Applying these landscaping hacks now will give your home curb appeal that lasts all year.
Having a lush, sun-washed garden is a dream, and if you’re willing to put in the work, getting there is totally doable, especially with the arrival of warmer weather.
Despite the quick turnover that’s promised by home makeover shows, beautiful landscapes don’t happen overnight. To get the yard that will make your neighbors green with envy, you need to put in some effort.
A noteworthy yard isn’t just easy on the eye; it could also give your bank account a boost when you decide to sell your home. According to Zillow research, homes that mention landscaping in their listing sell for 1% more than expected. Based on the national median home value at $339,000, a nice yard could increase a sales price by nearly $3,400.
But you don’t need to call a professional to jazz up your yard. Just keep the weeds out, refresh the mulch, and keep the grass healthy, and you’ll add a ton of curb appeal to your home.
Here are seven tips for getting started and creating the yard of your dreams.
1. Invest in your soil
It’s important to focus on your soil because it is the foundation of your landscape. Soil provides nutrients to your lawn, trees, flowers and hedges. If your soil is bad, the plants that make up your landscape won’t thrive.
Don’t know where to begin? If you’re looking to get more information on your dirt, send a sample of your soil to your local agricultural extension office for a soil test. If you’re looking to take more of a DIY approach, you can also buy a soil test kit at a hardware store or garden center and test the dirt yourself. A soil test will tell you the pH of your soil, the amount of organic matter and macronutrients it contains, along with valuable information about soil texture and micronutrient levels. Your test results will typically include tips on how to improve your soil. You may need to add organic matter like composted leaves or composted manure to increase the soil’s nutritional value for plants. You can save money by making your own compost pile with discarded food items. This will keep you supplied with organic matter that you can use to enrich your soil and keep your landscape looking good.
While you can do a soil sample any time, the best time to do it is before you put a single plant in the ground.
2. Check for proper grading in your yard
A yard’s grade or slope influences how water flows on top of the ground and through the soil. Ideally, your yard should be graded so that all the water that falls on your roof and in your yard flows away from the house. It’s bad news if you see water standing around your home’s foundation; standing water could eventually cause basement leaks or damage to the foundation itself.
Typically, you should have at least four to six inches of your foundation showing above the soil, and the soil and vegetation should not be touching the side of your house. If there is soil near the top of your foundation, grab a shovel and move it a few feet away to increase the slope away from your house.
3. Understand your yard or garden’s sunlight
Keep an eye on the tags on nursery plants that tell you how much sun a plant needs. If a plant doesn’t get the right amount of light, it will not survive or thrive, no matter what else you do. With that being said, there are four general light conditions for outdoor plants that you’ll see on those tags:
- Full Sun – Plants need at least six hours of direct sun daily
- Part Sun – Plants need between three and six hours of direct sun daily
- Part Shade – Plants need three to six hours of sun daily but need protection from the intense midday sun
- Full Shade – Plants need less than three hours of direct sun a day
Familiarize yourself with your yard’s light conditions by observing it throughout the day and during the growing season. And keep in mind that light conditions change as the seasons change. A good way to monitor light conditions in your yard is with a meter purchased from a garden center or online.
Once you know the light conditions in various locations in your yard, pick plants that will be a good match.
4. Choose your trees wisely
Trees can add a lot of monetary and aesthetic value to your property. In fact, a tree can have an appraised value of between $1,000 and $10,000 depending on the type, condition and trunk diameter.
Some trees that can potentially add value to a home include bald cypress, white ash, white fir, black maple and just about any kind of oak. These trees are desirable because they are long-lived, not overly messy and stand up to pests and storms.
Trees that tend not to add value include Tree of Heaven, willows, Siberian elms, white poplar and the universally despised Bradford pear. These trees are unloved and often avoided because they are invasive, messy and tend to fall over in winds that leave stronger trees standing.
While this might seem like a tricky process, try to focus on choosing trees based on their mature size, lifespan, growth rate and resistance to disease and storms. Make sure they will be an asset to your yard throughout their growth cycle rather than only when you get them. Don’t plant trees with weak limbs or high susceptibility to pests — or place them too close to your home — or you could be paying a lot of money to have an arborist cut it down in five years.
5. Buy healthy plants
We’ve all been tempted to buy cheap plants from the clearance section at the nursery or garden center. You know the ones: They’re 50% dead and 75% off. Unless you have a very green thumb stay away from these plants. You want a nice yard, not a project that causes a headache.
Likewise, when it comes to mail order plants you see advertised on social media, take a pass. If you want to set yourself up for success, your best bet is to buy healthy plants from nearby growers. Your second-best bet is to buy plants from garden centers as soon as they come off the truck from the grower. Look for plants with healthy leaves and lots of new growth. Stay away from plants that look frazzled. Ask the garden center manager for the specific days they get their shipments, and buy your plants on those days.
For inspiration on foolproof plants for your outdoor landscaping, read Home Stagers and Landscapers Swear By These 7 Plants for Your Home
6. Plant for all seasons
It’s tempting to do all your plant shopping at once, but to avoid 11 months of ho-hum landscaping, pick a variety of plants that will offer interest at different times of the year.
Grow summer bloomers like canna lilies, coneflowers and gaura to keep flowers blooming and boost your curb appeal in the hot months. Plant mums, goldenrod, asters and other fall bloomers for color when the temperatures cool. For winter interest, look to trees with interesting branch shapes and bark, evergreens or winter-hardy perennials like heuchera, sempervivum and cast-iron plants.
7. Pick drought-resistant plants
Picking drought-resistant plants doesn’t have to mean planting a yard full of cacti. You can pick sturdy plants that don’t need an irrigation system, daily rain or constant hand-watering to look their best. “I want to spend two hours a day standing in the yard with a hose in my hand watering my flowers,” said no one, ever.
Drought-resistant plants vary by climate, but they include coneflowers, catmint, Russian sage, lavender, salvia, yarrow, cast iron plants and artemisia.
Choosing less thirsty plants will not only help you save money on your water bill, but it will also probably free up your spare time and could even help you sell your house faster when you’re ready to move. A 2022 ZIllow study found home listings that mentioned “drought-resistant” plantings or yards sold 13 days faster than comparably priced houses. While in this year’s study, this feature wasn’t associated with a price premium or faster sale, these plants nonetheless have money-saving and environmental benefits.