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Essential Landscaping Tips for New Homes

There are very few days in your life as memorable as the day a builder hands you the keys to your brand new home. New homes are a sign of hope for the future, and signal a kind of permanence that rental housing can never match. Most new housing developments have good landscaping to go along with new construction homes. It can be very gratifying for a new homeowner to simply mow the lawn and trim the shrubs. But sooner or later, homeowners get the itch to add features to their landscaping to reflect their personality more closely. If you’re thinking of changing the look of your new home’s landscaping, we’ve assembled some helpful tips to get you off on the right foot:

Make a List

It can be tempting to simply start adding things to your yard after you move in to your new house. You might do better to do a little planning beforehand. There’s really no need to have formal landscape plans drawn up to make changes. Most new homes have well-established lawns, shrubs, and walkways, so there’s no need for any sort of an overhaul.

It’s much smarter to simply make a list of all the outdoor features you’d like to add. For instance, if there’s a baby on the way, you might add a playset to the list. If you’d like a vegetable garden to go along with the perennial shrubs, add that to your list. You can use the list to make a rough drawing of your yard. All you’ll need is something as simple as circles drawn on a piece of paper with your house in the middle.

By starting with a list, you’ll avoid doing things twice. For instance, you won’t have to tear up your rose garden because you placed it where you eventually want to put a shed for your mower. You can order and reorder you list as your budget allows and you get new ideas.

Live There a While First

After you’ve lived in your house for a while, you’ll have a much better idea about what you like about it, and what you’d like to change. A yard looks different during different seasons and different times of the day. After you’ve lived there for a while, you’ll discover which areas could stand improvement, and which are perfect just the way they are.

Watch the Sun

New homes don’t exist in a vacuum. Details like the amount of sun and the prevailing wind will affect your enjoyment of the rooms inside and the spaces outside. If you want to plant a flower garden, it won’t do well if there’s not enough sunshine. On the flip side, if you want to spend time outdoors in a shady place, you’ll want to avoid putting a screen pavilion on the sunny side of the house. Be sure to take the environment into account when planning outdoor improvements.

Stay In Control

It’s a lot of fun to add features to your landscaping. If you like to cook outdoors, you can buy a grill or even install a full outdoor kitchen. Many people enjoy water features or pools. It’s enjoyable to watch shelter shows on television that show big transformations of outdoor spaces, but watch out. TV shows have small armies of people to accomplish things. You will no doubt have much fewer resources to draw on.

Landscaping features at new homes almost always looks best if you add them slowly and steadily. Your wallet and you back will thank you if you place one new item after another, instead of all at once. Each project will give your landscaping a new look, and it might affect how you add to it going forward. Staying in control also makes sure you don’t end up with a bunch of projects half-finished.

Pick Focal Points

New homes can be like a blank canvas for a painter. Look for features in the natural landscape that can act as focal points. New homes in Chester County PA might have a piece of ledge protruding from the ground that would make a stunning centerpiece for a flower garden, for instance. If nothing seems to stand out. you can purchase an object that can serve as a focal point, like a planter, a sculpture, or a row of shrubs. Then you can build your landscaping features around it.

Don’t Worry Too Much

Don’t let planning ahead keep you from acting. Pay close attention to the placement of hardscaping items like paved walks and garden structures, but don’t worry too much about most plants. You can move or replace many types of flowers and shrubs if you decide to change things later. And of course, annual flowers can find a new home every year.

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This post was written by Chetty Builders