Curb appeal is the overall attractiveness of your home when viewed from the curb.
It’s SUPER important to have good curb appeal when selling your home, and landscaping is a major part of curb appeal. That’s why we hosted a webinar with Leigh Gevelinger of Coastal Vista Design to get her advice on how to master curb appeal.
How To Increase Your Curb Appeal with Landscaping
Add Color
If your yard seems bland, or maybe even a little too green, you should add color. This can be done on a budget and you can do it yourself! Here are some tips from Leigh:
- Focus on the mailbox, driveway, and front door
- Keep in mind the color of your home
- Plant annuals or bougainvillea
- Use planters to create color
- Try not to go overboard with all colors of the rainbow
Trim Shrubs
While not as fun as adding color, trimming shrubs is super important to make sure your:
- Property listing photos look nice
- Views from the windows aren’t impeded
- Natural sunlight isn’t being blocked
Leigh suggests having your hedges trimmed four weeks before the photo shoot in the Summer, to allow time for the plant to look natural and not “hardscaped.” In the Winter, growth is slower, and you could allow 6 weeks.
Mulch
Mulching is a relatively fast and easy way to increase your curb appeal. Whether you’re adding mulch over an existing bed, or creating a newly landscaped area, the benefits include:
- No grass to mow
- Mulch holds moisture so plants don’t dry and die
- Use your pine needles as mulch
- Mulch can add color depending on the type
- Mulch adds texture and helps separate garden from lawn
Clean Up Your Garden Beds
Before you can mulch, you must clean up your garden beds!
- De-weed and remove baby bushes or trees
- Add your mulch
- Line the bed with limestone riprap, pavers, aluminum straight edge, etc.
- This creates an organized space, and
- Helps avoid landscapers blowing your mulch around
Add Buffers:
Sometimes a yard might need more work in order to create curb appeal. Adding buffers will require more time and effort to include a permitting process with the city… but it could majorly transform a home with poor curb appeal.
Buffers:
- Provide privacy from the road
- Reduce road noise
- Allow use of a front or side yard that you would otherwise not use
The permitting timeframe depends on the scope of the project. In the before and after below, it took four weeks to get approval from the city. This is a 75% native landscape design that creates privacy for the home from the road.
Native Landscapes
Of course, we have to mention native landscapes! While native plants don’t always directly equate to grand curb appeal, here are some benefits and tips for using natives:
- More natural and environmentally friendly landscape
- Impressive rebound after strong wind storms
- Less need for irrigation
- Hints of colors from non-native plants are okay
- If choosing non-native, try to use low-water plants
Click here to read our blog “how to go native” on Sanibel.
Video Seminar
You can click here to watch our full video seminar with Leigh Gevelinger of Costal Vista Design. If you have landscaping questions, we highly recommend Leigh and her wonderful team. If you have questions about how to increase your curb appeal, call us! (239) 472-1950.
