<p>As a homeowner, you probably care more about your home’s interior design and décor. Well, that’s a mistake most people make, and they fail to understand that landscaping is equally important. In fact, according to the Bankrate, improving your landscape will increase the resale value of your home by a significant 15-20%!</p>
<p>However, online tutorials may not help you achieve an excellent landscape. So, you must invest in professional landscape consultations to get an eye-popping finish. If you don’t know where to start revamping your backyard, keep reading this article for gorgeous landscaping additions that will ‘wow’ your visitors.</p>
<h3>Get Rid of Pests</h3>
<p>In your landscape consultations plan list, inquiring about pest control services must be a priority. Wonder why? Well, your health is the most critical reason for controlling pests in your yard.</p>
<p>According to the Pest World Organisation, rats or mice are responsible for spreading more than 35 diseases. If your family comes into contact with rodent faeces, saliva, or minor bites, these maladies may spread quickly. Shockingly, handling a live or dead rodent may also put you at risk of contracting these diseases. So, to keep your family safe, get rid of rats in your yard.</p>
<p>Similarly, don’t let the size of ticks fool you. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, between 2019 – 2022, the local health departments announced 46,115 tickborne disease cases! Besides your health, pests can destroy your landscape by using your lawn as a food source or bringing grass diseases. Additionally, they can chew your construction materials and fences, exposing you to burglars and weather elements. Therefore, before thinking about landscaping additions, you need a tick control expert to get rid of pests in your yard.</p>
<h3>Grow Lush Landscaping</h3>
<p>Do you remember your science classes when you learned about oxygenation and photosynthesis? Like plants, grass also works with a similar principle of keeping your air clean and oxygenated. Essentially, growing lush landscaping enhances the air quality of your property. For this reason, your landscape consultations should involve turning your lawns into exuberant greenery.</p>
<p>Besides purifying your air, lush landscaping will help to keep your home cool. Your landscape absorbs the sun’s heat and cools your yard through evaporation. As a result, you’ll also notice a drastic drop in your A.C. bills. When your yard is cool, your A.C. will not overwork to cool your home, saving you significant money on your energy bills. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), households spend 2.7% of their income on energy bills. You cut this spending further and channel it to savings or other expenses.</p>
<p>We are not done with the benefits yet. Your lush green landscape also helps reduce soil erosion and clean your groundwater. So, you should ensure your sprinklers are always in good shape to avoid losing patches in your grass gardens. Seeking lawn sprinkler repair means investing in a lush lawn. Rest assured of the dual benefits of a cozy atmosphere and increased property value.</p>
<h3>Add In Stone Decor</h3>
<p>You can use wood, metals, plastic, or concrete when landscaping. But in most comparisons, stones come on top of the rest. One of the many benefits of a stone décor addition is that it will stand the test of time.</p>
<p>However, stone décor may get dirty and defaced without proper maintenance but will always stay intact. Luckily, restoring your stone décor to its former glory requires a straightforward stone service. A stone expert requires a spray, and a hose will work on your stone art to deal with the defects.</p>
<p>Have you considered this: instead of mulch, you could use a stone addition as the base layer of your plant beds? Unlike mulch, you don’t have to replace your rock addition after every two years. It will serve its purpose for a lengthy period.</p>
<p>Additionally, decorative rocks will help insulate the soil. They stabilize temperatures constantly and prevent pests and weeds from spreading to your plants. Rocks also help maintain your gardens by preventing soil erosion.</p>
<p>Here is the interesting bit. Stone décor is one of the cheapest landscaping additions to install and maintain compared to other alternatives. It can go virtually for months without maintenance needs. So, when planning your landscape consultations, add a stone décor expert to your list.</p>
<h3>Add a Water Feature</h3>
<p>Have you been wondering whether adding a water feature is a worthy landscaping addition? If yes, you’ve hit a jackpot of helpful insights. A water feature is a great way to bring the sounds of nature next to your doorstep.</p>
<p>Picture this: After your long work day and busy schedule, you’d like to retreat to an area of comfort to unwind. With a water feature, it’s now possible to make your home a relaxing space by escaping it all and enjoying a relaxing nature’s sound. Besides an unwinding experience, a water feature also helps improve air quality by producing negative ions, making your landscape a refreshing outdoor space.</p>
<p>Nobody wants to come home to annoying neighborhood noises, such as a noisy neighbor or vehicles passing by. After all, your home should be your hidden gem, a space to unwind and hit the reset button. However, the sound of falling water will naturally drown the noise pollution away. By blocking external noise, you’ll be able to relax and enjoy tranquility in your own home. Therefore, when doing your landscape consultations, talk with a water feature expert for a job well done.</p>
<h3>Install a Fireplace</h3>
<p>If you’ve been wondering about a creative way to extend your home’s living space, installing a fire pit is a brilliant plan, enabling you to enjoy your landscape all year round. With it, you can relax outdoors on chilling nights, roasting your marshmallows while sharing scary stories with your family. If you’re an avid reader, you can curl up with an enjoyable book with a warm blanket to read your book. Moreover, you can still use your fire pit space to host outdoor parties or entertain your guests.</p>
<p>A fireplace will add style and ambiance to your landscape, inviting a cozy and elegant atmosphere. Whether you fancy a modern style, rustic, sleek, or natural-looking fire space, during your landscape consultations, you’ll discover that it’s possible to personalize your fire pit to marry well with your surrounding landscape. You can also add comfy seats to enhance your outdoor living space. It doesn’t matter whether you settle for a wood or gas-burning fire feature; whichever is the case, you’ll create a focal point that your family and friends will enjoy. According to Angi, the average U.S. homeowner spends about $2,485 to install a fireplace or wood stove.</p>
