Landscaping is making changes to a piece of land to improve its appearance, viability, and value. It can involve altering the architecture, plants, and exterior design of an area. Landscaping is commonly confused with gardening. While the two are similar, gardening focuses on maintaining plants and flowers, while landscaping refers to designing and cultivating an entire area.
Benefits of Landscaping
From boosting your home’s property value to providing environmental benefits and lowering your energy costs, landscaping has wide-ranging benefits.
Increases Home Value
Homeowners are always looking for ways to improve the resale value of their homes, but home remodels and square footage additions may not always be in the cards. Fortunately, landscaping is a great way to boost value without breaking the bank! Homes with landscaped yards can sell for as much as 12.7% more than those without landscaping. Well-groomed yards can also help sell your home faster by making a strong first impression with homebuyers. In fact, 94% of realtors advise clients to improve the curb appeal of their home before listing.
Good for the Environment
Did you know landscaping can impact air quality? Adding one tree alone can remove 26 pounds of carbon dioxide a year. Not to mention, lawns can keep 12 million tons of dust and dirt from being released into the atmosphere annually. Planting trees, shrubs, and flowers also create more oxygen and reduce soil erosion.
Reduces Energy Costs
On average, a well-designed landscape saves enough money in energy costs to pay for itself in eight years. Strategically planting shrubs and trees around your home can save you up to 35% on air conditioning costs and cut heating bills by 10-25%.
Extend Your Home Outdoors
Landscaping can make way for outdoor living spaces like patios, outdoor kitchens, gardens, pools, and more. Though these spaces don’t count toward additional square footage or livable space, they are an extension of your home and allow you to better utilize your property.
Before you dive into a landscaping project, it’s good to have a plan. Once you’ve determined what landscape design elements you’d like to incorporate into your yard, you can start to see the project scope, budget, and timeline. This will help you decide whether to do it yourself or hire a landscaping company.
DIY Landscaping
Maybe it’s just adding edging around the shrubs in front of your house or creating a stone path through your backyard. If your budget is limited and your landscape needs are smaller, a DIY landscape project may be the right solution for you.
DIY landscaping has several advantages. You can save money doing it yourself, as you won’t have to budget for labor and consultation hours on top of the necessary materials. You can also work your landscape project around your own schedule, meaning you won’t be waiting on anyone but yourself to get the work done. Of course, the DIY option has disadvantages, too. You’re responsible for determining and plotting your landscape design. You have to gather the necessary materials and you may not get the same prices that a landscaping company could get on bulk supplies. Not to mention, it’s easy to underestimate how much time and effort even small landscape projects require.
Hire a Landscaping Company
If your green thumb isn’t strong, you don’t have the time to invest in a DIY landscaping project, or you have a large-scale landscape design in mind for your property, hiring a professional landscaping company is a smart choice.
What’s great about hiring a landscaping company is you have professionals working on your yard. Not only do they work with you to plan your design and set project timelines, but they also have a team to execute your vision so that you’re not doing the work yourself. And while landscaping companies can be a good option for all project sizes and budgets, they’re especially helpful with bigger landscape needs.
But hiring outside help can have its drawbacks as well. In many cases, hiring professional landscapers comes at higher cost than the DIY route—you can even run into situations where you end up going over your budget as project scope, materials, and hours change. In addition, you could encounter weather delays, company staff changes, and other unforeseen work interruptions that can change your timeline.
If you’re thinking about hiring a professional company to do your landscape design, be sure to shop around, research companies, and check online reviews. This can help you find the right professionals to help you with your project and stay within your budget and on your ideal schedule.
Basic Landscape Design Elements
Thinking about what landscaping you want on your property? Though you’ll probably have your own unique ideas for how you want your yard to look and what features you’ll want to highlight, there are a few simple architectural elements you’ll want to incorporate into your landscape.
Line
If you’re looking for ways to make your landscape stand out, emphasize lines in your design. Lines create focal points with landscape objects like a water feature or flower garden by naturally creating pathways for the eye to follow. Whether it’s a perceived line (i.e., several objects in a row leading to a location) or a physical path or walkway leading to the feature, lines provide direction for your landscape design.
Form
Form helps you achieve your desired landscape aesthetic by highlighting the three-dimensional elements of objects to create a visual theme in your yard. Looking for a more welcoming, cozy feel? Rounded plants and curved walkways give your landscape a sense of fluidity that feels more intimate. Or maybe you’d prefer a more traditional, formal look? Rigid structures and straight lines can convey formality and provide clear distinctions between outdoor spaces.
Color
One of the most important design elements is color, which helps set the mood for your landscape design. Warm colors such as red, yellow, and orange create excitement and make objects feel closer. On the other hand, cool colors like blue, green, and purple offer a more tranquil feel. You can use colors in unity to convey an overall look or in contrast to create depth and separate different areas of your yard.
Texture
Most commonly used in gardens, texture adds variety and visual interest to your landscape. Stems, leaves, trunks, and flowers all have different textures (i.e., coarse, medium, fine, heavy, light). Similarly, pavements, water features, and other hardscape materials incorporate different textural elements into the look of your yard. You can even mix different textures to create depth and balance in your yard.
Reasons Why Landscaping Is Important
Landscaping is when trees and other plants are brought in to create an area of beauty, whether it’s in a quiet neighborhood or a bustling city. Today, you can find impressive landscaping projects in the form of rooftop gardens, urban pocket parks, and backyard oases. Landscaping isn’t cheap, so why is it worth investing in? Here are reasons why landscaping is important:
· Landscaping preserves the environment: Sprawling cities hurt the environment. We know the negative consequences of deforestation and shrinking green spaces. Landscaping provides an opportunity to preserve and protect the environment. Planting native flora, avoiding chemicals, and addressing environmental problems keep green spaces healthy and thriving.
