For many, a common dream is to own a home and have a beautiful yard. For those who accomplish this, the next question becomes, how do you actually mange it?
While managing and decorating a home can be difficult, at least from the outside, nobody really sees anything. The yard however, is what most people see.
It may seem easy to take care of a lawn. Put down grass seed, a few flowers, maybe a tree, and then watch everything come together. While that sounds nice, it almost always takes much more effort and time.
While no two lawns are the same, here are a few tips to help achieve the perfect desired lawn.
Prepare For the Worst
According to Angel Kahn of Rainier Rockeries, “Irrigation sprinkler systems can often wash away dirt if you’re trying to cover a sloped area with plants (especially right after planting). A stair-step that slopes with a retaining wall can prevent the downhill flow from washing away all of the dirt.”
Oftentimes, the biggest issue with a lawn is that one flood or leaky pipe causes everything to fall apart. It is somewhat simple to save up and make a lawn look good once, but having to pay for repairs and or redo everything is usually not within the budget.
Research
Maybe you love the cottage style of yard, but if you live in Phoenix, that yard simply is not going to work.
Finding out the kind plants and grass that will grow well in the area will save a lot of time and money. For example, just the other day, I was at a large business looking for grass seed and found Kentucky bluegrass. While not the worst option, it certainly is not as effective as other types of grass in my area, like tall fescue. Without research, it could be easy to assume that large businesses would have the best options, just to wonder why the grass isn’t growing very well.
Researching other topics such as maintenance, common issues, and water needs can also help prepare for the kind of project that is really being taken on. For example, some bushes may only need to be trimmed once per year, while others may require a bi-weekly cut to look good.
Planting a garden may seem like a great way to save money, but in some areas, the amount of water to keep the plants growing may outweigh the benefits.
Allow for Change
Needs and desires in a yard can change as time goes on. As kids grow, you may realize that a larger grass area could be helpful. Later, once the kids have grown and moved on, that space could be better utilized as a garden. Limiting a yard to only one use, however, can cause some undesired consequences.
Just as styles in a home change, the same is true for yards. While a certain kind of bark mulch may be popular today, in five years, it may be more trendy to have loose gravel. Creating and managing yards that can be updated is something that will save a lot of time and money.
There are many ways to do this, but the most common way is to keep things as open as possible. Having spaces set aside for different parts of the yard makes it easier to redo or tweak that particular area as opposed to having to upheave the entire yard and redo everything.
More than anything, a yard should be personal. There are thousands of online resources and tips to help make a yard look perfect, but the only perfect yard is the one that you enjoy most.
