Five Ways to Save Money on Your Landscaping

Landscaping is one of those home improvement areas that will totally transform your home, and you don’t have to break the bank doing it. Landscaping is a very important factor in creating curb appeal and really the overall exterior look and feel of your home.

There are several ways to save money on your landscaping including doing it yourself, proper planning, and figuring out your necessities. With proper maintenance, you will even continue to save for years to come.

Saving money while adding beauty to the exterior of your home is a no brainer and can easily be achieved. Here are a few helpful tips that we have found to save us thousands of dollars throughout our years of homeownership.

DIY Your Landscaping

After the first and second home we built, we decided to get estimates on the sodding and landscaping of our yard. We would have never dreamed of how expensive it was! It seriously put me in shock! We had one estimate on landscaping our new home and it was right at $15,000 dollars. Keep in mind this was very basic landscaping around the perimeter of our house. We did the same landscaping for only $3,700.

There was no way we could have ever afforded the amount they were wanting to charge. So we took it into our own hands just like most things we did at that young age. Well, several years later we are still doing our own landscaping and wouldn’t have it any other way and the best thing about it is, we have saved thousands and thousands upon dollars over the past nineteen years!

Proper Planning

When DIYing your own landscaping proper planning is very important. It’s a good idea to sketch or use a computer program to plan out your design. This will allow you to see what shrubs and plants you will want to use and what looks the best.

How does this save you money? Well, with proper planning you are more likely not going to overspend. If you know exactly what you need in quantity and kind, you won’t be buying plants that you don’t need.

If you are hiring out your landscaping, they will normally do the planning for you. But if you are good at visualizing what plants need to go where, you can do the landscape design yourself. If so, you could discuss a discount and see what kind of deal you may work out with them.

You can even take it a step further and buy your own plants and just hire out the labor. This is a great idea for people who want to be involved, but cannot do the labor.

Shop Around

Shopping around may take a little time, but can save you several hundred dollars. If you have properly planned, you will know exactly what you need and normally how many. This can sometimes even be done over the phone saving you some leg work.

When calling about the plants, make sure you are comparing the same type of plants or shrubs. Also, ask about warranties and return policies in case a plant dies or starts looking really bad.

Buy Only Necessities

When planning, only think about the necessities. This means what do you really need for the bulk of the landscaping and what are the necessary parts to make your landscaping look beautiful. Necessities would be your foundation plants which are mostly evergreen shrubs and trees. This is where the bulk of your money will go into your landscaping.

Buying only necessities upfront will allow you to focus on simpler planning and fewer things to compare prices on. Adding in flowers and smaller plants can be done at a later time.

Proper Care and Maintenance

Continuing to take care of your plants, shrubs, and trees is an important part of landscaping care and will save you money for years to come.

Making sure to water and even feed them plant food every so often is a must. This will keep them healthy and looking great for years to come. Replacing shrubs and trees can be an extra expense you don’t want to do unless necessary.

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