Landscaping is the first thing you notice about a property. Is it overgrown and wild, is it barren and stark, or does it have an elegant or fun feel to it? People love to invest in home upgrades. They may think kitchens and baths are the best ways to go, but making upgrades to your landscaping is equally as important. There are plenty of outdoor projects that can make your home more beautiful and enjoyable. Here are some of those options.
Fun Landscaping Upgrades
There are landscaping upgrades that will make your home more fun. You can add a water feature to your yard. A water feature makes an ordinary backyard seem more elegant, and it can be as simple as a bubbling fountain or as elaborate as a giant pond with fish swimming in it. Add new and interesting plants is another fun upgrade. When you plant a variety of options they can bloom year-round and make your yard more exciting and beautiful. Plus, adding fencing and even vine walls can create privacy in your yard as well as be beautiful to look at.
Improve the Lighting in Outdoor Spaces
Lighting helps you use your spaces anytime day or night. While you can use an outdoor fireplace or fire pit, these projects only offer limited illumination. Instead, why not create a landscape lighting design that lights up your house and yard? You’ll love how you can use the spaces even on those warm summer nights when you combine house lighting with string lights and even walkway and other path lighting. You can even use dimmer switches, motion sensors, and timers to control brightness. Use solar lights that charge during the day and that automatically turn on at dusk.
Plant Flowers That Attract Butterflies and Hummingbirds
The beauty of your home’s landscaping will be enhanced by attracting butterflies and hummingbirds. These colorful creatures add a tremendous amount of life to the garden as they flit from flower to flower. Plus, it doesn’t take a lot to draw these beautiful creatures to your garden. Start with butterfly bushes and add daylilies and spirea. There are plenty of additional options that can add beauty and draw in your favorite flying creatures.
Create a Raised Bed Vegetable Garden
Vegetable gardens are a great way to bring more food and fun into your home. A raised bed vegetable garden is an easy way to grow vegetables at home that can be built in as little as one afternoon. Raised beds look nice, and they create greenery that also nourishes the whole family. You’ll need to fill the beds with potting soil and compost, and possibly even manure.
Add Lightning Bugs to Your Backyard
There is a bit of nostalgia to having lightning bugs rising up in your yard as the sun goes down on a warm summer evening. While they aren’t exactly a landscaping project, they can help you enjoy your yard even more. If you want to attract lightning bugs to your backyard, you need to create the right conditions for them. First, make sure that your yard is dark enough at night and has a source of water. You can try making a small pond yourself by digging a hole in the ground and lining it with rocks.
Create a Rain Garden
Rain gardens are shallow depressions that collect rainwater and allow it to slowly percolate into the soil. You can use rain gardens as part of your landscaping to reduce runoff and prevent erosion caused by stormwater, which has been shown to negatively impact local water quality. Rain gardens are also beneficial for homeowners because they help prevent flooding, which can cause damage to homes and property; so if you have been researching how to get rid of flooding in backyard this could very well be the landscaping upgrade for you.
Build a Natural Swimming Pool
Did you know that you can build a swimming pool that leverages natural plants, rocks and other resources to filter out many different things from the water? When pairing this with an electronic filtration system this makes for an excellent place to swim and relax in the warmer months. There are different things you’ll want to do to ensure that your natural pool doesn’t harbor bacteria, but it’s doable if you put the right systems in place.
Conclusion
If you’re looking for more ways to improve the look, function, and sustainability of your home’s landscaping, there are plenty of options out there. You can create a beautiful backyard that attracts all the right creatures and looks pretty all year long.