How Does the Hard Life Add Value to Your Home?

Spring! It makes you want to do new stuff, doesn’t it? You’ve been planning to do more with your landscaping, and now that things are drying out from winter snowmelt, it might be time to start planning.

Let’s take a walk around the house and across the lawn. Your lawn and flower beds seem to be in good health. There, the beds on the hillside might do better with a bit of help. Heavy rain could send parts of it sliding down the hill with the drainage water – easy enough to fix! Let’s think about a retaining wall that might solve the problem.

And let’s give your landscapers a call soon. They will be a big help with planning and building a retaining wall while maintaining good drainage to that part of your landscape.

Standing here, looking around, another project might do well: hardscaped pathways and walkways. One small problem will be solved – the lawn will not have the brown marks that walking across it can leave. In addition, the slope won’t be slippery after rainfall, and hardscaped paths will be safer in winter.

Planning

Your excellent landscapers went over your property with you and will be returning with some plans to choose from. For example, adding retaining walls to your flower beds will raise them to a more comfortable height for planting, weeding, and mulching and improve drainage.

Walkways are always a good investment, and there are so many different kinds of brick, stone and gravel, and other products that will make them beautiful and functional.

The chosen plans will reflect your tastes and give indications about plans. For example, since you’re choosing to add pathways, retaining walls, and a lovely oversized patio out back, you’ll have plenty of room to keep your outdoor living area growing.

Your landscaping team also consulted with the community utility providers, so little flags show where your utility hardware is located. You might not need that information now, but you might want to add lighting, natural gas for a grill and fire pit, and water for an outdoor kitchen, among other things. You might even want a pool or hot tub. Then, if the area needs utilities later, none of your hardscaping will have to be dug up to access them.

What is most important?

If vast, sweeping fields of green grass is the most essential thing in a new landscape plan, then make sure you have made that clear with your landscaping team. If adding trees and shade or fields of flowers is important, that should be part of your plan.

If you feel like you want to embark on a new adventure with your landscape, plantings, and plans for your home, discuss that, too.

Sometimes, life sends extra blessings, and we have kids who love digging in gardens and transplanting one small plant from space to space. Adventure might fill the child’s thoughts, and outdoor time is the same as time spent on a safari or the moon. All of that will change your needs.

Whatever is important, no matter how trivial or strange it may seem, should be addressed when creating your outdoor space.

Building your dream landscape

Planning and deliberating with your family and landscape team has made your landscape plans perfect for your home. The chosen materials go well with your house and the small patio areas, with plenty of room to add more amenities. Your choices for the walkways are inspired and will be beautiful when finished.

Adding more flower beds, ground-level and raised, works well for your property. What are your thoughts about mulch for the flower beds?

The multiple slopes on the property make for some good natural drainage. At least none of the property slopes toward the house, but this house is old enough that it was built at the highest point of the land.

Trees are a good choice for adding to the landscaping, too. The shade they will cast will help cool the house during the summer heat and help guard the house against blowing cold in the winter. How would you like to see a reduction in your cooling and heating energy bills? We thought so.

If you’re planning on other kinds of trees for a privacy fence along the front of your property, you might find they serve as a windbreak, too. Of course, nothing will stop the snow from falling or winter from bringing cold temperatures, but changing the pattern of wind might change the cold factor of the property.

Future planning

Your plans show areas for future planning, more landscape items to add, creating outdoor living areas, and room for the kids to have their own space for growing things or creating fantasy countries that will appear to us as fountains or rocky mountains.

Plans for other roofed areas will cover your expanded living space, offering more weather protection. But, again, you’ll be able to use your outdoor space more often if it can be protected from snow and wind. And again, it affords your home more protection from the weather and may affect your utility bills.

There’s a lot of room left for other future projects that haven’t been identified yet. Your family will continue to grow, and your house will accommodate those changes. Likewise, the house will continue to change and grow as your family changes.

Life is full of curves – you might even be great-grandparents someday, living in your big house with four generations living together. It can make life much more exciting than we planned when we were much younger.

Your Rish’s Complete Lawn Care gurus did a great job interpreting your current plans and leaving room for later plans. They will be there for every step of transforming your landscape and home hardscaping. It will be as complete and exciting as it can be!