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7 Money-Saving Landscaping Tips

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There's nothing like being outdoors and crafting a beautiful front or backyard. Making your home garden and lawn more attractive and lush is fun, but can be expensive without planning. Taking care of your lawn, adding fertilizer, watering, or mulching will add up.

When you do your research and put some thought into landscaping. The work can be easy and save you a lot of money. Your landscape can still be gorgeous without sacrificing much. Here are some cheap and easy landscaping tips.

Do-It-Yourself As Much As You Can

Planting flowers, laying rocks, mowing, seeding, treating, and fertilizing can be accomplished by yourself. Plus, instead of paying for a professional, you will become the expert. On your own, starting fertilizer and preventing weeds can cost $50 and seeding can cost $75. With a professional, it will cost a lot more.

Perennial Plants Over Annuals

Perennials plants last for years, while annuals don't. Perennials include bushes, shrubs, vines and trees. These will add so much charm and beauty to your garden or lawn.

You can even find perennial succulents. Succulents, in general, don't require too much attention to grow and fill up space. Easily, break off a piece of the succulent and place the piece in the soil for another succulent to grow. It's not necessary to water succulents all the time, which means you'll be saving money on water.

Annuals like dahlias or snapdragons will die faster and need to be replaced each season. That will suck out more money out of your wallet. To cut costs, choose perennial plants over annuals. You only need to plant perennials once and they'll cover your garden after growing.

Grow Your Food

Planting herbs and vegetables will save you in another area of your life, food. Initially, it may cost $200 a year on expenses like seeding or plant starts. However, in the long run, you will be cutting costs.

You won't need to go to the grocery store to buy vegetables, when you're growing it at home. You'll also be saving money on travel expenses to get to the store to buy those items.

Go With Some Artificial Plants

Some artificial plants that would cut costs are grass, flowers, or boxwood. They will never die and you will almost never have to maintain them. People save the most money on water by switching to artificial plants. Go with fake boxwood and place them in containers.

Installing the grass may be the only expensive part, but in the long term you'll be lowering costs by removing the need to water, maintain, cut, fertilize, or use pesticides. It's easy to clean if any animals make it dirty or if there are any stains. People suggest purchasing a bottle of cleaner. A $ 40-gallon bottle of cleaner can bring 6,000 square feet of artificial grass back to new.

Bulk Up On Mulch

At landscape suppliers, buying mulch in bulk is cheaper than purchasing smaller quantities of it at a time. If you're not sure about the amount of mulch you're going to need vCalc will help. It's an online calculator.

Buying the wrong amount of mulch will cost you more because you may overspend by buying too much. If you don't purchase enough of mulch, then you would need to pay for shipping or traveling expenses again when you buy more.

Mulch in different colors is also available. Having more than one color will make the garden or lawn picturesque. Black mulch goes well with green vegetation and brown mulch adds a natural appearance. If you want to get more creative, build a slope or a pathway with mulch. To prevent weeds from growing place a black landscaping plastic under the mulch. If there's a tree in that same area, cut an X on the plastic.

Mix it Up

When you mix materials like types of stones or rocks, you don't have to be stuck with purchasing only the one high-priced material. Experiment with low-cost boulders, pavers, river stone, or other materials to make the area appear natural.

This goes with plants too. If everything looked the same, it may get boring. Try tall or short plants. Give plants in containers a chance. For example, you can put a tree in a container and when it starts growing too big, break the bottom of the container and plant it in the ground. The tree will look like it's still growing in the container and not the ground. Go for different color combinations. Play around and place some of them in different areas like going towards the house.

Rock On

Just like mulch, rocks, boulders, and stones can be used in many different ways. These materials can be used as a wall, a pathway, steps if you have an elevated area or a mini border between plants. Use boulders to create a bench or seating area. Rocks can hide a lot of awkward areas in your yard. You can also purchase rocks and stones in bulk for a better price.

HGTV notes that small pebbles cause more trouble than good. Small pebbles can easily be moved by stepping on them or by being washed away. If you don't like the idea of having to put them back in place when this happens, you should avoid purchasing them at all. Go for bigger pebbles instead.