There are two aspects to creating a truly beautiful home. The first involves your kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and other inner spaces. The second involves areas immediately outside your home. Both aspects are connected to and complement each other. Which is why a home renovation should focus on both aspects for the maximum impact. But as is the case with most renovations, the home’s interior corners the lion’s share of the renovation budget. This leaves very little money to spend for the landscaping, which can be a real bummer.
But what if there’s a way to make your home look great on the outside without quite breaking the bank. Landscaping ideas on a budget do just that for you. Consisting of a mix of soft landscaping and hard landscaping, these are affordable ideas that help tidy-up your home on the outside.
1) May be a haircut is all that’s needed
It’s amazing how getting rid of unwanted shrubs, long grass, trees and driveway overgrowth can reveal a lovely garden underneath. The same holds for your landscape as it can be brought to life if you do the little things like edging the driveway and pathways, laying fresh gravel where needed and repainting furniture and fences. Although the results are spectacular, the work needed can be back breaking and keep you busy for a couple of weekends at least. If you want to avoid that, better hire a professional gardening or landscaping firm.
2) Consider adding a path
Adding a path is a great way to create a focal point for your garden and breathe new life into your landscape. Something like a resin bound pathway also lets you choose a colour that complements your house and sets apart your garden.
Resin bound material is nothing but aggregate or gravel mixed with resin. It offers a lot of advantages over other materials and is fast becoming the paving material of choice with homeowners all over the UK. Thanks to the variety of colours and finishes resin bound material offers, you can really jazz up your pathway, and if the budget permits, your driveway too.
3) Fill up the flower beds
Has all the cleaning left you with usable flower beds? If so, you can fill them up with colourful plants. And since we are talking of budget landscaping ideas for the front of house, avoid going for expensive plants. Simple, cheap and jolly perennials like fuchsias and geraniums would do just fine. Since these plants grow each year unfailingly, your landscape will come alive with beautiful colours.
4) A new driveway perhaps
What is this doing in a list of affordable front yard landscaping ideas, you might wonder aloud? Well, there is no denying that the driveway is central to the appearance of any landscape. When you are on a budget, you can at least try to make it look better, if not overhaul it completely.
For instance, if your existing concrete or tarmac driveway is in good condition, you can have it directly paved over with a resin bound mixture. This saves you a lot of money and gives you a driveway guaranteed to be the cynosure of all eyes.
5) Install new lighting
Mention landscape lighting and people invariably think of elaborate fixtures or arrangements that cost a bomb not only to buy and install but to operate as well. Instead, you can simply go for battery or solar powered lights that can be programmed to turn on at sundown. Fairy lights for the trees, cane lights for the garden, lights for the pathway and wall lights for the house can each make your home look spectacularly good, on a budget.
6) Say no to right angles
Most landscapes feature square- or rectangle-shaped gardens or lawns. Both these shapes look staid and uninspiring, unlike curves. Similar to sweeping curved driveways, gardens and lawns sporting curves look less haphazard and more elegant than their right-angled counterparts. Infusing your landscape with a few curves is also pretty easy if you do it yourself. A spade, a spray paint can to outline the curve and a few hours on the weekend are all you’ll need for the purpose. But if you find the going tough, professional landscapers can always help you out.
7) Reusing & recycling can be useful
A garden area dotted with small artefacts, interesting structures and cute seating arrangements looks far more inviting than a plain Jane garden. That said, don’t go shopping for them. Instead, think of something along the lines of reclaimed garden tables and chairs, tree stumps, fence panels or even sleepers. There is no limit to the number of things you can repurpose for using in the garden. Why send it to the landfill when you can use it to make the garden look good and save money in the process!
Each of these seven ideas proves that spending to beautify your landscape or make it better is strictly a choice, and not a compulsion. A big imagination can serve you much better than a big budget.