Attractive landscaping can boost your home’s curb appeal and make it more pleasant to spend time outdoors with additions to your property. This isn’t just an abstract concept, either. In fact, quality landscaping can increase a home’s value by up to 12.7% — a significant influence in any state of the housing market.
The challenge is that DIY lawn and garden care requires a significant time commitment. Even with time, there’s no guarantee you have the expertise to handle issues like weeds, irrigation, plant placement, species choice, and regular proper care. Desired results often require going through several rounds of trial and error.
Professional landscapers can save you from the frustrations of figuring it all out yourself. Not only can they help you avoid the inevitable headaches associated with DIY lawn and garden care, but they can bring much faster results using the best landscaping materials.
These positives are only the start of the benefits homeowners can enjoy when working with landscapers. Here is a closer look at the advantages of working with these pros.
Free Up Your Time
Landscaping takes time. One poll found that the average American spends 32 hours per month working on their lawn and garden. That’s almost one full workweek per month mowing, weeding, watering, and doing miscellaneous tasks around the property.
With professional help, you can have a lot more free time to devote to other things. Also, professionals have the tools and expertise to get landscaping projects done faster. They can handle tasks that might take you hours in a matter of minutes.
At the same time, pros can use software to plan lawn and garden maintenance so they can perform the services you need at the correct time without redundancies or unnecessary work. This high-tech planning can leave your landscaping looking exactly like you want without extra costs, and with planning that gives you peace of mind.
Avoid Costly Mistakes
Whether you work with pros or take the DIY route, landscaping requires an investment. You need to purchase plants, flowers, soil, fertilizer, grass seed, hydroseeding material, paving stones, and other pricey tools like leaf vacuums or lawnmowers to get the look you want — all of which can certainly add up.
Without careful planning or expertise, mistakes are almost inevitable. Here are some of the most common landscaping errors:
- Placing plants or flowers in the wrong area: Most plants require a specific amount of sunlight. Too much or too little exposure will damage or destroy them or make proper development impossible.
- Watering too much or too little: Some plants will drown or develop issues like mold or root rot if they are overwatered. They may also dry out and die without proper hydration.
- Planting invasive species: Some plants may look nice at first. However, they may spread more quickly than your other foliage, taking over the entire yard and depriving every other plant of much-needed sunlight and water.
- Mistiming lawn care: If you attempt to fertilize or kill weeds at the wrong time, the best-case scenario is that the treatment will be ineffective. However, in worst-case scenarios, fertilizers or herbicides will burn your lawn and destroy the existing grass if used incorrectly.
These errors can be costly. You may lose your initial investment and have to repurchase plants or remove and replace burnt grass. Though you have to pay professional landscapers, they are experienced enough to avoid such mistakes. Also, they often get wholesale prices on their plants and products and pass the savings on to you.
Make Your Landscaping Last
Managed correctly, your landscaping can last indefinitely. However, you need to select plants and grass species that can stand up to your climate, and maintain them in the face of issues such as drought, weeds, and pest infestations.
Properly-timed treatments can control or eliminate pests or invasive weeds before they do damage. Resilient native plant species or correct watering regimens can ensure that lawns and gardens survive during droughts. Professional landscapers can help with every aspect of planning and maintaining a garden so that it survives nature’s challenges and continues to thrive long after being planted.
Travel Without Worry
Professional lawn and garden care can give you a great deal of freedom. If you leave for a vacation during the springtime or summer, you could return to an overgrown lawn and a garden getting choked by fast-growing weeds.
There are some steps to prepare your landscapes before your trip, but lawn-care pros can continue their regularly scheduled maintenance routine whether you are there or not. When you return, your outdoor areas won’t require emergency attention.
Reduce Stress
Professional landscapers can help you reduce stress in two different ways. First, they handle the job of maintaining your lawn and garden so you do not have to worry about the sometimes frustrating enterprise of planting and maintaining your lawn and garden yourself.
In addition, nature acts as a natural de-stressor. If you have pleasant natural landscapes around your home, chances are you will spend more time there. Studies have shown that spending time in nature reduces the chances of developing mood disorders, like depression or anxiety, and lower stress. If you have a well-maintain lawn or garden, you don’t have to drive miles out of town to experience the mental health benefits of nature. All you need is to step outside.
Increase Your Home’s Resale Value
As mentioned, quality landscaping can increase property value. While a new flower garden or weedless lawn can increase curb appeal after you list your home, professional landscaping can increase the overall sale price even more.
There are a few factors to consider to get the best return on your landscaping investment.
First, you will want landscaping that is easy to maintain and resilient in the face of any challenges the local climate could produce. Built-in maintenance systems, like a drip irrigation setup, or xeriscaping (landscaping that does not require irrigation at all) could bring the best possible ROI on landscaping projects.
At the same time, water features, such as ponds or pools, and structures like gazebos may not increase property value because they are not to everyone’s taste. Luckily, landscaping professionals can advise you on the best approach to take — many may have a better understanding of popular landscaping trends and recommend certain approaches based on your property.
Make Your Yard More Eco-friendly
Landscaping professionals may also specialize in sustainable landscaping and eco-friendly approaches, and help you apply them to your yard. Sustainable landscaping like wall retainers can benefit the environment in the following ways:
- Landscaping with native plants can reduce or eliminate the need for fertilizer, weed treatments, and watering, allowing the homeowner to have a natural, chemical-free environment.
- With proper planning, this type of landscaping can attract beneficial wildlife that will control pest populations.
- You can also reduce the need for maintenance by landscaping with slow-growing grasses or other types of ground cover, such as clover, which does not require frequent mowing and suppresses unwanted weeds naturally.
Finally, professional landscapers can install water-conserving irrigation systems that provide the necessary moisture to plants without overusing water. Not only is this essential in areas that experience drought, but it can also save you money in the long run.
Support Local Business
The landscaping industry has many small businesses and independent contractors. Supporting these companies helps bring jobs to the community and gives small businesses a chance to thrive.
There are plenty of online platforms for finding local landscaping companies that provide the services you need to create and maintain the natural environment around your property.
If you find the right landscaping company, you can enjoy the benefits of professional expertise without worrying about struggling with lawn and garden care yourself.
