Entryway Landscaping to Enhance the Appearance of Your Home

The entryway to a home is what guests first see when they arrive at the home. It’s what the homeowner sees every time they enter or leave their home. When there’s no to little décor and floral elements near the entryway and leading to the entryway, the home may look bland from the outside. Homeowners who want to brighten their entryway, make it look more inviting, and who want to love the way their home looks as they walk up to it every day on their way home should look into adding to the landscaping leading to and at the entryway.

Homeowners today can work with a professional who offers complete lawn care services, including landscape architecture services, to completely redesign the way their entryway looks. The local lawn services can work on everything from the beginning of the driveway to the front door to make the drive or walk up to the house look spectacular. The homeowner will love the view every time they get home.

Why Update the Landscape Heading to Your Home?

Just having a lawn might be wonderful for kids and pets, but it’s not very exciting. In fact, it may make the home look a little bare because there’s nothing to attract the eye to the home and make it look stunning. Homeowners may want to enhance the landscaping near their driveway, walkways or footpaths, and front door to make the home look amazing and to really add to the first view a visitor might have when they get to the home. They’ll be able to use colors, textures, and more to make their home look fantastic. This will also add to the view of the home itself to help bring out the colors or design elements featured on the outside of their home.

Follow the Driveway with Perennials

The driveway, whether it’s long, short, or circular, offers plenty of opportunity for playing with a new landscape design. Line both sides of the driveway with perennials that do well in the area to soften and enhance the edges of the driveway and to offer a gorgeous view whenever anyone drives up the driveway to the home. Perennials come back every year, meaning this design will look great year after year with minimal work. Bright flowers, shrubs, and other plants are perfect for lining the edges of the driveway and can be used to change how the driveway looks.

Use Floral Designs Near Footpaths

Many landscaping ideas today somewhat ignore the walkways. They might suggest adding lighting along the path, but there’s often room to do a lot more. Instead of just having the pathway wander through the yard, add in flowers, mulch, and other eye-catching details that follow the length of the footpath. This works well no matter if the footpath is dirt, stones, concrete or another material as the flowers used will look fantastic going up the walkway. Perennials are a great option here as well, though homeowners might also choose annuals so they can change the design or colors around the walkways each year.

Landscaping to Enhance Your Entryway

The entryway provides plenty of opportunity for adding a floral design. Some homeowners will incorporate a small garden near their entryway, using various types of flowers to bring in lots of color. They may also use colored mulch or other options to help the flowers stand out. Others may stick with potted plants so they can vary the height of the plants easily and to add color without taking up much space in the yard itself. Potted plants are also the perfect way to add height, texture, or color to a front door or entryway with a smaller porch.

Choosing the Right Plants

Choosing the right plants doesn’t mean just looking at how long they’ll live and the colors. It also means considering the texture, the height, and whether they’re a good option for the location. While plants can be cared for outside of the location they normally thrive in, they might be more difficult to keep alive. Homeowners will also want to consider the amount of care they want to provide for their plant. If they don’t want to have much work to do year-round, they’ll want to minimize when they’ll need to add fertilizer or prune the plants.

Consider Vertical Elements, Water Features, and Lighting

When designing the garden near the entryway or adding flowers along a driveway or footpath, a professional who offers landscape architecture services will often add plants that are various heights or use trellises and other products to add height. This makes the area look more interesting and offers the chance to add in more types of plants to the yard.

The perfect landscape for a home might include other elements as well. Water features are a fantastic way to add to how a home looks and to attract butterflies, birds, and other beneficial creatures. Lights can help ensure the driveway or walkway are illuminated at night or help showcase how beautiful the entryway looks even at night.

Get Help with Your Landscaping

Creating the perfect entryway landscape may not be easy to do. Homeowners may have plenty of landscaping ideas but may worry about how to put everything together to make sure it looks fantastic. They may know what they want their entryway to look like but don’t know what plants to use or how to arrange everything for the look they want. This is where working with a professional can help. A landscaper can help with the design creation, with the installation of all of the plants, and even with applying fertilizer or helping prune the plants when needed.

Homeowners who want to boost the appearance of their home, who want to make sure their yard and front entryway look fantastic, and who want to ensure they make the right choices for their landscaping will want to contact a complete lawn care service for assistance today. The local lawn services can help them with everything from the basic design to the general upkeep needed to ensure their entryway continues to look fantastic year after year.

Landscaping is an easy and effective way to increase a home’s visual appeal, but it also has positive effects on resale values as well. Read on to learn how certain landscaping ideas increase a property’s value.

