landscaping is done? You have to have a clear vision of what you want. If you don’t understand what you exactly want, your landscaping efforts will be messy, inconsistent, and chaotic. You can always get the help of a landscaping company to guide you through the most suitable options for your home. We’ve done this for a few of our clients and you can see the results of our landscaping saskatoon homes.
- How much money and time are you willing to spend on landscaping? Most home associations recommend you spend around 10% of your home’s value on landscaping spread out over the duration of your ownership. Given the increase in home value, you’ll get, this is a reasonable amount.
- What kind of plants do you want to add to your landscape? The plants you add to your home will determine its character and style — this is a really important decision as some plants and trees will take years to grow, so this is a long commitment, and you have to plan ahead for it.
The Basics of Landscape Design Elements are Essential
There are three basic design elements during landscaping that you need to pay attention to. If you get these three basic elements right, you’ll have a great looking home:
- Color: color is the first thing that catches our eyes, and the exterior of a home is usually a huge mix of various colors from greenery to grey garden furniture to colorful roses and much more. Getting the right color mix in the exterior is essential to increase the curb appeal of your home and its value.
- Form: what kind of form will your garden take? What kind of form will your patio take? Getting the forms of the various elements of the exterior of your home right and making sure they all jibe well together is no easy task, but it is fundamental if you want your home to look great.
- Texture: what’s the texture of the elements of your design? Although often overlooked, texture plays a crucial role in how your garden is perceived, so it pays to give it more attention.
3 Ways Landscaping Improves the Value of Your Property
Now that you’ve learned the basics of landscaping, it is time to understand why it is so important. Landscaping is one of the best ways to increase your property’s value. Landscaping adds anywhere from 5% to 15% to the value of your home, which means an increase of 3K to 30K to your property’s value, conservatively speaking.
So, what makes landscaping such a good way to increase the value of your property? Why do studies show it works? How come people perceive your home to be of higher value after a proper landscaping job? In this section, we’ll go over all the main ways landscaping improves the value of your home.
#1 Improved Curb Appeal
The exterior of your home is how most people will make their first impressions about your home. if the garden isn’t properly maintained and the landscaping isn’t up to the task, people will have a negative first impression of your home even if the interior of your home is incredibly chic and flawless.
One of the most reliable ways of increasing your home’s value and giving off a better first impression is by increasing its curb appeal. And how do you increase your home’s curb appeal? Landscaping, of course.
A great selection of garden furniture, plants, and well-maintained pathways and lines make for an amazing first impression. If you ever want to put your home for sale, potential buyers will be pleasantly surprised when they see how attractive the exterior of your home is.
#2 Increased Interest in Your Property
Related to your home’s curb appeal, landscaping has the potential to make your home look really unique and feel special. Your property will definitely stand out from the rest if you use a professional landscaping service.
Great landscaping will increase interest in your property. And through the basic laws of supply and demand, when demand for a product increases and the supply is stable, the value of that product increases.
After landscaping, you’ll see the same thing play out with your property. You’ll notice that you’ll receive far more inquiries and generate a lot more interest.
#3 Reduces Energy Costs and Makes the Home Look More Environmentally Friendly
Landscaping, and especially gardening, has a significant effect on the environment of your home. There are studies showing that streets and avenues with a little greenery in cities are up to 10-celsius degrees hotter than streets where you have 20% or so greenery.
This doesn’t just apply to streets, but it applies to your home too. During the summer, you would need less cooling if you have a well-kept garden. This isn’t only good for the environment, but it will also cut down on your energy costs.
As climate change becomes a more pressing issue worldwide, more people are putting a significant premium on environmental friendliness. And they’ll pay extra to buy a home they perceive as environmentally friendly. So, this isn’t just a way to help the planet and cut down on your energy consumption, but it is also a way to increase the value of your home.