If you are landscaping your yard for the first time or for the first time in awhile, there are some tips and guidelines that you can follow to make the process easier. While extensive landscaping has a reputation for being an expensive home improvement project, there is no reason for you to spend a lot of money to get a yard in good shape. Here are some how-to tips for quickly cleaning up your landscape even if you do not have a huge budget for it.
Mulch
Mulching your yard is one of the quickest and easiest ways to give it a facelift over night (or in a day). Simple purchase bags of mulch from you local home improvement store and spend an afternoon distributing it to all of the flower beds, tree bases and shrub areas in your yard. The mulch will not only help to keep your soil moist and full of essential nutrients, but it will help to create a pleasing color contrast between your green grass and the dark brown flower beds. Mulching instantly makes your landscape look healthy and vibrant, no matter what condition your landscape is in.
Trim your lawn
Trimming your lawn includes keeping the grass at a low and healthy level and keeping weeds gone. To ensure that your grass continues to grow at a healthy pace, sprinkle the lawn with fertilizer and weed killer. You can purchase bags of fertilizer seed for a relatively small amount of money from your local greenhouse. The weed killer can be disseminated through your sprinkler system or through a hose.
Focus on the area near your house
If you are trying to give your entire lawn a real makeover, you are going to spend a large sum of money. However, if you are only on a shoestring and desire to landscape quickly, then dress up the area near your house first. Add color and full plants to this area to quickly make your home appear vibrant and inviting. Consider investing in leafy bushes and avoid bushes, such as azaleas, that lose their foliage during the winter.
Make your walkway inviting
The cheapest and quickest way to clean up your landscape is to keep it clean. By sweeping your walkway and trimming any plants, trees or shrubs that have become overgrown, you will give your landscape an instantly clean and well-manicured look. You may not even need to pay any money at all, as long as you have a broom and a set of trimmers! Simply make sure that your walkway is free from debris, such as leaves, sticks and weeds. If you have trees, trim branches so that they do not overhang into the walkways. Cut bushes back so that the path is clear. In just a few quick steps and very little investment, your landscape will look fresh in no time.
You do not have to spend a lot of money on your landscape in order for it to look renewed almost instantly. The most important thing you can do it keep it clean, well organized and healthy. Once your budget for landscape improvements expands, you will be able to work more easily with your lawn if you are already relatively cleaned up.