Addition and Replacement of Design Elements

It’s quite common for people to overhaul their wardrobes every few years, replacing worn and tattered basics with fresh new pieces. The same idea applies to residential landscape architecture, with superb results. By giving the landscape a makeover, homeowners can create a classic, clean, and value-increasing foundation upon which it’s possible to create a masterpiece.

Using Quality Mulch

With a few simple changes, it’s possible to do much more than make the home visually appealing. When it’s well-chosen and of high quality, mulch around shrubs and flower beds will increase a home’s value.

Planting Trees

Planting a few trees is one of the easiest landscaping upgrades and also one of the soundest long-term investments. One mature tree may add up to $10,000 to a home’s value, which is a substantial return in consideration of the low cost of saplings. Planting larger trees costs more upfront, but it also brings quicker returns. Trees also increase neighborhood values as well; a home on a tree-lined street may sell for 10-15% more than a similar home in an area with no trees.

Renovating or Building a Deck or Patio

A deck or patio upgrade or installment will turn an empty, unappealing back yard into a great outdoor living space. No matter which structure a homeowner chooses, they’ll get the perfect spot to relax, entertain, and enjoy the outdoor life. Not only that, they’ll get a return on that investment when the home sells.

The decks and patios providing the most substantial ROI are those built along with the house. However, that doesn’t mean it should look worn out or old. Instead, landscape architecture experts advise homeowners to upgrade or add these features in proportion to the home and the land on which it sits.

Most home buyers appreciate the ability to use the back yard as a retreat, if only for a short while. If a homeowner has a small budget that doesn’t allow for a full outdoor kitchen, the addition of a deck or patio is an easy way to increase a home’s value.

Remodeling or Building an Outdoor Kitchen

Outdoor kitchens are structures that many homeowners’ garden dreams are made of. With an outdoor kitchen, it’s easier and more fun to entertain family and friends, and for many of today’s home buyers, this feature isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. For those living in colder climates, it may be wise to opt for an outdoor kitchen rather than a pool. With a pavilion or waterproof awning, it’s possible to use an outdoor kitchen all year long. By adding an outdoor room to the home, an owner may see a 100-200% return on their investment.

Building a Rainwater Collection System

As fresh water becomes a scarcer resource, its cost continues to rise. Therefore, many of today’s homeowners are making efforts to conserve water. While a green, lush lawn certainly has curb appeal, many environmentally conscious and frugal homeowners are looking for ways to save money and natural resources. Along with solar panels, rainwater collection and recycling systems increase a home’s sustainability while reducing the owner’s dependence on public utilities. This will go a long way in increasing a home’s value.

Outdoor Lighting

With proper lighting, homeowners can accentuate all the upgrades they’ve made to the aesthetic and monetary value of their properties, even after sundown. By adding well-placed lighting to the exterior of the home, it’s possible to boost its curb appeal, functionality, and value.

Making Lawn Maintenance a Top Priority

Making improvements to a home’s landscaping isn’t as complicated as it seems, and keeping the lawn looking great will improve the home’s curb appeal. Complete lawn care is as simple as:

Raking

Removing leaves and other debris

Using a lawn aerator to get air and nutrients to the grass roots. This creates a stronger, healthier, and lusher landscape.

Fertilizing. During the growth season, fertilizer should be used every six to eight weeks.

Watering. With infrequent and deep watering, the grass will grow in stronger and healthier.

Mowing. Local lawn services will regularly cut the grass to the appropriate length, which minimizes weeds and increases curb appeal.

Edging. Left to grow unchecked, grass will work its way into sidewalks, garden beds, and pathways, creating an untidy look. For a manicured appearance, use an edger to trim away the overgrowth at turf edges.

While it’s not expensive to take care of residential landscaping, it requires an investment of effort and time. If a homeowner doesn’t have the energy or inclination to take care of their yard or prune their shrubs, there’s help available from local lawn services.

Seasonal Planting

If an owner decides to update the plants around the home, they’ll achieve great results with plants that make the landscape attractive throughout the year. Spring flowers look great in April or May, but potential buyers won’t enjoy them much in November. Remember to consider the location and do some research on the plants that do well in the local climate.

Low-Cost Options

If the homeowner’s budget doesn’t allow for major home improvements, there are a few financially sensible ways to increase the home’s value by enhancing its exterior. Landscaping jobs such as adding fully grown plants, planting flowers near the entryway, re-sodding the yard, weeding, trimming, and sealing the driveway all cost less than $1000 in many cases. According to the National Association of Landscaping Professionals, a homeowner may get up to a 215% ROI for such a project when they sell the home.

