Building an Home Extension

Landscaping can be costly especially if you are doing a complete overhaul of your front yard. The professional labor hours involved as well as the garden tools required calls for a careful approach; while you want a new lawn, breaking your bank account should not be an option. Landscaping has many hidden costs, and if you are smart enough, you could reduce these costs significantly and still achieve an excellent front yard. Saving such costs calls for the application of tried and tested cost effective landscaping tricks.

Don't Dispose of Top Soil -- During the excavation stage of a landscaping project, be careful when out the top soil. It is usually the most fertile part of the soil profile. As you excavate this top soil, make sure that you have somewhere to store it because you are going to reuse it as top soil during the dressing stage. If you throw the earth away, you would have to buy the very same land at a substantial amount. Save this money or use it to buy something else that will add value to your new lawn.

Use Native Plants -- Completely excavating your front yard does not mean that you should replace every native plant in the yard. While it might be tempting to fill your new garden with flowers of all sorts, the initial investment will be deterrence. Therefore, before you start the landscaping process, make sure that you have an idea of the native plants you would want to keep. You will not only save money at the nursery but lower maintenance bills, for example, water

Mixed Landscape -- If you are cash strapped and still want a beautiful looking front yard, your best shot is to have a diverse landscape. Diverse views consist of different features in the garden rather than going with flora alone. Therefore, you can decide to reduce the area you want to be covered with plants by adding a patio or a deck. By doing so, you would save on watering and maintenance costs.

Vary Landscape Finishes -- Landscape finishes come in varying designs and materials. From synthetic to natural, your choice of landscape finishing should factor in the overall cost. As such, varying these finishes would ensure that you save on maintenance and repair costs. For example, you should install artificial grass in areas of the lawn that will receive the highest foot traffic, but use natural and well-manicured grass in areas that receive less of the same. From a distance, the landscape will appear the same; however, regardless of the amount of human traffic. Artificial grass is meant to withstand such treatment while natural grass is not.