You don’t have to be a professional landscaper to make your front yard look absolutely amazing. Your landscaping can be exceptional even without years of experience or a super green thumb. Here are seven easy landscaping projects that even an amateur gardener can do.
1. Add Some Edging
Show your grass who is boss with edging that will tackle even the worst of crabgrasses. Don’t make the mistake of buying flexible plastic stuff thinking it will be easier to install. It will look amateurish and cheap and will not last. Instead, buy aluminum, steel or fiberglass.
2. Make a Flagstone Wall
Build a flagstone wall no more than 12 inches tall and it can be an easy DIY project and no mortar is needed. Building a flagstone wall is pretty simple:
1. Dig a trench a couple of inches deep and wide enough to accommodate the flagstones
2. Fill with pea gravel and/or sand and tamp to make level
3. Lay out the flagstones to see their shapes and sizes
4. Stack the smaller stones first
5. Save the largest, prettiest flagstones for the top layer
6. Backfill with gravel
3. Build a Tree Surround
Installing a masonry surround for a tree is a great project because it looks good, and it gives you less to mow. All you need to do is dig a circular trench, add some sand and install brick, cement blocks or stone. Dig out a circular trench about 8 inches deep and 6 inches wide, then add a layer of sand, set bricks at an angle for a saw-tooth look or lay them end-to-end and then fill the surround with 2 to 3 inches of mulch.
4. Keep it Cozy
When you plant an entire garden bed, arrange the plants in tight-knit groups, sharing soil and root systems to prevent them from drying out.
5. Plant Tall Grass
Tall grasses like switchgrass, muhly, bluestem, and fountain grass all grow quickly and require very little maintenance and they never need to be mowed. You can use tall grasses in different ways:
Group them into geometric patterns for a clean look in your front yard
Group along a fence line
Go more random with placement for a more natural look
The most maintenance you will ever have to do is cut them back in late fall. These types of grasses will dry up in the fall sending plenty of leaves into your yard.
6. Install Faux Grass
Artificial turf can look exactly like real grass without ever having to be mowed. This is great for someone who doesn’t have the time to tend to a front yard. It comes like a roll of carpet, you set a bed for it with gravel and then use sod staples to hold it down. It doesn’t need to be cut, fertilized or watered and pets can’t kill it.
Landscaping doesn’t have to feel like rocket science. These six easy landscaping ideas can make your yard look like a million bucks.
Hoping you are getting to enjoy the start of this summer season. We are always here to help you with your real estate needs.
Semper-Fi
Eric