Is it time to refresh your landscape?
If you want to enhance your home and preserve its value, updating the curb appeal of your landscape is a great place to start. According to realtors, home appraisers, and landscape professionals, residential landscapes should be redone every five to ten years. When was the last time you refreshed the exterior of your home? While a full landscape overhaul may not be necessary every few years, regular maintenance and occasional updates can help keep your outdoor space looking its best.
Having an experienced professional landscape designer, such as Melissa Gerstle Design, periodically assess your landscape, will allow you to make incremental or extensive improvements that will optimize your outdoor spaces. The decision to redo your landscape should be based on a combination of aesthetic, functional, and environmental factors.
Have you recently purchased a home where the landscape doesn’t suit your taste or mesh well with the architecture? That might be a sign it’s time to refresh your exterior spaces. Other factors might include:
Plant Health and Growth:
If plants are diseased, dying, outgrowing their spaces, or past their prime, it might be time for a landscape overhaul. Regularly assess the health and growth of your plants and replace them as needed to maintain a healthy, attractive landscape.
Aesthetic Preferences:
Personal tastes can change over time. If you find that your current landscape no longer reflects your style or aesthetic preferences, consider a redesign to create a space that you love and enjoy.
Environmental Factors:
Changes in climate, weather patterns, or environmental conditions may require you to update your landscape. For instance, water conservation may be a goal while drought conditions might necessitate a shift towards more drought-tolerant plants and xeriscaping. Colder winters, like the most recent bouts of ice storms we’ve experienced in Dallas over the past few years, has pushed our palette towards more cold tolerant plants.
Functional Needs:
As your family’s needs change, so might the functional requirements of your outdoor space. For instance, installing a vegetable garden, creating a pet-friendly area, or adding a pool or water feature could improve the usability and enjoyment of your landscape.
Property Value:
If you’re planning to sell your home, a landscape refresh can significantly enhance curb appeal and increase property value. A well-designed and maintained landscape can attract potential buyers and make a strong first impression while increasing your home’s value by 7% or more.* (Jan 23, 2020 WSJ:Selling Your Home? It’s What’s on the Outside That Counts.)
Maintenance:
If you don’t have the time or budget to devote to extensive maintenance of your property, designing a lower maintenance program will ensure your landscape looks good over time and preserves your investment.
Dramatic Transformations
Landscape redesign can dramatically transform the look of your home. Here are two examples:
Lakeside Retreat: The former owners neglected the landscape and the plantings were overgrown as seen in the before and after images below.
After: New furniture, a pool remodel and plantings enhanced the overall beauty and functionality of this property. And renovated planting of boxwood globes set within in a sea of sedge embellishes the pathway connecting the home to the pool.
Diamond Path Estate: Before the front walk and garden didn’t complement the stately front of the home. After the diamond-patterned walkway enhances the property and creates the desired curb appeal.
After Diamond Path and refreshed plantings in front of the house.
Before view of the front walk and overgrown plants. in front of the house.