CREATING A BEAUTIFUL LANDSCAPE ON A BUDGET
Creating a beautiful landscape can be a challenge and it's expensive.....
Right?????
It doesn't have to be!
Of course, if you have a grand, gorgeous and outlandish landscape design in mind and you plan to hire an architect to design it and have it installed..... it can be expensive. That's for sure.
However, there are a number of ways to create a beautiful landscape that may rival the best of 'em, even on a budget, if you're willing to get a little creative, do a little research and to invest a little sweat equity of your own!
Creating a beautiful landscape involves creativity and, often times, some really hard work.
If you're willing and able to do some, most or all of the work yourself or as a family project, though, you'll definitely save considerably on labor costs which can be the most expensive part of the landscape project.
ONLY YOU KNOW IF YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF
First of all, though, only you know whether you're capable of doing the hard work involved or if you're in physical shape for the task at hand. Don't attempt to take on a landscape project that requires heavy lifting if you're not in good physical shape or used to doing that type of work. The consequences can be brutal. And it's the fastest way to throw your back out or injure yourself in other equally painful ways, especially if you don't use proper lifting techniques, etc.
Also, if you're not familiar with the tools necessary to complete the project or you haven't used them before..... now is NOT the time to learn unless you have someone qualified to help with the project to teach you how to use them prperly and safely. I definitely wouldn't recommend tackling a job that required using power tools, especially, unless you're very familiar with using them already and you take the necessary safety precautions while using them.
Like I said, you’re the only person who knows whether you’d be safe and capable of doing the job….. so it’s your call. If you do a landscape project, you do it at your own risk. If you’re not experienced or capable of doing the work safely, play it smart and safe by hiring a professional.
On the other hand, if you are qualified and capable of doing the job safely, or parts of it, and you want to invest a little sweat equity to create your dream landscape….. then by all means read on and get ready to get your hands dirty!
A GUIDELINE FOR MOST HOMEOWNER LANDSCAPE PROJECTS
The outline below is not a step-by-step guideline to install any one specific landscape project. Rather, it's a general overview of things that should be taken into consideration and the preparations that a person should think about prior to starting most homeowner landscape projects.
Many of these tips and guidelines apply to just about every homeowner landscape project. In general, the considerations, research and prep work guidelines are normally or often very similar regardless of which landscape project or projects you've decided to install.
Whether you decide to do a landscape project yourself or to hire a professional to do it for you, the outline below will give you an idea of several things to take into consideration when making that decision. You may find that doing-it-yourself is something that you'd really like to do or at least try.
On the other hand, after doing a little research and realizing everything that's involved, you may decide that it's very much worth the money to hire the hard work of installing the landscape that you have in mind done for you. Or perhaps, you'll decide to do part of the work yourself and to also hire some of the work done for you by a professional.
FIRST THINGS FIRST.....COMING UP WITH A LANDSCAPE DESIGN
You may already have your dream landscape design in mind. If so, that’s great and the starting point, of course.
If not, some great places to come up with ideas are in landscape magazines, online landscape web sites or just by looking around the neighborhood. If you see something that you like online, print it out. In a magazine, cut it out. In the neighborhood, take a picture if your have digital camera.
You may end up with several ideas from different sources. That’s okay. It costs little or nothing to search for ideas this way and you can always narrow your ideas down later after you've had some time to look at everything you've gathered to decide what ideas you like best.
After you feel that you have enough ideas to put a design together for your landscape, gather all of the photos and information together and lay it all out where you can see the photos you’ve gathered. Keep the ideas that you like the best and eliminate the others.
If you decide to hire a professional, take the ideas and photos that you've come up with and gathered to the professional to use as visual aids of what you have in mind. Sometimes it's a whole lot easier to show someone what you have in mind rather than trying to describe or explain what you have in mind.