Good landscaping has a lot of value. It can improve the local environment, attract desirable animals, repel undesirable animals, and raise your property values for future buyers. Let’s look at a few landscaping ideas that will make your outdoor spaces look great and even serve practical purposes.

• Planting Native Grasses
• Planting Native Flower Beds
• Raised Flower Beds
• Grow Berry Bushes

Planting Native Grasses

Lately, there has been a desire to move away from the green turf lawns that have defined the outdoor spaces of American housing since the 60s. And with good reason. The turf lawn, derived from grasses in the Scottish highlands, requires a lot of water and fertilizer to survive in America, particularly in the drought-prone South. Plus, it doesn’t mesh well with the local wildlife.

One common landscaping idea that is gaining steam is removing the traditional lawn and planting native grasses instead. It will not only make your outdoor space look different, but it will save you money. However, some municipalities or Homeowners Associations may prohibit this. However, there are ways around this.

Planting Native Flower Beds

If you can’t plant native grasses in place of your lawn, you can spice up your outdoor space by planting a native flower bed. Like traditional lawns, non-native flowers can use a lot of water and fertilizer. Some flowers can even be considered invasive species and may be illegal to plant. A good landscaper will help you choose flowers native to your region and make sure your landscaping idea stays in compliance with the law/HOA rules.

Native flowers can help you save money on maintaining your outdoor space while still helping the native wildlife. Many pollinators need flowers that simply don’t exist on a traditional turf lawn. This has created problems for our ecology. A native flower bed can do a small part to help restore it while still having your landscape look good.

Raised Flowerbeds

Flowerbeds are great landscaping ideas but for some, they can be hard to maintain. In-ground flower beds often require being hunched over for significant periods. This can present an issue if you’re elderly or disabled and want a good outdoor space. Other times, properties could have too little horizontal space for a full flowerbed. In these cases, a raised flowerbed might be a great landscape renovation.

Raised flowerbeds allow people to garden without being hunched over. They can also make better use of limited space. By building up rather than out, you can save a lot of outdoor space. Even if you aren’t focusing on purely practical matters, there are some good aesthetic reasons to have a raised flowerbed. A raised flowerbed adds a third dimension to your garden to make it stand out. They also have less trouble with weeds.

Grow Berry Bushes

Some outdoor space modifications have multiple functions. Bushes can look good and are handy for establishing boundaries between properties. Berry bushes can add new functions to your outdoor space. The flowers on many of these bushes look stunning. The berries themselves can attract small birds and other pollinators.

If you have a family, particularly if you’re homeschooling, these bushes can be great for teaching and looking good. You can teach your kids to make their own berry juice or other food products or even history lessons. Before many of our modern products were invented, people would use berries in things like soaps or dyes. Adding berry bushes to your outdoor space will help bring a bit of science and history to your landscape. However, it’s important to be cautious as many berries can be poisonous. Take the ages and maturity of your children into account when adding things that could be mistaken for food into your landscaping renovation.

Conclusion

Making your outdoor space look good is the key to drawing the eyes of the neighbors. But making your property look stunning can have many other beneficial effects. Talk to your landscaper for these or other ideas.