Count on the Pros for Landscape Beautification Services

When it’s properly executed, landscaping may increase the home’s value by up to 20%. Contact the company for landscaping maintenance tips, call to request an estimate, or visit the website for more details on their products and services.

Why Aerating is Important for Your Yard

A beautiful landscape doesn’t just happen by accident. Yards need attention year-round, and more than just watering and mowing. They may also need aerating, dethatching, and other services designed to help the grass grow better so it looks fantastic. Homeowners, as well as commercial land owners, can look into complete lawn care services by a local lawn company. One task they won’t want to overlook is aeration for the entire yard.

Potential Problems for Yards

Grass seems to grow almost too quickly during the growing season. It may need to be cut often to keep it from getting too tall. While grass is resilient, there are some issues to watch out for as these can cause the grass to not grow properly or for large amounts of the grass to die.

When grass dies, the dead grass falls between the growing blades of grass. When there’s just the right amount, it breaks down over time and provides added nutrients to the grass that’s still growing. However, this can build up to become too thick. This is called thatch, and if it gets to be more than about a half an inch thick, it could make it more difficult for the grass to get the nutrients it needs to thrive.

Another issue yards often suffer from is compaction. Most people are aware that driving over the grass with vehicles or heavy equipment can compact the soil, which could destroy the grass in the area. Compaction can also occur by people walking over the grass, animals playing on the grass, or anything that is on the grass a lot. This doesn’t mean everyone should stay off the grass; it’s just something to be aware of and to combat with landscape services.

Aeration Might Provide the Answer

Aeration might be the answer if the grass suffers from a thatch that’s too thick or if it’s suffering from compaction. Basically, aeration works by pulling up small plugs all over the yard. These plugs extend down into the soil below the grass, leaving tiny holes that can provide room for the roots grow, help new grass get started, and help open up the layer of thatch so the grass gets the nutrients it needs.

If excessive thatch is the main issue, local lawn services might start by using a lawn dethatcher. This is designed to pull up the layer of thatch under the grass to give the grass the room it needs to get more nutrients from the soil. However, aeration can also be used to combat thatch that’s too thick.

The lawn service provider will use an aerator on the entire yard to pull tiny plugs from the grass. These plugs should be allowed to dry out, then broken up so they can be reabsorbed into the soil and provide more nutrients for the grass. The spots the plugs were pulled from will let in sunlight, water, and other nutrients that the grass needs to grow. They’ll also provide room for the grass roots to be able to grow, combating the compaction that was preventing growth before the aeration was done.

The Right Time to Aerate a Lawn

There are two main types of grass: cool-weather grass and warm-weather grass. The time of year when aeration should be done depends on the type of grass in the yard. For warm-weather grass, aerate in the spring. For cool-weather grass, aerate in the early spring or fall. This should be done as needed, but some yards will require aeration yearly because of higher levels of compaction. A local lawn service can provide information on when to use a yard aerator for the type of grass as well as help with the aeration to ensure it’s done correctly.

Choosing to Work with a Pro

Is it better to aerate alone or seek help from a local company? If the aeration is not done properly or it’s not done at the right time of the year, it can inhibit the growth of the grass or cause dead spots in the grass. The local lawn services have experience in aerating yards and know how to use the aerator properly so the job is done right. They also know when to do the aeration based on the type of grass to be sure it is able to get the nutrients it needs to grow properly throughout the year.

Tips for Successful Lawn Aeration

Home and business owners who want to ensure the aeration will be successful should speak with the lawn service company to make sure they know what to do before and after the aeration. This helps them learn what will work to help the aeration be a success. Some things to discuss with the company include the following.

Watering the Yard the Day Before Aeration – If the soil is too dry, it can be more difficult to use a yard aerator. The company may prefer the yard being watered the day before the aeration so the soil is moist. The soil should not be too watery, though, or aeration may be more difficult.

Planting Grass Seeds Soon After Aeration – Right after the aeration is the perfect time to plant grass seeds as they’ll have the space to grow. They’ll also have an easier time accessing sunlight, water, and other nutrients so it’s more likely the seeds will germinate.

Staying Off the Lawn – While it’s possible to walk on the lawn after the aeration, home and business owners should try to limit walking or driving on the yard after the aeration if they decide to seed. Seeds should be given around a month to germinate and start to grow.

If your grass isn’t growing properly or seems to not be doing well, look into complete lawn care by a local lawn service today. They may recommend aerating your yard to give your grass access to everything it needs to grow thicker and greener. They also offer other services that are designed to make your yard look fantastic, whether you own a large commercial lot or a small residential lot.