How your yard & lawn can impact your home

Homeowners take pride in their lawn, patio, and yard and often new homeowners have a vision for their new property and want to personalize it. 

Creating a landscape design plan can be a minimal adjustment or a major investment in variety, colours, textures, and sizes. There are many things to consider before making changes or decisions to your property to help save you time and money, most importantly:

  • Shade vs Sun

  • Lifestyle

  • Maintenance

Perennials are inherently low maintenance because they come back every year and get fuller and more established overtime. It took about two years before my shrubs were fully established and until then I supplemented the bare areas with potted flowers. Major tip – don’t over plant and be patient this will save you money and time! A few options include:

  • Shade perennials 

  • Ferns are a lush space filler and offer a great base in flower or tree beds

  • Hostas are a popular variety that have fragrant flowers and somewhat drought tolerant

  • Ornamental grasses can be a beautiful filler or line around the fence or property

  • Sun perennials 

  • Millennium ornamental onion have light purple flowers that bloom mid-June through July bees love them and it’s a hardy plant

  • Peonies have beautiful, gigantic flowers and live a long time

  • Maiden grass can grow tall, moves gracefully in the breeze and is an elegant ornamental grass with its fine textured foliage

Lifestyle and activities play a significant role in your decision-making process. If for example you love to go camping, work full time, and have children in activities, it is often difficult to find the time to tend to flowers, weed, and mow the lawn, never mind enjoy them so likely low maintenance would be preferred at this stage of your life. Other considerations may include a pool, you will want to grow trees, plants and shrubs that do not shed leaves, petals, or seeds as much as possible, as this will increase the required maintenance of your pool. Regardless of what you decide it is also best to select native plants and trees for soil and climate conditions as they have the best chance at a healthy establishment in your space.  

Covering the soil by applying mulch, rock, or gravel at the base of shrubs and trees helps to reduce and prevent weeds and is aesthetically pleasing. Keep in mind, as mulch breaks down overtime, it needs to be replaced but can be significantly easier to deal with compared to coloured rock or gravel as weeds and seeds are difficult to pull out of rock. 

Lastly lawn care, a thick green lawn is the envy of any neighbourhood, and three fundamental tips make it happen: 

1. Mowing – generally it’s recommended to mow your lawn to a height of 2.5 to 3.0 inches, which may be longer than you wish, but it promotes growth and a thicker growth which prevents weeds and other pests from invading

2. Watering – your lawn likes a deep drink, approximately 1 inch, about once per week. Deep watering your lawn will promote deeper root growth which will help it remain healthy. You can use a small container placed on the lawn to monitor how long it takes the sprinkler to reach the desired inch of water and, if possible, water in the early morning reducing evaporation

3. Fertilizing – helps promote lawn health by providing nutrients to support its growth, typical timing is spring, late summer, and early fall before the snow arrives.


RECOMMENDATION:

• Consider your lifestyle, time, and attention to support your landscape design which will save you time and money in the long run with maintenance

• Sketch a plan on paper verifying sun, shade and space required with each potential variety of flower, shrub, grass or tree and their anticipated growth over the years. Don’t forget it takes a few years to get established!

• Speak to your local garden centre for confirmation, tips, and tricks!

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