Having a well manicured lawn is a basic step to getting your home sold. However, if you want to go the extra mile and boost your curb appeal, maintaining a garden or landscaping your yard will help. To me, there is just something magical about a stone path winding its way through a bed of wildflowers. I’m more of a bohemian romantic type though. Maybe you prefer straight, classical shrubs to stroll through, or rows of homegrown fruits and veggies. Whatever your tastes, having some landscaping done will seriously up your curb appeal. An easy way to do this is to install a stone walkway through your yard or garden. Check out this step by step tutorial by Liss at Budget 101!
Easy Water Features
When I think of water features, I admit that I picture insanely elaborate fountains like the one in this picture. It seems so unobtainable and out of reach to me, since I have no knowledge of plumbing or anything. The idea of mixing water with electricity makes me queasy. I think water features- fountains, ponds, and other elements- are gorgeous in gardens, but I never considered installing one myself since I was so intimidated. But- it doesn’t have to be so stressful! Check out this post by Briana Carter at Bargain Briana for some easy water feature ideas for beginners:
The simple pond.
You can find pond shells that are as small as 3×3 feet and as shallow as 1-2 feet at your local home improvement store. These make the perfect little oasis!
Easy peasy electrical fountains.
There are many varieties of small and mid size electrical fountains that can still give you all of the benefits of a water feature at a great price. The best part about these is you just plug them in and go!
The bird bath fountain. For this project, you need a simple pedestal bird bath and small, solar fountain.
Wordless Wednesday: Lakeside Patio Perfection
Sidewalk Gardens
If you have a very small space and want to add big curb appeal, you might want to consider starting a sidewalk flower garden. They’re beautiful, eye-catching, and pretty easy to install, since they’re so compact. I love all the photos I’ve seen of them! If I had the time, I’d try one myself. Check out this slideshow gallery at bhg.com for some sidewalk garden inspiration. You may end up loving them as much as I do, and may even want to try your hand at one:
-Use layers in the garden: use plants with varying heights
-Pack in lots of color and texture in a single space
-Use curves and round lines, rather than straight ones.
-Grow a cutting garden: for fresh indoor flowers
-Delight passersby with fragrance: plant sweet smelling trees and flowers
Wordless Wednesday: Winding Garden Path
Espalier Trees
If you are looking to add a dramatic touch to your yard but do not have a lot of space, look no further than espalier trees. Espaliering is the technique of pruning and shaping trees (usually fruit trees) into a flat shape. They look incredible, and produce spectacular results with little effort. You could have your own espalier privacy fence, or add the trees to an existing wall or fence for a striking decorative look. According to Backwoods Home Magazine, there are three main types of espaliering:
Horizontal Espaliering- The horizontal method involves nothing more than training the trees to do most of their growing horizontally. Normally this is done using spaced horizontal supports fashioned of wood, wire, or metal.
Palmette Espaliering- This creates a fan shaped tree, as shown in the picture.
Cordon Espaliering- The third technique, cordon espaliering, is also quite dramatically eye catching. My experience with this method comes from seeing the meticulously perfect work of my sister’s fiance. It resembles a fork.
The best part?
Forcing fruit trees to grow more horizontally greatly increases the number of fruiting spurs, while reducing both sucker and leaf growth.
Wordless Wednesday: Victorian Yard
Wordless Wednesday: Vertical Rock Succulent Garden
Newspaper helps mulch
When we put down river rock in our gardens out front, we first put down black sheets of plastic. Five years later, weeds are plentiful. However this tip from Parent’s Room looks like it could work,
The newspaper will prevent any grass and weed seeds from germinating, but unlike fabric, it will decompose after about 18 months. By that time, any grass and weed seeds that were present in the soil on planting will be dead. It’s green, it’s cheaper than fabric, and when you decide to remove or redesign the bed later on, you will not have the headache you would with fabric.
My bet is you’ll have to re-do it in another year, though!
Nice Fences (Make the Best Neighbors)
We loved our privacy fence in our former house. We had a bluebird house on it and loved watching the little chicks grow and eventually fly away. This page by Hometalk is phenomenal, though it really simply links to a Pinterest account showing great fences. But I love it! Especially this:
I spent about 6 months collecting old doors from friends and salvage yards and then mounted them on privacy fence frame. I also clear coated them so that they wouldn’t weather wear. I love that each door has it’s own story and looking at it reminds me of all of my different friends who contributed.
How utterly gorgeous and inventive is that?