While the bulk of your home’s value comes from within, there is additional value that can be found around your yard. Everything from the state of your lawn to the stones on your walkway can change the value of your home for better or for worse. Landscaping plays a huge role in your home’s curb appeal and is truly the first feature that will either draw in potential homebuyers or deter them. Here are three landscaping upgrades that will add value to your home.
Maintenance Free Garden Beds
Everyone loves the look of a sprawling flower garden complete with freshly trimmed hedges and pristinely manicured rows of endless blooming flowers. However, few people are willing to put in the hours of work that maintaining a massive and intricate flower garden requires. Most homebuyers are searching for a small to medium landscaped area with easy to care for plants and flowers.
Luckily this is a very easy project that most homeowners can tackle on their own. First, choose an area that needs a bit of color and is easily spotted from the road. This could be the area around your front porch, along your walkway, or around the base of a tree in your front yard. When you have found the right spot you’ll need to remove the top layer of grass and then lay down a weed barrier. Now it’s time to add plants and flowers. Choose hardy, easy to care for perennials that are drought and disease tolerant.
Start with small bushes that keep their foliage during the winter. Dwarf evergreen and boxwoods are popular choices among homeowners. Next add in perennial flowers. Colorful flowers can brighten the area around any house and are so popular among homebuyers that over 67% of realtors recommend homeowners plant them before selling their home. Popular full sun varieties are marigolds, daisies, coneflowers, and daylilies. Plant your perennials in drifts of three or five to create a large grouping of a single color. Choose two or three colors to add variety to your garden.
From there you’ll need to add a garden border. Popular options are natural stone and brick. These should be placed around the entire landscape border to create a barrier between the grass and the garden. Finally, cover the entire landscaped area in a layer of mulch. This is a very important step that should not be overlooked. A fresh layer of mulch can add $1,749 to your home’s value at resale. To cash in on this easy landscaping addition spread mulch evenly throughout your garden area so that it covers the entirety of the area but does not become mounded around your plants.
Grow Greener Grass
Yes, everyone has a lawn but not every homeowner has a lawn that can attract buyers and add value to their home. A freshly cut well manicured lawn that has been trimmed, fertilized, and is free of weeds will add over $2,000 to your home’s value at resale. Many homeowners choose to have a lawn service company care for their grass, however if you are interested in going it alone there are easy methods to turn your yard into a lush bed of green. First, start the spring by applying a layer of fertilizer to your yard. You should begin spreading the fertilizer on the outside of your yard and work your way in making sure not to miss any areas.
Fertilizer will deliver a huge dose of nutrients to your yard and in the long run keep your yard free of weeds like crabgrass that thrive off of low nutrient soil. When you have applied the fertilizer you’ll want to let the grass grow until it reaches a height of at least three inches. This will ensure that your yard soaks up all of the fertilizer and gets a good start on its growth for the entirety of the spring and summer seasons. Next, control weeds if you have any. Dandelions, crabgrass, and white clover are common yard weeds that can be easily sprayed with a weed killer.
Once the weed is sprayed and has died you can remove it along with its root to prevent it from returning. Finally, keep weeds at bay and keep your grass growing strong by maintaining a height of three to three and a half inches. This will help your yard maintain its moisture throughout drier summer months.
Make a Path
Your yard is green and your flower bed is blooming, but your front walkway is still an eyesore. If it is cracking or filled with broken bricks or stone it is becoming a safety hazard. Now is the time to remove your old walkway and replace it with a new one. This is a job that you should hand over to a professional who can safely remove your old walkway and put in a new walkway that will look beautiful and last for years to come. Popular walkway materials are concrete, bricks, brick slips and natural stone. Concrete can be stamped, colored, and poured in a straight or a curved path.
Brick can be laid in a variety of different designs and can come in several different natural colors. Finally, natural stone, which is a very popular choice among homebuyers, comes in different shapes and sizes. Stones can be laid in a straight path, side by side, or sporadically to create a free flowing walkway. Additionally, natural stone can be encased by pebbles, mulch, or even low lying greenery for a natural cottage feel.
Landscaping upgrades do not need to be overly expensive or detailed to add value to your home. Maintain your lawn, add in simple landscaping, and upgrade your walkway to boost your home;s curb appeal and value.
