Do It Yourself Landscape Design and Installation

A good landscape design not only adds appeal to the beauty of the home but it also can increase the value of your home by as much as 15%, giving you the ability to recoup up to 200% on your landscape investment. .And because of its added appeal, a house with a great landscape design sells faster.

Whether you are just starting or you have been gathering pictures and dreaming about your landscape transformation for years, first figure out what you want to conquer yourself and what you are going to need a landscapers professional help with.

Here are some ways that you can evaluate your abilities as a do it yourself landscape designer.

1. Figure out your skill set… if you are confident that you can do your own design without being rescued by a professional and you have a green thumb with lots of experience with different plant materials, then doing your own design will be an easy task for you.  If on the other hand you do not know anything about plants or landscape materials, your best bet would be to hire a designer for the planning stage of your new landscape and do the planting yourself.

2.  Decide what you actually want in your new landscape design. Be able to visualize and identify the different areas of your landscape where you will use different landscape elements like lawns, flower beds, trees, plants, and of course relaxation areas like a new fire pit or water feature or the kids play area.

3.  Remove the unsightly things first, then you can get a good idea of what you landscape can actually look like. Get rid of the things cluttering up your landscape…the overgrown and aging plants, that half dead tree, the kids rusted out swing set that take away from the beauty of your home. Get rid of anything that does not enhance the beauty of your landscape. Once you have done that you have a better palette to start with.

4.  Use the same thoughtful approach to your landscape as you would for that new pair of shoes that you are going to buy. Do not be an impulse buyer with landscape plants. Just because you like it in the nursery does not mean that it fits your landscape. To often we see homeowners buy a plant they like and just plunk it down in their landscape only to find out several years down the road it was not a good choice. A good landscape design need to be cohesive and starts with a well thought out plan.

5.  Don’t bite off more than you can chew, budget wise or time wise. Set a budget for each one and stick with it. Lay out your design in zones or areas and set a budget for each one. Prioritize what you want to do first and move on from there. It could take you several years to fully complete your landscape design depending on the budgets you have set.This is natural considering the fact that it is hard to establish a working budget and time frame right at the very start.  A do it yourself landscape design and installation is a task that requires a solid commitment and may be really taxing on your part especially if you are a beginner. Remember that you must be realistic about your abilities.

Don’t over commit yourself and wind up disappointed with your do it yourself landscape design.