Whether you are landscaping a new yard or updating an established one, there are a few easy landscaping tips to save you time and money. Before you plant trees, shrubs or flowers, make sure you know how big they will be when they are mature and how long it will take before them become fully mature. Give the plants enough space to grow without crowding out other plants. Pay attention to overhead utility lines, fences and buildings. You don't want to plant a tree that will grow to thirty feet wide when fully mature right next to your home or under an overhead utility line, allow for enough area to prevent excessive pruning or other problems.
If you have an area in your landscaping design that requires plants closer together to provide privacy, space two plants properly and then put a shrub in between, knowing that you will remove it once the plants become too crowded. That way your plants won't look too far apart when they are young.
Adding perennial flowers that come back year after year is a great way to save time and money. They will help add more color, texture and visual interest to your landscaping. You can plan to have something different blooming during your growing season. Planting perennial bulbs is a great way to add a rainbow of spring colors to your landscaping. Typically, perennial bulbs will multiply and grow into larger clumps each year which will allow you to divide the bulbs and plant them in other areas of your yard with no additional plant purchase costs.
Purchasing high quality trees and shrubs can also be a money and time saver. Higher quality trees and shrubs have a better shape, more even branching and a straighter trunk. Typically, local garden centers have higher grade and higher quality plants than super stores or home centers. Purchasing and planting lower grade trees and shrubs can result in odd shaped or crooked trunks. These types of plants also have a low survival rate in areas that have harsh winters.
Save time on weeding by purchasing a weed block fabric. Make sure to purchase weed block fabric that is woven so water and air can get through. A heavy duty quality landscape fabric can stop weeds for more than twenty years, where a cheap landscape fabric might only stop weeds for a couple of years. Purchasing the higher quality fabric will save you time and money over the lifetime of your landscaping.
If you are planting a new yard, you will want to mix a nutrient rich and balanced compost into the soil. This simple step will result in a faster growing plant that becomes established quicker. You might also want to add a product that contains mycorizae fungi when planting your new yard. This will allow the small, fine roots to take up more water and nutrients which results in less transplant shock, quicker establishment, and bigger, faster growing plants.
Your yard and landscaping should be a place that reflects your personal style that can be enjoyed by family and friends without consuming too much of your time. Following these landscaping tips to save you time and money will make that a reality.
