Who says that landscaping doesn’t matter in a home? It most certainly does.
Precisely, landscaping helps preserve and conserve nature and natural resources, creates a setting for living, makes a more comfortable environment, achieves outdoor functions, creates coherence with nature and man-made elements, as well as provides a visual and aesthetic appeal. These components (amongst others) highlight the importance of landscaping, as recognised by home design lovers everywhere.
However, it is possible for a landscape not to feature such functions. That is the case when too many mistakes have been made during the landscaping process. If you’re to achieve the best results, it’s essential you recognise and avoid any potential mistakes that are capable of hampering your efforts.
This article identifies and highlights those mistakes.
- Failing to Draw Up a Budget
‘He who fails to plan plans to fail’ is an all-time true statement. To get the best out your landscaping, you’ll need to sit down with a pen and paper and plan everything. Write down the items you’d like to have in the yard, as well as any particular objects you don’t want. Also, compile a budget for those items. If the budget becomes too big for you to handle, cut it down by removing some of the items you had earlier included.
When you fail to make a budget for your landscaping project and choose to carry it out in an offhand manner, you’ll likely discover as the project progresses that you’re spending more than necessary on ‘a mere landscape’. Consequently, you might well leave the landscape unfinished; and one thing is for sure – an unfinished landscape is an ugly sight to behold.
- Doing Everything by Yourself
DIY is good. If nothing else, it saves money at least. However, you should also know that there’s a limit to what you can do on your own. When you choose to look after every aspect of home landscaping by yourself, you could end up jeopardising the whole project.
Therefore, hiring a designer or architect to help you with the ‘blueprint’ of the landscape is a good move – even if you prefer to do the rest of the job by yourself. If you choose to do otherwise, you might not like the final outcome and any money saved will be negligible.
- Poor Drainage and Erosion Control
You could be so occupied with the visual appeal of your landscape that you give little consideration to erosion and draining control.. Good drainage and erosion control are vital to a landscape. As the New Orleans drainage service experts noted, ‘Erosion control is a very important part of your landscape design. It protects your investment and keeps things looking as rich and thick as the day you laid your bountiful flower beds.’
Erosion control is not only good for the flowers, but also contributes to the value of the home. If your home is for sale or rent, you can be sure that nobody wants to buy a property whose yard is poorly drained or prone to erosion. Even if they do, it will be at a reduced price.
- Leaving Eyesores Uncovered
Vent pipes, AC units and utility boxes can each tamper with the beauty of a landscape. They are simply eyesores. To ensure they don’t conflict with the beauty of your landscape, it’s important to find ways to cover them up. Ignoring eyesores is one mistake many people when tending to their landscape and gardens. Subsequently, they may have no idea of the negative message it conveys.
- Failing to Have Your Hedges Regularly Trimmed
Hedges are very useful in setting boundaries, but can be a real spoiler if left untrimmed. Therefore, it’s important to look beyond the functions for which you’ve planted said hedges and have them regularly trimmed. If you don’t, they’ll soon grow into an untidy bush before your very own eyes.
- Being Too Ambitious About Your Landscape
It’s one thing to have a beautiful landscape and an entirely different thing to be able to maintain it. Therefore, it’s important to keep your landscape design and layout within your maintenance level. Many people would agree that rather than have a large and beautiful landscape that’s difficult to maintain, it’s better to leave it as natural as it is. So much so, the temptation to make a landscape greater than your effort to maintain it has to be resisted by all means.
Finally, another common mistake that should be avoided is having too many ornaments and accessories on and around the landscape in question. This can create needless complexity. When this happens, the odds are that it will be confusing rather than appealing.
If you find all some factors to be overwhelming, let the crew at Big Easy Landscaping help you choose the right landscape for your home, as well as assist you in upgrading its look. At the end of the day, your happiness at the results is all that matters.
