Whether you’re settling into a new home or looking to list your current residence, investing in landscaping and embracing current trends can increase the appeal and add value to your home. Better yet, it can enhance your entire living space and help you make the most of your outdoor lifestyle. And, here’s the best news of all: these trends don’t require a major overhaul of your entire yard. We’ll walk through how you can work with what you have to bring out the natural beauty that exists all around you.
Upgrade your landscaping with these tips
Tidy up!
Before making your improvements, let’s begin with a clean slate. Start with the basics: keep your yard organized and well-maintained. A tidy, uncluttered lawn will appear more spacious and sprawling without any interruptions to the sightline. If your home is on the market, nothing boosts the curb appeal like an immaculately groomed lawn; on the flip side, if you’re moving into a new home that you’ve just purchased, investing in your yard will coax the entire family outdoors to enjoy it.
Before you amp up your space, ensure you’ve taken care of the little things: mow the lawn, rake leaves, pull weeds, trim hedges, and prune the trees. In the winter months, keep sidewalks shoveled and clear. In the springtime, as the weather warms, you may want to power wash the driveway and sidewalks to freshen up those areas and keep any stains at bay. Maintaining the landscaping and exterior is relatively inexpensive and worth the return on investment.
Maximize your space
Just as you use clever tactics to gain more space inside the home, the same principles can be applied to the exterior. You’ve already done the bulk of the work by decluttering and manicuring the lawn. One easy way to maximize space is to manipulate the edging of the landscaping around the home. Each spring, as you prepare the home for the warmer months, take the edge of the landscaping farther away from the house; even incremental shifts will create more room for greenery to thrive and flowers to bloom.
To keep the backyard open and spacious, avoid large, overhead architecture. You can still get great use out of your patio or deck without an awning or pergola and create a cleaner look in the process. Don’t forget about the side yard — this area can be a valuable space for a vegetable or herb garden or a spot for your favorite plants and flowers.
If outdoor living quarters are especially tight, embrace vertical gardening. Unleash your creativity and utilize wall-mounted or free-standing planters to grow flowers or plants; most vegetables can be grown in this fashion, as long as they are watered frequently and have adequate exposure to the sun. In short, take advantage of your real estate, and maximize the areas where space isn’t as plentiful to create balance and expansiveness on your property.
Take it outside
Summer on the East Coast is magic and is best enjoyed outdoors. Take advantage of breezy, balmy evenings by taking the indoors outside. Luxuriously appointed outdoor living spaces are having a major moment, and rightly so. Homeowners have used every inch of their living spaces in the last few years, with the outdoors providing a safe and comfortable option for gatherings.
Outdoor kitchens and dining areas allow al fresco cooking and dining; any patio or backyard space can be transformed into a brick oven or barbecue pit. Install a flat-screen TV and create cozy seating options for outdoor movie nights, accent the living area with rugs that can stand up to the elements, and add furniture that can transition into the colder months. A fireplace will extend the lifespan of your outdoor area in the winter, as long as you’re willing to withstand the chill!
Accent with rich colors
Garden and outdoor decor is seeing a resurgence of bold colors and rich hues. Embrace the trend to accentuate the exterior of your home. For a long-term take on the style, use colorful hand-painted tiles in your backyard living space. Or let nature deliver the colorful palette itself. Use colorful flowers and plants, set off by the verdant backdrop of fluffy, evergreen bushes. Try a darker shade of mulch to coordinate with the door and house color; the deep hues will make the greenery look fresh, and the flowers appear more vibrant.
The entryway is an ideal place to add some zest. Refresh the paint color on the front door, and frame the doorway with beautiful pots of flowers in the spring and summer and faux or evergreen bushes in the winter.
Amplify with lighting
Amp up the exterior of your home and increase efficiency in the process with new lighting. Update garage and porch lighting with current fixtures that still complement your home's style. Use delicate lighting along pathways in front and back yards — you can even opt for eco-friendly solutions like solar-powered stake lights. Illuminate and reduce your carbon footprint all at once by using solar string lighting in the outdoor entertaining area or solar spotlights to highlight the landscaping in front of your home. Adorn the exterior in solar-powered Christmas lights or fairy lights, and your home will be the shining star of the neighborhood during the holiday season.
Get even more eco-friendly
Beyond lighting, other green landscaping techniques can increase the efficiency of your home and yards while reducing waste. Consider using recycled materials in bricks, stones, glass, or other materials used in hardscaping on the property, and opt for recycled plastics or sustainably harvested material for your deck or fencing.
That beautiful, dark mulch we mentioned earlier? Use an organic variety in garden beds and around trees to conserve soil moisture. Reduce the use of pesticides or fertilizers for a major decrease in pollutants. Ask your gardener or landscape company to test the soil to determine if any chemicals are needed in the first place; if your soil is lacking nutrients, consider adding compost to better the quality of your lawn and garden.
Rainfall in the spring and summers in the Northeast can be unpredictable, but you can still use fresh rainwater to your advantage. Create rain gardens where your landscaping can benefit from rainwater that flows from the roof or hardscaping rather than going directly into a storm sewer. The United State Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says that nearly 70% of water pollution comes from stormwater runoff, so eliminating that goes a long way.
Use native plants
Embrace the natural beauty of your surroundings by planting trees native to your habitat. Deliberately placed, mature trees add instant value to your home. In their natural conditions, these native New England trees, plants, and flowers will flourish.
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Red maple trees are fast-growing and first to change color in the fall. Their brilliant cardinal red leaves will provide a striking complement to the rest of your home.
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Eastern red cedars are beautiful, full native evergreens scattered with light blue berries.
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Downy serviceberry is a shrub-like tree with emerald leaves, white flowers in the spring, and striking orange, gold, and red leaves in the fall.
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Running serviceberries are flowering shrubs that will thrive throughout multiple seasons.
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White yarrow and pearly everlastings are perennials that are low-maintenance and will brilliantly offset brighter blooms.
Looking to buy or sell in Newburyport?
If you’re interested in buying or selling Newburyport real estate, contact Alissa Christie today. A resident of Newportbury, Alissa has helped clients discover their dream homes, navigate the process seamlessly, and realize their real estate goals.
