Whether you just want to spruce up your yard a little or you’re looking to totally revamp your entire outdoor living space, one of the biggest questions to answer is: should you do it yourself or hire a landscape architect in Cincinnati? It can be very tempting to tackle it yourself. You might think it saves money, time, and is easier than working with a pro. But there are some very good reasons to work with a professional.
Adds Value To Your Home
Did you know that investing just 10% of your home’s value in landscaping can increase it’s selling price by as much as 20%? Of course, it does take a few years for this investment to pan out into cash in your pocket in a sale. But the key to landscaping adding that much value to your home is that it needs to beautify your home.
You could certainly take the time to try to learn everything you might need to know in order to landscape your own yard. But consider this: a landscape architect in Cincinnati has a four-year degree that teaches them extensive information about botany, horticulture, engineering, and design. They use all of that information to create the landscape that not only makes your yard a more pleasant place for you to enjoy, but also adds a rather significant amount of value to your home when you’re ready to sell.
Easier Than DIY
Working with a professional landscaper makes landscaping so much easier than trying to DIY it. You certainly could do it yourself, of course. But that will require extensive hours of research into the right plants, trees, and shrubs for your property. Then you’ll need to do a little more research to find out how and when to plant them, care for them in the immediate aftermath of planting them and future care. Then you need to find out where to buy them, how to get them home or have them delivered. Next up is lugging them around your property and actually planting and caring for them. When all is said and done, you’re looking at several weeks, if not months, of work.
By hiring a landscape architect, you give yourself the gift of all that time back. The pro is the one who needs to do all the work now. And because they’re a pro, most of the research has already been done in their training. They can simply rely on their knowledge and have you ready to go in a much quicker timeframe than you might be able to do yourself.
A pro can also give you all the information you need to know how to care for your new landscaping so you don’t have to research and seek out quality information on your own. Even better, if you let your landscaper know what kind of landscaping you want (low maintenance, for example, or beautiful even if it means more work), they can create a landscape that perfectly meets your needs.
Create A Landscape That Works With The Climate
Creating a landscape that works with the climate covers a few different things. One is creating a landscaping system that interacts positively with the weather. For example, if torrential downpours are a daily occurrence or your property has low spots where water pools, landscaping that has plenty of drainage will be important. A pro can also help you make sure that your watering system is leak-free and efficient, so you’re watering what needs to be watered and not just bare dirt or a fence board. Finally, a pro can help you find the right plants, trees, and shrubs for the area you live in. This saves you time and money because these are the ones that will survive naturally without a lot of extra water, fertilizer or other assistance from you. They’ll thrive mainly on what nature provides and just a little help from you.
Lower Your Energy Bill
The right landscaping can significantly lower your energy bills. The first way is also the most obvious: trees shading your home keep it cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter, thus reducing your bill. But planted correctly, they can also still allow in plenty of natural light, lowering the bill even further. Finally, as previously mentioned, a landscaper can help you swap out plants that require extra watering with ones that are better suited to the area’s climate and weather so you save money on your water bills too.
Avoid Planting In The Wrong Places
Landscaping seems like a pretty simple thing to do. Throw some flowers here, plant a tree there, group some shrubs in that spot, and it’s all good. But what if you plant that tree too close to your driveway, a sidewalk, or your house? Maybe the roots will damage the concrete of your driveway or the foundation of your house, costing you thousands in repairs. A professional landscaper will not only know how much distance to put between big trees or plants and existing objects like driveways and houses, but also what might not be good for your yard. They can steer you away from plants that might hurt pets or children, for example.
Pros Have The Necessary (and often expensive) Equipment
If you need another reason to invest in a pro, here it is: the pros have all the equipment they need to make your landscape beautiful. You could probably buy or rent most of the equipment yourself, but it’s usually pretty expensive. By the time you spend the money to buy or rent the equipment, and then invest the time to learn how to use it properly, it’s probably cheaper to hire the pro to get it done.
There are probably a lot of DIY projects you can take on in and around your home. But your landscaping isn’t one of them. It’s the first impression your home makes when others see it. Even one or two wrong choices can not only impact the visual appeal of your yard but also how much work you need to put in to keep your landscaping looking beautiful. By hiring a landscape architect in Cincinnati, you save yourself hours of research and work and thousands of dollars in potentially wasted time and effort. Let the pros handle your landscaping so you can simply step outside and enjoy the incredible beauty and peace of a well-planned, easy-to-maintain yard. Whether it’s coffee and the morning sunrise or wine and the sunset, your yard will be a more enjoyable place for it.
