|
|
|
|
Tips & Articles How to Cope With Our Current Drought - 20 Quick Tips! By Heather and Darin Brockelbank, Owners Metro GreenScape
By Heather and Darin Brockelbank, Owners Metro GreenScape When selling a home, many homeowners spend a great deal of time renovating the inside of the home; however, potential buyers do not see the inside first. They see the outside. If the outside of your home displays scraggly trees, a patchy lawn, and dead flowers, it will not matter the beautiful work you have done inside. Buyers will just keep on driving. Paying attention to your landscape will help boost interest in the property. Think about what investing in your landscape can bring you. Not only can you spend time enjoying it before your leave your home, new homeowners can see the pride and value that you have invested in your home. Landscaping encompasses many different aspects. Gorgeous flowers, mature trees, and lush green grass are not the only things that you can incorporate to update your landscape. Also keep in mind that you can add hardscape elements such as a walkway, patio, decorative seating wall, or even an outdoor fireplace or kitchen area. Water features add a breathtaking component to a serene landscape setting. Investing in your landscape not only will attract buyers but will also increase the value of your home. A study at Clemson University found that a landscaped home is valued 11.3% higher than the base price. For example, you own a $500,000 home and decide to invest $25,000 to spruce up the landscaping (5% value of the home). A modest gain of 7.5% would put a profit of $12,500 in your pocket. Now, why not add to the outdoor appeal of your home, enjoy it for a while and then enjoy the profits it will bring later. Now, some tips on what to decide to do for your home. If you are investing in a home and plan to “flip” it in eight to twelve weeks, just focus on the major eye sores. You may want to focus on removing overgrown and outdated shrubs and planting smaller and more spacious shrubs. You want the buyers to be able to see more of the home. Remove any debris, overgrown brush, dead trees, and lawn ornaments that may detract from the home. Clean the front landscape by re-defining the bed edges and adding fresh mulch. Give the front some pops of color by adding seasonal annuals in some pots on the front steps or on either side of the walkway. A gorgeous flower arrangement can add a charming feel to a home. If you plan to stay in your home for a while, think long term with your landscaping. Consider hiring a landscape designer to design a master plan for your yard. Many homeowners decide to take the plan and implement it in stages over three to five years. You can incorporate many things into the plan such as a back yard patio with a seating wall or a walkway that winds into a garden sitting area. The options are endless. The designer can help you decide what will work best for you and your family. You may consider doing the work yourself or hiring a local landscape construction company to help you implement the plan. Plants for Your House Foundation One of the greatest landscape challenges is in the selection of plants to go in front of a house. These plants are traditionally referred to as foundation plants, and all too often they quickly overgrow and often appear to eat up the house. Here are some tips for successful foundation planting. The Perfect Fit The plants around your home should never outgrow their space. You have seen houses where no curtains are needed because the shrubs cover the windows! It’s a better idea to plant shrubs that grow no larger than the space available. You will not have to prune, and the plants will keep their natural character. Small nursery plants in their black plants pots can become problems if you don’t look to the future. For example, if your living-room windows begin two feet above the level of the soil, choose low-growing plants such as Gumpo or Satsuki azaleas, dwarf gardenia, shore juniper, some dwarf hollies such as Helleri or yaupon, or the most dwarf conifers. These will naturally grow together but not so tall that you lose the architectural features of your home. Keep it Simple One rule of thumb for your foundation planting is to have no more than five different plants in the design. Repeating the same plant gives the design unity. Most folks prefer evergreens, so consider different textures when you select your plants. Texture refers to the relative size of the leaves. Choose plants with leaves of contrasting sizes to make the plants stand out from each other. For example, combine mondograss ground cover with boxwood (medium) and camellia or rhododendron (coarse). Plants with all the same leaf size make for a dull planting. Also consider a variety of foliage colors. Next to grass green, some plants have leaves that appear blue, yellow, burgundy. Such colorful or variegated foliage will add interest and provide an accent when planted with darker greens. Examples include Blue Point juniper (blue), golden arborvitae (yellow), pink loropetalum (burgundy), and Crimson Pygmy barberry (red). Splashes of color from flowering shrubs such as spiraea, clethra, nandina, or crape myrtle can give the greens of holly, yew, juniper, and arborvitae a boost too. Choose the Plants for the Place All plants have roles to play in a foundation planting. In the leading role is an accent plant that calls attention to the entrance. This may be a small tree offering seasonal flowers crabapple. Small trees can also be highlighted at night from a light below the tree. Your accent plant might have a distinctive form such as a cutleaf Japanese maple. The most traditional accent plant is boxwood planted in pairs, one on each side of the entrance. This simple treatment has stood the test of time. Next come the supporting players, those that solve specific problems. Perhaps you need to fill a blank wall. Try an espaliered (trained flat against a wall or surface) sasanqua or pyracantha or a clinging vine such as climbing hydrangea or Boston ivy. Sometimes a tall house needs a small tree, or a large shrub grown as a tree, on each corner to bring the house visually back down into the landscape. Finally you need the chorus. These are the workhorse shrubs and ground covers that fill the void and whose mature size will not outgrow the space. Sometimes houses built on concrete slabs will need ground covers rather than shrubs to avoid covering the low windows. Ground covers can also be used to unify the planting and to create an edge between shrub plantings and the lawn. Avoid alternating one of these and one of those. Try grouping similar plants. For example, if you want azaleas, choose a color that blends with the color of your home, and then plant as many as you need of that one color. If you want other colors, plant those in masses in other areas of the garden, not next to the house. By narrowing your choices to a handful of appropriately sized plants and placing them thoughtfully, you will create a landscape that complements your home and offers a pleasing overall picture for you and your guests. Some Suggested Plants
Use this plant list as a general guide. Inventory will vary from store to store, and each store will stock only those species appropriate to your area. Shrubs Popular for Foundation Planting
Box-leaved euonymous (Euonymous japonicus “Microphyllus”) Carrissa holly (Ilex cortuna ‘Carrissa’) Creeping juniper (Juniperus horizontalis ‘Blue Rug’) Crimson Pygmy barberry (Berberis thunbergii atropurpurea ‘Crimson Pygmy’) Drooping leucothoe (Leucothoe fontanesiana) Dwarf gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides ‘Radicans’) Dwarf nandina (Nandina domestica ‘Harbor Dwarf’ & other dwarf cultivars) Dwarf yaupon (Ilex vomitoria ‘Nana’, ‘Schillings’, ‘Stokes’ & others) English boxwood (Buxus sempervirens ‘Suffruiticosa’) Gumpo azlaeas (Azalea ‘Gumpo’) Helleri holly (Ilex crenata ‘Helleri’) Indian hawthorn (Raphiolepsis indica dwarf cultivars) Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata dwarf cultivars) Korean boxwood (Buxus microphylla var. Koreana) Otto Luyken laurel (Prunus laurocerasus ‘Otto Luyken’) Shore juniper (Juniperus conferta cultivars) Stokes holly (Ilex crenata ‘Stokes’) Wardii yew (Taxus x media ‘Wardii’) Wheeler’s Dwarf pittosporum (Pittos porum tobira ‘Wheeler’s Dwarf’)
|
|
|
|