Landscaping a new or existing home can add style, color, and curb appeal, and it might seem that tackling the project without expert assistance could save money. After all, how hard could it be to plant flowers, grass, shrubs, and trees? But DIY landscaping can become an expensive, time-consuming project that may not provide the desired results. In contrast, professionals can create a dream landscape while helping save money, energy, and time. Working with experts also provides several other crucial benefits.
Property Values Increase
Landscaping contractors create designs that enhance a home’s beauty. Choosing professional landscape design is an excellent investment that can increase a home’s value by as much as 15%.
Experts will incorporate elements that make the most of a property and increase usable space. Their designs extend living areas and enable owners to include nature. Professionals can incorporate features that include patios, outdoor kitchens, fireplaces, heating, and fountains.
Also, you can prefer stair parts that make your home more luxurious and attractive.
Expert landscaping is also a great option because it grows in value. Home improvement projects such as additions or remodeling quickly lose value.
Professionals Start with a Plan
Before landscaping experts begin work on your property, they assess possibilities and problem areas, according to The American Society of Landscape Architects. These specialists view property as a system and will design a plan incorporating the desired features. They create renderings that let homeowners know how the finished project will look.
Professionals help owners choose the project’s materials, colors, textures, and styles. While owners have input every step of the way, a landscape architect handles all the details. The homeowner never have to worry about solving problems and can rest assured that an expert oversees every phase of the project.
Landscapers Create Low-Maintenance Gardens
Property will stay beautiful without constant care, but that look isn’t easy to create without training. Landscaping contractors specialize in low-maintenance projects. For instance, they often use lovely native plants that thrive with minimal upkeep and attract butterflies and bumblebees. They are ideal for gardens and many other areas.
Native plants require less water and chemicals. Some professionals also offer xeriscaping that minimizes irrigation or watering requirements.
Expert Landscaping Keeps a Project on Budget
Although DIY might seem the least expensive option considering your budget, a contractor can save owners substantial money from the start and over time.
Landscaping contractors work with budgets of all sizes and can find ways to stay within the required spending limits. Once professionals have evaluated a property and desired goals, they will create a plan and present the owner with a cost. Contractors often find dozens of creative ways to trim the budget without sacrificing style.
If owners are working with a tight budget, professionals may suggest completing the project in phases to make it more affordable. Per Houzz Magazine, they might suggest choosing less expensive materials or smaller plants to stay on budget without sacrificing style.
Professionals also help property owners save money over time. For example, they understand where to plant trees to help reduce energy usage. Correct shrub and tree placements can lower cooling and heating bills.
Landscaping Specialists Save Time
Trying to landscape a home is incredibly time-consuming. Planning and purchasing the needed tools, equipment, and plants take hours. The work of landscaping might take months.
Professionals quickly help owners determine their goals and turn a vision into a concept. Once owners have agreed on a budget and time frame, they can enjoy the process while experts do the work.
Professionals have completed many projects and planned each project for maximum efficiency. They can foresee and correct problems, which prevents project delays.
Instead of spending their free time running from store to store and hauling materials, homeowners can sit back and watch their landscape ideas become a reality.
Professional Designs Are Eco-Friendly
A good landscape design factors in a home’s inhabitants and the environment. When investing in professional landscaping services, owners play a part in saving the planet. Expert designs can provide habitats for bees, birds, butterflies, and other incredible pollinators.
Specialists create green space that is wonderful for the environment. Grass keeps a yard cooler than asphalt or soil. Trees and grass retain dust, smoke, and various pollutants in the air. Trees also absorb carbon dioxide and provide essential oxygen.
A very large tree provides oxygen for four people. Grass and shrubs improve air quality on the property and surrounding areas. One tree can remove 26 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air annually, canceling emissions produced by driving a car 11,000 miles. Property owners can be confident that the plants and trees landscapers plant help protect the environment.
Contractors Can Include Hardscaping
Professional landscape design can include softscaping and hardscaping. Softscaping consists of trees, plants, shrubs, and flowers. Hardscaping is exactly what it sounds like: all the hard, unliving things included in landscape designs.
When a contractor creates a design, they may include hardscaping elements like sidewalks, stone pathways, or retaining walls. Patios, steps, and driveways are also common hardscaping features. When professionals add hardscaping, it enhances the overall theme.
Experts may use permeable paving made of a porous material that lets stormwater flow through it or nonporous blocks that encourage groundwater recharge. Permeable paving helps to prevent driveway flooding and adds beauty to sidewalks and patios. It also reduces runoff and encourages groundwater recharge.
Expert Landscaping Enhances Quality of Life
Landscaping professionals can design an elegant, carefully balanced green space that is a calming, healthful oasis. During the design process, experts consider how clients can use their outdoor areas and include features that maximize enjoyment.
They can create rain gardens that add beauty and become the ideal area to sit and enjoy nature. Rain gardens are perfect for areas where seasonal flooding is expected. They are also habitats for many types of birds and beneficial insects.
Professionals might suggest a rain garden to divert rainwater from lawns and sidewalks and let water seep into the ground. French and storm drains do the same thing, but rain gardens are much more attractive.
Designs can also include outdoor living spaces that allow residents to enjoy nature most of the year. For instance, they can opt for patios with outdoor kitchens that can be used for dining anytime or become ideal entertainment areas.
A Chance to Repurpose Unused Spaces
Many homes have large outdoor areas that serve little purpose other than collecting leaves and debris. In some cases, that is because they are small or located in awkwardly placed areas that are difficult to landscape.
When professionals create landscape designs, they find a purpose for every area of a property. A formerly unusable section might be ideal for a garden or a covered patio that includes outdoor furniture.
Owners can add walkways, seating areas, landscape lighting, trees, and flowers that increase a home’s curb appeal. Landscapers may use elements like plant borders, river rocks, or pavers to create a series of areas in the yard.
Projects Include Irrigation Systems
Keeping an entire landscape system healthy is nearly impossible without a watering system, so landscaping projects typically include installing irrigation equipment. Professionals will devise a custom irrigation system that fits the site’s needs.
Sprinkler systems provide plants with water, but irrigation equipment uses an efficient drip system that waters plants at their roots. Professionals ensure that equipment is installed correctly, which is crucial to prevent killing plants and running up the water bill.
Landscapers create designs that prevent overwatering, which is a common problem. They can also add a timer that ensures maximum benefits and saves owners work and worry.
Contractors Can Add Water Features
Landscapers can install various water features that add beauty and interest to a property. These elements range from trickling riverbeds to huge waterfalls plunging over rock formations. Professionals also design water features in gardens, or owners can add a peaceful pond to the landscaping plan.
Property owners can combine a water feature with an outdoor kitchen, add a delicate stream, or include a waterwall. A charming birdbath, relaxing Koi Pond, or fountain can all be incorporated into professional landscaping.
Owners Get Their Ideal Landscape
A landscaping contractor has the education, training, experience, equipment, and crew to turn a vision into reality. They work with the property’s features and include elements that ensure residents get exactly what they want.
Local landscapers know the area’s climate and soil conditions, which allows them to choose the best plants and materials for every design. Each parcel of land is unique and part of a larger ecosystem. A professional landscape designer can understand the macrocosm that determines the broad-brush strokes of a design. They have the talent to read microcosm details, allowing them to define unique elements of each area.
A project manager oversees every aspect of a landscaping project. They keep work on schedule and ensure the project meets the owner’s standards.
Professional landscaping can boost a home’s value and curb appeal and make it more eco-friendly. Landscaping experts can incorporate water features, hardscaping, irrigation systems, and outdoor living areas. Professionals work with a budget and have the skills to turn that landscaping vision into reality.
