Are You Getting Ready to Update the Landscaping in Front of Your Home?

 

The girls are both gone for the weekend and you and your wife have the gift of a full weekend of time to do with what you want.
In the past years when your teenage daughters went boating and tubing with their older cousins, you and your wife have often tackled redecorating the girls’ room. This year, however, you decided that you would just enjoy the time. On the first night of their absence you went out for dinner and a movie. After sleeping in on Saturday morning, though, you woke up ready to get to work. Instead of working in one of the girls’ bedrooms this time, you have decided to tackle the landscaping in the front of the house. You have requested bids from a couple of different landscapers in the past, but you really like to do outside work yourself. This day’s project is going to start with ripping out the old lilac bushes that have been growing for almost 20 years. The other smaller shrubs will be a piece of cake, but the lilac bushes will take some real effort.
Retaining wall installation will be the one part that you will contract out to a professional group of landscapers, but your wife has agreed to help with the clean up if you do the hard work of getting the old bushes pulled out.
Professional Landscape Design Ideas Can Transform the Look of Your Home
Like the painting on a home or the stain on a deck, the landscaping around your home also needs to be updated. Lilac bushes in front of a home, for instance, might look beautiful for the first five to ten years, but after that point they can lose their luster. Too tall for the front porch railing and too few blooms in the spring, overgrown lilacs, like many kinds of bushes and shrubs will look mangled, not manicured.
Consider these facts and figures about the services that professional landscapers can provide:

• 83% of Americans think having a yard is important.
• 90% of Americans with a yard think it is important that those outdoor spaces are well-maintained.
• 56% of homeowners indicate that they are budgeting $10,000 or more on their upcoming or current outdoor projects that involve professionals.
• 65% of homeowners indicate that they have actually spent $10,000 or more on recent outdoor projects that involve professionals.
• 97% of real estate agents recommend landscaping as a top five home improvement recommendation, indicating that a homeowner can expect a return on investment of as much as 215%.
• 51% of homeowners who are upgrading their outdoor spaces indicate that they spend six or more hours in their yards every week. The top three uses of these outdoor spaces are relaxing, gardening, and entertaining.

You do not have to wait for your teenage daughter’s to go out of town to decide to replace or update the landscaping in front of your home. In fact, waiting to improve the front yard of your home is a mistake that can limit the value of your property.