Landscaping Tips To Increase Your Property Value
Getting your house and garden in order before an auction can be a daunting process. If your garden hasn’t seen much care and has been allowed to grow freely, it might seem impossible to know where to start.
Luckily, getting your yard back in order only really requires a couple of simple steps, and doing so will maximise your property’s value in the meantime. While meticulous landscaping can take some time, there are a few simple tricks and investments that can actually be quite quick and easy to implement.
Experienced homeowners have realised that investments into landscaping translate into thousands of dollars of added property value; whether you choose to do it for this reason or simply to enjoy the benefits of a beautiful garden, it’s a win-win situation.
Give Your Garden a Facelift
Get down to basics by giving your garden and lawn a bit of a facelift. Prospective buyers don’t particularly relish the thought of having to completely redo the entire garden, and for good reason. Increasing your property’s value means doing some of the necessary legwork – this will signal to interested parties that the yard is both beautiful and low maintenance.
Your garden maintenance checklist should include the following:
- Soil conditioning
- Mowing
- Weeding
- Trimming foliage
- Decluttering pot plants
- Power washing concrete surfaces
- Cleaning outdoor furniture and furnishings
This helps ensure that your gardens’ best and brightest have a chance to shine, while ensuring that it’s also easier to navigate through. Giving your lawn a refresh like this turns your effort into value, giving you the edge in an auction.
Update Your Grass
Without regular maintenance, grass can quickly become a nightmare, especially when weeds get involved. When regular maintenance just doesn’t cut it anymore, turf replacements are the simplest and most effective solution to getting your lawn back into working order.
Another excellent way to sharpen up a yard and utilise the negative space around trees and plant beds is to cultivate some ornamental grass. These come in a huge variety of price points, styles and colours to suit a variety of needs. Purple fountain grass and red foxtail are inexpensive, and add wonderful splashes of colour and texture to where it’s needed.
Treat Your Soil
Especially during the harsher winter months, the soil will need all the help it can get hanging onto vital nutrients and warmth. It’s been said over and over again by landscapers, but creating and applying your own homemade soil conditioners are amongst the most effective ways to save your lawn. Keep your plants going strong through an environmentally conscious method of waste disposal – it’s the best of both worlds.
All it takes are some organic scraps here and there deposited into a dedicated bin, and given a couple of months, to create nutritious compost. Composts are wonderful fertilisers, reintroducing vital minerals back into the soil, and will help with maintaining strong soil through the harsher months.
Mulches are conceptually and practically similar – all this requires is laying some shredded leaves (or other organic material) over the top layer of a garden bed. One of the benefits apart from keeping the soil moist and warm is that it deprives weeds of the sunlight they need to grow.
Compliment Yard and Architecture
A cohesive visual style demonstrates great vision and planning, and also will be easily identifiable and memorable when compared to other properties.
When facing a renovation to the garden, consider how your yard and house architecture will work together. As a general rule of thumb, traditional homes should have humble garden arrangements. Stalwart options are berry-sprouting hedges lining the perimeters, well maintained ornamental grasses, rich textured trees and garden beds organised in rows.
Smaller homes in inner ring suburbs don’t need to sacrifice appeal at all – in fact they can benefit from a minimalist style. You’ll want dedicated plant beds integrated into the architecture, with plenty of evergreens – flowers and trees alike. Make use of the limited space and inject some colour through growing edibles like herbs and vegetables.
Outdoor Fixtures
Outdoor fixtures can be a bit of added investment and maintenance, but are well worth it to make a property that much more memorable. Hardscaping refers to the addition of man-made features to a garden, and is just as vital as everything else on this list.
Pergolas are excellent for updating back porches, providing both shade and a space for stylish vines to grow. Another fixture to consider is the shade sails which complement pools particularly well, but can affixed to lounge areas to provide the same luxurious colour and shading. Otherwise, adding water fixtures like fountains are great centrepiece additions to any yard, drawing attention and adding a sense of movement.
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