My front yard could really use a landscaping upgrade. What can I do to brighten it up?
The early peak of the moving season is upon us and for some residents, listing their homes is on the horizon. Statewide, home listings increased 7.7% in the first quarter. While most current homeowners have experienced increased property values in recent years, the question remains what needs to be repaired or upgraded to make their property attractive to a new owner. According to Bankrate.com, the value of an average home can increase by 15-20% if the landscape is properly designed. But you don’t have to put your house up for sale to cash in on this potential return. Creating an attractive appearance using your lawn can be easier than you initially thought.
Imagine taking an online tour of a local home on the market and falling in love with every image after every swipe. The listing descriptions are awash with playful phrases such as “lush but low-maintenance plantings” or “stunningly colorful landscape.” But once you arrive you’re greeted with a front garden full of overgrown plants next to tired hedges in a matte design. Disappointment leads to the next natural question: Does the inside of the house look like the outside? It’s a quick reminder that the value of your home is primarily determined by its proverbial first impression or its attractiveness. Residents have the opportunity to demonstrate continuity of care from the inside out, and it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive.
Improving your landscape starts with a complete assessment of what is already there. Allowing dead or diseased trees of any size is not only an eyesore, but can also be a costly mistake if it breaks or completely uproots. Our climate patterns of warm days and rainy summer afternoons can easily lead to rapid plant growth and if left unchecked over time, this can also become a real problem.
Start from the highest point on your property and work your way down to organize the work that needs to be done. Plants that have outgrown their location do not always need to be pruned back or even removed. Smart reductions can make a major contribution to shaping and therefore correcting their position in relation to the entire layout.
A common starting point for many are the dated foundation hedges. Often the original shrubs installed by the home’s developer become feature plants that are rarely pruned properly. Any real estate agent will tell you that natural lighting in a home is an attractive feature for most potential buyers. Tackling the vegetation around the windows of your home makes this possible. If you are new to shrub trimming and want more detailed instructions, UF Extension has a guide for you at: hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/documents/PruningLandscapeTreesShrubs.pdf.
After the cleanup and removal, it’s time to consider adding new plants. The introduction of fresh new plantings can provide both new textures and pops of color. Spread the love in different locations other than the front door. For example, consider the ground around your mailbox if you have one, install window boxes and select portable containers.
Questions and answers about the garden: Plants use sound, sight and smell to their advantage
Perennials offer colorful blooms that run the gamut and make wise purchases because they live for more than a year. But annuals also serve a purpose and are often the most popular and readily available selections. With a little planning, you can select flowering plants based on their bloom time. For example, both hydrangeas (hydrangea) and lily of the Nile (agapanthus) are now blooming with large, multi-flowered flowers, but this will end as temperatures rise this summer.
Daylilies and coneflowers (echinacea) begin to color in the summer months and can last until autumn. Firespike (odontonema strictum) and cape honeysuckle (tecomaria capensis) use the end-of-year season to show off their colorful blooms. Sustainability is also a top priority for many others. Growing native plants restores the integrity of Florida’s native plant material and best supports the environment. If native plantings interest you but you don’t know where to start, visit this web page for a variety of links that will help you gather information: Florida Native Landscaping, Links
Additional garden tasks that cannot be excluded are weeding and mulching your flower beds. While these are almost everyone’s least favorite activities, they serve your landscape on more than just the aesthetic front. They promote the health of your plant investment throughout the garden and help retain moisture so the roots can thrive. And speaking of keeping it wet, there is relatively new technology available for homeowners who want to keep their lawns precisely hydrated. Smart irrigation uses controllers that measure water use based on site conditions. For more information on how these systems work, check out the following link, AE442/AE442: Smart Irrigation Controllers: What Makes an Irrigation Controller Smart? (ufl.edu)
Garden help: Low maintenance fruit trees that do well in Northeast Florida
Zillow researchers suggest that a landscaped yard can add 2.7% more to a home’s sales price. Whether you plan to stay or possibly move, improving the curb appeal of your home can make an improvement while physically protecting the built-in financial value of your investment.
Candace Barone is a Master Gardener volunteer with the Duval County Extension Service and the University of Florida/IFAS. For gardening questions, call the Duval County Extension Office at (904) 255-7450 Monday through Friday from 9am to noon and 12:30pm to 3:30pm and ask for a Master Gardener volunteer.
This article originally appeared in Florida Times-Union: Garden Q&A: Sprucing up the garden will increase property values
