Where to Start When It’s Time to Redo Your Backyard From Scratch
Essential Steps to Redoing Your Backyard
Maybe you’ve inherited a lawn full of landscaping woes when you moved into your new home, or maybe your yard has developed issues over time. If more than half of your yard — including your lawn, trees, plants, and any structures — has problems, you may want to just start over instead of trying to repair what you’ve already got. This gives you the creative freedom to completely redo your landscaping and transform it into something you’ll be proud of, but where to start?
Plan Your New Landscaping
Planning how your new backyard will look is the first step in making it happen, but this will truthfully only go into action once your backyard is a blank canvas with tons of potential. You’ll want to work with a professional landscaping design company, like Well Groomed Lawns, to make sure all of your bases are getting covered and you can move forward with complete confidence. Determine a rough layout of your backyard with sketches of the general idea of what you want to include in your newly improved yard and where they’ll be situated. You may want to keep current trends in mind, especially if you plan on selling, but have some fun with it!
Decde What Needs to Go
Even if your landscaping is currently suffering from major problems, you may not need to get rid of everything. Deciding what things you’ll want to keep can be equally as difficult as choosing the elements you want to do away with. You’ll want to first start by identifying any hazards in your yard, like dead or dying trees, encroaching trees, drainage problems, or damaged structures. In addition to removing hazards, you will also want to remove any trees or shrubs that directly block the view from windows or doors, or have overgrown the walkway. A clear view of your home will make it more welcoming.
Decide Which Tasks You Will DIY
Not everything will need to be done by landscaping professionals, and if you are interested in saving a bit of money and taking a more hands-on approach to your backyard transformation, there are certainly things you can do to help! Some common tasks that will be safe for homeowners to do include tearing up small portions of your lawn, demolishing ground-level decks, tearing down low retaining walls, and digging up old flower beds. Things like removing large trees and shrubs, tearing up large portions of your lawn, demolishing an elevated deck, and tearing down unstable or high retaining walls should be left to the professionals.
Hardscape First, Then Softscaping
You’ll want to do all of your hardscaping projects before you set out any plants. This is important for a couple of reasons: you’re not crushing or destroying any plants with the heavy stuff, and just in case your hardscaping plans change, you can make adjustments as needed much easier. Hardscaping can include a porch, sidewalk, driveway, parking areas, decks, fencing, patios, kitchens, and more. After your hardscaping is complete, bring everything together with softscaping. Be sure to choose native plants and avoid going overboard so as not to clutter your yard.
Finding a landscaping company you want to work with is crucial in the development of your new backyard. Here at Well Groomed Lawns in South Florida, we make a point to work closely with clients to help them create and execute a vision that makes their home more exciting to wake up to every morning. For landscape and hardscape design in South Florida, give us a call.