<h3>Illuminate Your Landscape with Outdoor Lighting</h3>
<p>Your landscaping upgrade isn’t complete without outdoor lighting. In fact, before heading out for your landscape consultations, you should have a rough idea of how to illuminate your outdoors for that aesthetic finish.</p>
<p>It would be best to upgrade your dull and dark exterior and transform it into an illuminating showcase of your yard’s beauty. Ideally, spotlights and hardscape highlight special features such as patios, fountains, flower gardens, or ponds. Similarly, you can use floodlighting to enhance safety and security while path lighting guides visitors along walkways, paths, driveways, or even stairs to avoid slipping or falling accidents on your property.</p>
<p>Landscape lighting also deters thieves, enhancing your family’s safety at home. What’s more, landscape lighting will improve your overall curb appeal, increasing the value of your property. With a sea of a wide variety of lighting, ensure to choose statement lights that will match the style of your landscape.</p>
<h3>Mark Off Your Property</h3>
<p>A usually overlooked landscaping idea is using landscape borders. They work virtually in any landscape style to tie the various spaces in your yard, direct people around the garden, and separate the grass from the garden. Besides the aesthetical function of making your property look neat, edging keeps plants and materials in their space, preventing them from creeping into the paths or other gardens.</p>
<p>Without edging, your garden will look amiss. You can just tell something is missing. Depending on your tasks and preferences, there are various materials you can use for edging, including stones, metals, and plastic. Similarly, the multiple types of edging installation call for varying effort. While you can DIY these projects with satisfactory outcomes, a professional touch will communicate a different sense of appeal – one that will awe visitors.</p>
For instance, you can hammer pound-in types with a rubber mallet. However, you might need to dig a trench for long edging rolls. This is where fence companies come in handy. Landscape consultations with experts will advise you on the ideal design and materials. For example, galvanized metals last long, flagstone exudes a classic country garden appearance, while bricks make elegant paths. You might also consider holly shrubs to deter burglars and intruders.
<h3>Remove Unwanted Trees</h3>
<p>According to The Washington Post, America is home to 228 billion trees, roughly 30% of the world’s total tree count. A good number of these trees grow around homes, particularly in yards and driveways. While they make the landscape look beautiful and add to the curb appeal, they can also be a nuisance.</p>
<p>That’s true when they grow too close to your house or when they start dying from the disease. Drying trees look ugly, and they make your compound seem unkempt. Such trees are also a safety hazard to you and your loved ones. The only solution is to call a tree remover.</p>
<p>On the other hand, trees too close to your house are a problem for aesthetics and the safety of your home. For example, the root system of a tree like oak can grow up to 90 feet horizontally away from the stem. That’s an issue for the structural integrity of your home’s foundation. You will often see them interfering with your concrete driveways.</p>
<p>You need landscape consultations with a professional tree removals company. An experienced arborist will get rid of the unwanted tree, helping you restore your landscape. They have the machinery to safely cut it down and remove even the most stubborn stumps.</p>
<h3>Improve Your Hardscaping</h3>
<p>Upgrading your home’s landscape isn’t just about the greenery; it’s equally about elevating the hardscaping elements that frame and define the spaces. Driveways, for instance, are often the first point of contact for anyone visiting your home. Upgrading your driveway with durable, aesthetically pleasing materials can significantly boost your property’s curb appeal. But don’t stop there.</p>
<p>Pay attention to the deck, especially the one at the front. Not many homes have such features; adding one would transform your space entirely. There is something that screams ‘luxury’ about having a wooden deck. And it’s not that expensive. According to Forbes, a deck builder would charge you as low as $4,000 for a small one. </p>
<p>Another hardscaping project that would transform your home and set it apart from the rest is a patio. It’s the space to have those relaxed evenings with friends, to host barbecues and dinners. You could go for the classic brick patio or something more modern, like a polished concrete one. To protect it from the elements, you can add a patio enclosure. That way, even when it rains, you can still enjoy the outdoors comfortably.</p>
<p> You can do so much with your outdoor space that you can’t exhaust them. That’s where landscape consultations come in. A professional can help you decide which projects complement your home’s visual appeal without overdoing it.</p>
<h3>Care For Your Current Landscaping</h3>
<p>As much as you want to upgrade your landscape, sometimes all you need is to work on what you have. For example, if you have several overgrown Arborvitae trees in your front yard, you only need to hire a local tree service provider to trim them.</p>
<p>You can also work on your flower garden by adding some mulch. Instead of using too much water to maintain it, you simply reduce evaporation. Besides, water is expensive. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data estimates that the average household uses 30% of its water on outdoor landscaping. Mulch helps you save on that.</p>
<p>Schedule landscape consultations if you don’t have the time or equipment to keep up with all this outdoor maintenance. That way, you get professional help caring for your current landscaping and ideas on upgrading it. They can also provide regular servicing to ensure yours stays in top shape.</p>
There you go, the top additions you should consider in your landscaping projects. Try one or a combination of these suggestions and see the results. You’ll thank us later.