Ways to Save Money on Your Curb Appeal Landscaping

Creating a visually appealing outdoor space can significantly enhance your home’s curb appeal. Whether you’re preparing to sell your home or want to enjoy your outdoor space more, landscaping plays a crucial role in creating that first impression. The negative is that landscaping projects can quickly become expensive. This article explores cost-effective strategies to enhance your curb appeal through landscaping, focusing on understanding landscaping costs, incorporating hardscaping, and considering seasonal changes.

What is Curb Appeal Landscaping?

Curb appeal landscaping refers to the art and practice of designing and maintaining the front yard and exterior spaces of a home to enhance its aesthetic appeal from the street. This type of landscaping focuses on creating a positive first impression for visitors or potential buyers by using a combination of plantings, hardscaping elements, and exterior features. The goal is to create an inviting and attractive outdoor space that complements the home’s architecture and fits seamlessly into the surrounding neighborhood.

Effective curb appeal landscaping not only boosts the attractiveness of a property but can also significantly increase its market value by enhancing its external appearance. It involves careful planning and design, choosing the right plants and materials, and regular maintenance to ensure the home looks its best in every season.

How Much Does Landscaping Cost?

The cost of landscaping can vary widely based on the scope of your project. Minor projects, like adding flower beds, can be relatively inexpensive, often requiring just a few hundred dollars. More extensive projects, including large-scale plantings, the installation of hardscaping elements without DIYing, and major ground modifications, can run into the thousands.

Costs can escalate due to the need for specialized equipment, materials, and labor. Therefore, understanding what aspects of landscaping are most important to you and where you can save money is crucial.

DIY Landscaping

After the first and second homes 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 20,000 dollars. Keep in mind this was very basic landscaping around the perimeter of our house. We did the same landscaping for only $4,700.

There was no way we would pay the amount they quoted on our landscaping, 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 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 twenty years!

Use Hardscaping to Save Money

Incorporating hardscaping into your landscaping plan is a great way to add interest and functionality to your outdoor space while also potentially saving money in the long run. Hardscaping refers to the non-living elements of landscaping, such as paths, walls, and patios. These elements require an initial investment but typically less maintenance over time compared to living elements, which may need regular watering, pruning, and replacement.

To save money on hardscaping:

• Choose cost-effective materials: Opt for materials that are readily available and less expensive. For example, concrete pavers can be a more affordable alternative to natural stone.
• DIY when possible: Some hardscaping projects, like installing a simple pathway or small patio, can be done as DIY projects to save on labor costs.
• Incorporate multifunctional elements: Choose hardscaping features that serve multiple purposes. For example, a retaining wall that also offers seating.

Proper Planning

When DIYing your 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, trees, 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.

Consider the Seasons

Seasonal changes can significantly impact the appearance and maintenance needs of your landscaping. Planning your landscaping with the seasons in mind can help you save money and ensure your outdoor space looks great year-round.

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 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.

Our Favorite Landscaping Tools

Henry’s favorite tool is this garden spade which he loves to use when creating a nice edge around a flower bed. He also enjoys trimming the bushes with this cordless trimmer.

My favorite thing to do when working out in the yard is to pull weeds. This four-claw garden weeder makes pulling those weeds so much easier and even fun!