· Landscaping helps manage soil pollution: Factory pollution is one of the most serious types of pollution. The areas around factories are poisoned by toxic waste, chemical spills, and emissions. Simply getting rid of all the factories isn’t feasible at this point. Landscaping can help mitigate some of the issues. How? Plants purify the soil contaminated by factories.
· Landscaping helps clean the air: Plants clean the air as well as the soil. Trees are especially effective at this purification. The world’s forests absorb around ⅓ of global emissions each year. Tree leaves (and the leaves of all plants) absorb pollutants like smoke, ozone, and nitrogen oxides, filtering them from the air. Cities can purify polluted air by adding more landscaping. Landscapers need good plans in place. Not any plant will work. The best trees will have large leaves. Planners also need to consider factors like water availability, spacing, and wind patterns.
· Landscaping helps with water management: Water may be a sustainable resource, but it’s not limitless. It needs to be managed carefully. Landscaping can help. By prioritizing water drainage solutions, landscapers protect natural waterways, create rain gardens, and rejuvenate wetlands. Wetland-friendly landscaping is important because wetlands are endangered. These areas encourage biodiversity, purify storm water, and control floods.
· Landscaping creates a cooling effect: Cities can get very hot, creating what’s known as “heat islands.” This is when the temperature in the city is much warmer than in nearby rural areas. The presence of concrete, cars, and other human activities are responsible. To stay cool, people run their air conditioners more. Trees are nature’s air conditioners. They reduce the temperature in a heat island. On a summer day, a backyard with trees will be 6-degrees cooler than a yard without trees. Even when you aren’t directly in the shade, the surrounding temps go down. This means people will use their air conditioners less, significantly reducing emissions.
· Landscaping stops erosion: Erosion is a serious issue. It leads to increased pollution and sedimentation in rivers and streams. Waterways get clogged, which kills fish and other species. Erosion also destroys fertile land and leads to more flooding. Landscaping, especially grass and shrubs, hold the soil together with their roots. Landscaping that prioritizes erosion issues and water management keeps the problem at bay.
· Landscaping plays a big role in sustainability: Sustainability is so crucial that good landscapers prioritize the health of the environment. They are at the forefront of techniques and innovations dealing with energy efficiency, clean water, clean air, and more. In the journey to a healthier, more sustainable world, landscapers are important.
· Landscaping improves peoples’ mental health: Studies consistently show that being in nature is good for a person’s mental health. It can improve their memory, reduce stress, and boost feelings of happiness. Nature is so powerful that something as small as one tree or a single houseplant can improve mental health. In our world today, there’s a mental health crisis. Landscaping can play an important role in healing.
· Landscaping adds value to an area: Landscaping is not only good for the environment and peoples’ mental health. It also adds value to an area. It’s no secret that when someone is selling their house, their landscaping affects the asking price. In cities, beautiful parks and green spaces attract tourists and visitors. Good landscaping also encourages surrounding houses and areas to step up their game.
· Well-maintained landscaping protects homes and buildings: The presence of plants and trees is worthwhile, but there’s a balance required. If left to her own devices, Nature will take over. For homeowners, this can be a serious problem. The roots of trees and plants can damage the foundation of a house and get into the plumbing. Overgrowth from branches can also cause issues, though these are usually easier to spot quickly. For nature and humans to live in harmony, healthy maintenance is necessary. Landscapers that value environmental health and sustainability will work without hurting the greenery.
Precautionary Measures to Take before Moving Forward with Landscaping
Now that you know more about the benefits of landscaping, you’re probably ready to call up some experts now and have them get started on your property. Before you do that, though, it helps to take a few precautionary measures that will ensure that the landscaping project goes well.
Work with the Real Experts
Landscaping is not cheap. Homeowners with large properties may spend thousands of dollars to bring their vision to life. Considering the boost in property value you’re getting from landscaping, and the other benefits that come from it, you can easily justify the cost of the project.
Paying a significant amount of money for landscaping is certainly preferable to hiring cheap workers who may do a shoddy job. Aside from wasting your money, those workers may also do damage to your property that may be more expensive to repair.
Save your property from damage and yourself from headaches by going to the renowned professionals any time you need landscaping work done.
Know the Landscaping Limitations in Your Area
It’s your property, and you want it to be identical to the paradise-like vision you have in your head. There’s nothing wrong with being meticulous, but you must be realistic. Not every element you want present in your yard may be a realistic addition. The climate is always an important consideration. Certain plants can only grow in specific conditions, and you need to be cognizant of that.
If there are strict zoning laws in your neighborhood, they may forbid you from putting up structures you want. Before pushing forward with your landscaping plan, make sure that it is a realistic one to save yourself from future disappointment.
Reserve Plenty of Time for the Landscaping Project
In a rush to get their properties ready for the summer season when they intend to have guests come over, some homeowners may demand that workers finish the landscaping project in a few days. That’s often not a reasonable request. It can take weeks to complete a landscaping project, especially if there’s plenty of ground to cover and transform. Plan ahead and schedule work on your property to start well before you intend to welcome guests so that the project can be completed properly.
Call the Landscaping Experts in Your Area Today
Landscaping is a big undertaking, but the payoff is huge. By investing in landscaping, you can turn an otherwise unremarkable property into one that stands out as the jewel of the neighborhood.
TruCo Services is a full-service landscaping and snow removal organization that can handle every aspect of your project needs. Our teams of professional irrigation technicians, landscapers, licensed fertilizer applicators, certified arborists, and top-notch management staff deliver quality services that you'll be proud to showcase at your home or business.
Truco Services, Inc.
4640 Commerce Drive
Murray, Utah 84107
(801) 466-8044
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