Creating Curb Appeal on a Budget

In our last blog, we covered how landscaping can increase the value of your home. Landscaping can be an expensive proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. Below we outline some tricks on how you can increase the value of your property by landscaping without spending too much money.

Cut and edge your grass

If you have a mower and edger, you can handle this job yourself. If not, you can hire a local grass cutting company or student-run business. Just make sure you don’t cut your grass too short or too often, or you’ll risk brown patches and more sunlight reaching the weeds, causing them to sprout. A good rule of thumb is to never remove more than one-third of the blade length. Also, mow when the grass is dry for fewer clumps, and leave the clippings on the lawn (unless they form clumps or rows) to return nitrogen and nutrients to the lawn.

Apply fresh mulch

Mulch helps soil retain moisture, reduces weeds, and makes a landscape look fresh. Plus, it’s very inexpensive and can be purchased at any home garden centre. There are online calculators to help you figure how much mulch you’ll need.

Red mulch is popular among commercial areas, and darker colours, such as brown or black, work better for residential landscapes. Only use red mulch if it matches the colour scheme.

Brown mulch, which tends to lose its colour after one season, is a good universal colour that makes plants appear vibrant. Black mulch is better in colder regions because it retains sunlight and heat better.

Add beauty with groupings of flowers

For relatively little money, you can purchase potted flowers or plants that greet potential buyers with colour. Even a couple of nice pots around the front door add colour and make your house look more appealing and capture the potential buyer’s attention before they even enter the house.

If you make your own planters, try grouping a specific type or colour of plant together in clusters of three, five, or seven. This creates a “drift” of plants that adds flow to your landscape and a stronger impact than just scattering them. This technique moves the eye along the landscape instead of a visitor feeling like your flower beds are unplanned and unkept.

Punch up the garden

Even with a small yard, you can create the feeling of ample green space. Using plants of varying sizes or planters with multiple tiers adds visual interest through height as well as depth, so the landscaping doesn’t appear flat.

There are a number of vertical gardening ideas you can use to create a focal point in the garden, such as building a terra cotta planter wall on your fence, or using wrought-iron flower pots to elevate planters on a porch or balcony.

Not feeling that handy? Choose flowers and accents in calming, rich tones of blue, such as cobalt. Choose plants such as delphinium, hydrangea, globe thistle, grape hyacinth, or blue fortune. Repurposing items in a garden is a clever and growing trend. A cracked birdbath finds new life and makes a statement as a planter.

Stain your deck

Over time, weather can wreak havoc on a deck, causing the stain to fade or crack and leaving the wood vulnerable to rot. Power-wash your deck and apply at least two new coats of stain to maintain the deck’s look and integrity. Your deck will look brand new.

You can take on this project yourself with the proper equipment. You will need to rent a power washer and buy the stain at a local hardware store. There are also plenty of handymen and deck companies who can do this for you for not a lot of money.

Refresh your patio

You can power-wash the patio and any seating as well to jettison any dirt and cobwebs. Many real estate agents recommend homeowners remove dirt, grime, and cobwebs from the front entrance alone to ramp up curb appeal before selling.

If you have a little more money to spend, consider installing or redoing a walkway with pavers or painting a pattern on the existing patio or walkway using concrete stain.

Reduce noise and add privacy

If your house sits where buyers might think they’ll hear road noise — for instance, off a high-traffic road, near a traffic light, or on a corner lot in a neighborhood — enhance the oasis feeling by reducing noise and adding privacy.

Consider using a trellis for privacy or a fountain for “white noise,” which masks unappealing sound. Installing a backyard water fountain or waterfall can cost relatively little, depending on size, complexity, or material. If you can adjust the fountain or any of your irrigation system through a Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or a smartphone app, you’ll maximize efficiency and tie into a landscaping trend. Also consider increasing the height of your fence with a lattice.

Place strategic garden containers

Plants and lawns can reduce noise levels by 20% to 30%, but if you don’t have enough mature bushes and trees in the backyard for a noise barrier (and you’re not keen on investing in plants that you can’t take with you when you move), create a temporary one by placing a few Japanese maples or evergreens in containers. Put them on the patio, deck or along the walkway. Do not put the containers on the grass, because their weight could damage the lawn.