Have you ever been driving and noticed a yard (or two) that looked absolutely amazing? If you’ve got landscaping envy, you might be tempted to run out and spend your entire paycheck on outdoor items to make your yard look the same. Doing so though is not only a bad idea for your budget, but it’s also unnecessary. By learning a few landscaping tips for beginners, you can actually make your yard look amazing totally free! Landscaping, at its core, really is just taking care of the yard that you have which means that it shouldn’t cost you much at all to get your yard looking totally flashy.
Sure, you could spend thousands on your yard, but do you really need to? When it comes to landscaping your yard, less really is more. A simple patio table with a few accents is best and will give you the prettiest yard on the block! If you are super new to landscaping your hard, I highly recommend that you start with these 5 landscaping tips for beginners. They will help you get started on your journey of making your yard look flashy.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners – How to Take Your Yard from Trashy to Flashy on a Budget
When you go to do the work on your yard, make sure to pick a day that isn’t too terribly hot. Here in Texas, we’re already seeing three digit temperatures which means that it is hot enough that the devil himself feels right at home. If you’re working outside, make sure to stay hydrated and to take frequent breaks so that you don’t overheat your body. Once you’ve got your yard started, you likely won’t want to stop so just keep those safety tips in mind.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #1: Take the trash out –
The very first tip on our list of landscaping tips for beginners is to take out the trash. You might not realize it but trash can get caught in places you might not easily notice. Check under bushes and porches and remove any trash that is there. Also keep in mind that trash isn’t always trash. Things like sticks that have fallen or blown in can keep your yard from looking its best as well. If you have a lot of natural litter like sticks, leaves or lawn clippings, pick up a box of lawn and leaf bags and gather them up for trash day or to be composted later on.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #2: Get the mower out –
Once you’ve got all of the trash picked up, get out your lawn mower and mow the grass well. If possible, use a lawn mower with a bag attachment so that you don’t have cut grass clippings everywhere, but if your mower doesn’t allow for that, make sure to take a yard rake and collect the clippings. Leaving them on the lawn will only cause your yard to look unkempt.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #3: Trim everything –
Once the yard is mowed, it’s time to trim everything up! Take a weedeater and go around any fencing, the house, the porch, your walkway or any other areas that the mower wasn’t able to reach. Try to trim the grass in these areas to the same length that you mowed so that you don’t have part of your yard a different length than the rest. That will cause enough of a difference that your eye is drawn to it making it stand out and look really dissolved.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #4: Organize your yard –
Trash isn’t the only thing that can make your yard look trashy. Things laying all over the yard can cover up the natural beauty and create a look that you’re trying to avoid. Organize any outdoor toys in a weather safe toy bin. Wrap your garden hose onto a garden hose spool. Store gardening tools in a shed or weather safe storage box. By keeping things neat and tidy, you will be keeping your yard looking its best.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #5: Use plants strategically –
Chances are that you have at least one neighbor who has added bright colorful flowers and geometric bushes to their yard, right? What they are doing is strategically placing these beauties in a way that covers up anything that is not beautiful. Plant bushes along the sides of your house, plant eye-popping flowers in the front of your yard and add some trees to those big holes in the backyard to create a beautiful landscape that hides any major issues. This is also a great way to hide areas where grass may not be growing the way that it should be.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #6: Get weeding –
Weeds can spring up anywhere and everywhere and will prevent your yard from looking its best. If you want that luscious green grass, it’s important to pull up your weeds whenever you see them. Weeds have long roots that take all the nutrients from the soil leaving dead, yellow grass so make sure that you get them removed at the root. They can also disguise themselves and look very un-weed like. If your yard is full of weeds and you feel like you could never get them all, pick up weed killer or treat those stubborn roots with a natural weed killer.
Landscaping Tips for Beginners #7: Create Character in your Backyard
Finally, adding walkways and pathways to your backyard with homemade stepping stones is a fantastic way to create character in your backyard on a budget. You don’t need to spend a ton of money to create adorable scenes or other eye catching features. Create a beautiful fairy garden, make a DIY Upcycled Terra Cotta Pot birdbath or line your walkway with inexpensive solar lights. By creating beautiful areas that draw your attention because they’re beautiful, you’ll effectively be hiding the areas that aren’t quite as pretty.
As you begin to update your yard and work on making it look amazing, you’ll very likely come up with ideas that you can add. Go with them! If your creative juices are flowing, let them run! You never know what you may come up with!
