The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
15 Basic Ways To Landscape Your Homepage
The improved public appearance of a nicely landscaped home is the most obvious return for your effort. For example, careful selection of flowering plants will insure you a nearly continuous series of flowers throughout the local growth season. In many areas fruit trees can provide decorative accents and till your larder with edibles for the winter. Shrubs and groundcovers can be bought to suit the local climatic condition. It is more than the reduction of work and improvement in appearance that makes preplanned landscaping so well worthwhile. The quiet pride of ownership that results from a well groomed home is another of many benefits obtained through this use of your spare time. Another result is the reduction of maintenance in i planned yard. Plant management and pruning is also simplified. The cost of watering and spraying is greatly reduced, and the possibility of storm damage to your property is almost eliminated.
Financial rewards gained from planned landscaping are far greater than mere protection against storm damage. Real estate agents are usually familiar with every home in their sales area. If your place has a reputation for being maintained, the market value should increase. If you ever decided to sell, the price could rise as much as several thousand dollars. Property buyers are always impressed by evidences of good landscaping. They rightly assume the rest of your home has also been well cared for.
Simple landscaping is a spare time project paying great dividends. It will improve the attractiveness of your house, make it easier to maintain the yard, protect the property from serious water damage and increase its resale value. This is one hobby that will pay for itself in so many ways that everyone should consider it the basic improvement.
Nowhere is the importance of careful Landscaping so obvious than in a housing project. In some cases exterior differences are non-existent and block after block of homes differ only by their street addresses.
House A would be more attractive if the large central shrub were moved to the left corner. The medium size hedge beneath the three windows should extend (informally pruned) under them all and around the corner where the large shrub is. A low, flowering group at the left of the steps could hide the water faucet and vent. Colorful vines on the lattice would accent the right front corner and could be wired onto the house.
An identical house (15) suffers from a minor case of "overgrownitis." Vertical plant materials installed to complement the house have become too large. Drastic shearing would kill the plants, so they should be replaced. The low clipped hedge along the left of the driveway is an interesting treatment. Climbing roses on the trellis would add a welcome touch of color without reducing porch ventilation.
