A home is your biggest investment and looking after it is more than about how it looks. Home improvements such as a new roof, gutters, or siding can boost resale value should you put your house on the market in the future. But in the meantime, cost-effective landscape design can increase your property’s value.
Enhanced Curb Appeal
Your home’s exterior is the first thing visitors, passers-by, friends, and family see when they drop in for a catch-up cup of coffee or return home from soccer practice. Landscaping plays an important role in enhancing your property’s curb appeal. Small transformations can have a big impact. Budget-friendly ways to enhance curb appeal with landscaping are:
- Use shrubs to frame your front door
- Place container gardens in predominately green areas to provide a pop of colour
- Update outdoor lighting with spotlights, floodlights, or recessed lights to make stairs safe
- Apply mulch to garden beds
- Visually separate the lawn from pathways and garden beds with smart edging
Sustainable Landscaping
Sustainable landscaping, a top priority for homeowners and homebuyers, is the practice of designing and maintaining landscapes that reduce environmental impact. Basics for switching from a traditional landscape design to sustainable landscaping include strategic tree placement and swapping annuals for perennials.
Native plants: Skip the annuals. Select native plants, shrubs, and trees.
Preferences: Plant plants and trees according to their needs. A shade plant placed in a part of the garden that gets the most sun will need more watering to keep it healthy.
Purpose: Plant trees with a specific purpose in mind. Deciduous trees on the south and east sides of the house provide shade in summer. Western red cedar and willows help stabilize wet areas by holding water in their roots. Pacific dogwood and black hawthorn prevent soil erosion on sloping terrain. Replace a fence with a living fence (a row of trees) to create a sound barrier.
Soil enrichment: Respect the natural cycle of soil enrichment to keep plants strong and healthy. Decomposition is interrupted by the use of fertilizers and pesticides.
Water wisely: One benefit of native plantings is they need less water.
When implementing a landscape design, think of your roof, gutters, and siding. Trees and shrubs grow – ensure that there is enough space between the tree and your house to prevent limbs from scraping against surfaces or dropping leaves and twigs on to the roofing system.
Improved Outdoor Living Spaces
Functional outdoor living spaces are attractive to homeowners and homebuyers because it expands usable square footage without remodelling, increases the enjoyment of your backyard, and encourages spending quality time with family and friends. Some ideas for revamping your outdoor living spaces are:
- Add an outdoor kitchen, built-in fire pit, or pizza oven
- Add a deck or covered patio
- Build a gazebo
- Build a pergola
If major home improvements aren’t in the budget for this year, use hardscaping elements such as a small patio, a fence with decorative finials and an arbour gate, or a stone-paver pathway for visual interest. Or plant a garden with a specific purpose such as a rain garden (better drainage), sensory garden (meditation and mindfulness), or a cottage garden (mixes flowers, herbs, and vegetables).
