Landscaping gives your home personality. It livens up your exterior and is an awesome selling feature when it comes time to put your home on the market. It’s important to coordinate your landscaping with the features of your home including your siding, windows, doors and colours. If you’re starting landscaping on your home, make sure to know 10 of the biggest landscaping mistakes people make!
1. Forgetting Curb Appeal
Many homeowners put a lot of attention and work into their interiors and backyards, but forget about their front yard. Although you may not spend as much time in your front yard, the front of your home is the first impression friends and passersby get of your abode. And if you’re planning to put your house up for sale, curb appeal can drive up the value. You can do small upgrades like painting your door, keeping your grass green and trim and planting flowers to give your interior some life.
2. Not Making a Plan
It will be a lot easier to achieve the garden and landscape you dream of if you have a plan in place. Do research, create an outline, make a list of plants, and create a budget. Without proper planning, you can end up with lackluster landscaping.
3. Choosing the Wrong Plants
Different flowers and plants require different maintenance, so you have to consider what type of shade and sunlight your front yard and backyard get. Do some research before you invest in plants and choose ones that will work best for your landscape, both aesthetically and functionally.
4. Cutting Grass Too Short
It’s important to keep your grass maintained, but cutting it too short can do more harm than good. Cutting it too short can result in a bare patch, letting in insects and disease to your lawn. In the summer, you can leave the blades a little longer to provide shade for the soil, whereas in the winter, you can cut it shorter so the sunlight gets into the soil.
5. Excessive Ornamentation
It’s okay to use a few decorative items for your landscaping, but using too many can make it look cluttered and distracting. Make sure whatever decor you use compliments your plants and home exterior over all. Just don’t go overboard.
6. No Colour Palette
You want your yard to look harmonious in colour. If you have too many colours completing it can look distracting. Choose colours for your garden and landscape that work well together with each other and with the colour palette of your home.
7. Disregarding Functionality
Many people think too much about the look of their yard and don’t consider the functionality. It’s important for your yard to look nice, but think about how you’ll make use of your lawn, as well as your family’s needs.
8. Over or Under Fertilizing
Research the type and amount of fertilizer your plants need and stick to a regular fertilizing schedule. Over fertilizing can burn the root of your plants and make them susceptible to insects and disease. On the flip side, your plants can’t survive without enough fertilization.
9. Obstructing the View from Inside and Out
Be careful where you plant trees and large shrubs. They may end up obstructing your view from the inside as well as hiding your home’s stunning attributes such as your siding or windows.
10. Doing Nothing
Even if you’re not big into gardening or landscaping, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is not doing anything to your yard. Landscaping makes your home inviting and adds value to your home for future buyers when you’re ready to sell.
There you have it, 10 of the biggest landscaping mistakes homeowners make. Steer clear of these blunders and happy landscaping!