Landscaping Tips to Save Time and Money

Before landscaping a new yard or updating an established yard, here are some landscaping tips to save time and money. These tips will guide you in planning, preparing and planting.

Make sure you know how big the trees, shrubs and flowers that you choose will eventually get and how long it will take. You'll need to pay attention to overhead utility lines, fences and your house or other buildings that you might be planting around. For example, you don't want to plant a tree that will grow 20 feet wide at maturity right next to your house. Plan on planting the tree at least 10 feet from your house and you will avoid future problems.

If you have an area in your yard that requires plants closer together to provide privacy, space two plants properly and then put a shrub in between knowing that you will remove it once the plants become too crowded. That way your plants don't look too far apart when they are young.

Adding perennial flowers and grasses that come back year after year is a great landscaping tip to save time and money. Perennial flowers and grasses add more color, texture and visual interest to your landscaping. Initially, you can plan carefully to have something blooming all year and you won't have to plant them every year. Best of all, perennials, bulbs, and many grasses grow into larger clumps each year. This is also a great landscaping tip to save time and money because after your perennials have matured a bit you can divide and plant them in other areas of your yard.

Purchasing quality trees and shrubs can also be a time and money saver. Higher quality trees and shrubs will have a better chance of survival and will have a better shape and overall appearance. You don't want to have to replant your trees and/or shrubs in a couple of years because they are not thriving or are mis-shaped and unattractive.

Landscaping tips to save time and money on weeding is to purchase a weed block fabric. A heavy duty quality landscape fabric can stop weeds for many years saving you from pulling them and saving your plants and flowers from being over taken by the weeds.