The Importance of Landscape Design

When we talk about the value of a home, monetary value is only one aspect that should be considered. There is also the sentimental value and the emotional value. How many memories have you built in your home? How does your home make you feel?

An occasionally overlooked factor that contributes to all three of these values is landscape design. Whether you have an unadorned lawn or a swimming pool, or something in between, the environment around your home is its own mini-ecosystem.

By working with a landscape architect and an experienced team, you can create a sustainable, enjoyable world all your own. Landscape services are about so much more than trimming hedges and mowing lawns—they are about creating a living, breathing oasis for you and your loved ones.

So how does landscape design improve the value of a home?

Curb Appeal

As much as you love your home, you may need to move someday, and you’ll want to get the most value out of the sale of your house as possible. A home that attracts the eye makes a difference—and very little attracts the eye more than a beautiful yard.

Multiple surveys of realtors, including a survey conducted by Virginia Tech, show that landscaping can add as much as 10% to the valuation of a home. And quality design installed by professional landscaping services can bump that value up even more.

When you add in the value increase that comes with a swimming pool, the money you invest in your home’s mini-ecosystem will pay dividends. When your house looks like a place that has been cared for and is pleasant to spend time in, it’s unlikely to stay on the market for too long.

But not all landscape design is created equal. Design that uses difficult-to-maintain plants or that is too muddled or too cluttered—common pitfalls of do-it-yourself design—can work against your financial goals.

By working with landscape architecture firms, you can be sure to get a design that meets your needs. A good architect will take your tastes into account while making sure that the plants and features they utilize for you are easy to maintain and don’t ruin your enjoyment of your outdoors. 

For example, thanks to their training and studies, a landscape architect will know what plants to keep away from a swimming pool because they drop a lot of leaves or needles. They also know how to balance the value of your investment with the projected resale value once everything is said and done. 

From a financial value perspective, investing in landscaping services that include the work of a landscape architect is the best way to get the most bang for your buck.

Making Memories With A Landscape Architect

But landscape design isn’t just about selling a home. It’s about creating a place to live your life. We connect memories to places. It’s not out of the ordinary to forget the color of your grandmother’s kitchen tiles, but remember the smells of the garden she planted in the backyard perfectly.

The sentimental and emotional value of a home shouldn’t be overlooked. The way you feel about your home makes a big difference. Having a place you can return to after a long day that fills you with peace, calm, and happiness is a huge part of living a well-balanced life.

So what does that have to do with landscape services? More than you might think.

Creating an environment that reflects your sense of style and provides you with an outdoor oasis to do the things you enjoy comfortably helps you destress. And with a swimming pool, it also gives you a great place to get in a good workout.

Landscape design services help you craft that personal oasis for you and your family. Whether you want to prioritize open spaces for kids to run around with a few shade trees or a yard with lots of seating and hidden lights to create a perfect, cosmopolitan dinner party atmosphere, a designer with an eye for form and function can help you reach that goal.

Easing the Burden

Good landscape design also values your time. Maintaining your yard and pool can be time consuming, exhausting work. This is especially true if you have to frequently skim high volumes of leaves out of your pool or pick up fruit that has dropped from a tree before it rots and attracts pests.

Landscape architects take maintenance into account when selecting the plants and features for a design. This includes factoring in root structures. Some trees have roots that will spread very far and can starve out other trees and hedges and even cause problems for concrete structures.

Those invasive roots wouldn’t be a problem if the trees that have them weren’t often gorgeous. But a quality architect will know how to include those plants without causing you problems down the line—placing them strategically to give maximum visual impact with minimal maintenance impact.

Of course, not everyone has the time to keep up with their own maintenance, which may make them hesitant to embrace the benefits of landscape design. They look at what could be done for their home, and all they can see is lawn mowers and hedge clippers and sweating outside on their day off.

But they need not worry. Landscape maintenance services can be affordable and contribute to the added home value that comes with quality landscape design. 

When you find a landscape architect you like, if they don’t already work as part of a firm that offers maintenance services, they will have recommendations for you. So if you are maintenance averse, don’t worry. You can still reap the financial and emotional benefits of great landscape design and installation.

Landscaping Services: Embrace Your Dream Environment

Landscape design increases the value of your home along multiple vectors. It is a good idea to embrace it. But once you’ve decided that you want to embrace landscaping, what do you want to get out of it? What is your ideal home environment?

Landscaping design can give you so much. Do you want a living privacy fence? Where do you want shade? Would you like a pool that you can swim laps in or a curvy pool designed for lounging with a hot tub off to the side? 

From giving you a cabana to selecting the perfect tree for a tire swing, a full service landscaping firm can take what you want, design it intelligently and sustainably, install it, and maintain it. They will help you pick the perfect plants for your wants and your needs.

Landscaping services give you the opportunity to fill your home environment with plants and features that make you happy. They let you take a good home and make it into the house of your dreams. And they do it all while improving your home’s potential resale value.

What is Valuable to You?

As previously stated, landscape design can improve the value of your home by 10% or more. And the emotional value of a home environment that is tailored to your desires is astronomical. So the question becomes: what do you value in your personal landscape?

Do you want to recreate the smells and textures of a beloved place from your childhood? Do you want to make the perfect outdoor party hosting spot? Do you want your yard to look pretty and take as little effort as possible to keep up? Do you want a place your kids will remember fondly well into their adult years?

No matter what you value in your environment, by working with a landscape architect, your wants and needs can be met and exceeded.

A landscape architect will shepherd your design from start to finish. They will factor in your priorities, your budget, your hopes for resale value, your climate, and your desired level of effort for maintenance.

A landscape architect can ensure that you don’t wind up with a filthy swimming pool or a yard full of stinging insects or rotten fruit from poorly chosen trees. They can give you the sights, smells, and textures that help you get away from the pressures of the world.

Landscape services improve your home life by leaps and bounds. From the financial to the emotional, the world around your home can give you more than it does now. Your yard can be more than just a lawn—it can be a refuge.