This is the time of year that the housing market is at its peak. So making sure that your home looks amazing and has some serious curb appeal will help you to stand out. By taking the time to upgrade your Southwest Florida garden you will attract more interested buyers and even increase your home’s value.
So where do you start? You can certainly hire a professional landscaping company. Or you can do the project yourself. Either way, you should do some research on Florida landscaping so that you have a better idea of what to expect and of what you might want.
Here are some ideas and important information to help you get started.
How Much Maintenance Can You Provide?
Firstly, you need to think about maintenance. Most homeowners don’t have time to go out into their garden every day to water and prune. So thinking about what you are looking for maintenance-wise in your garden is a very important step in landscaping.
Consider how big you want the garden to be. Will it wrap around the entire house? Will there be flower beds throughout the yard or near the curb? How much of your yard do you want to be grass and how much do you want to be flowers and plants?
There really is no perfect rule for how your yard should be landscaped, however, remember to keep it simple. Don’t overdo it. You can actually scare potential buyers away because not everyone is looking for a house with a yard that requires a ton of care.
Think about versatility as well. If you are getting ready to sell or plan to sell sometime in the next few years, you need to consider what other homeowners will be most interested in. Think about what is going to look beautiful as well as being a functional outdoor space.
That will be a true garden upgrade that will make those home buyers’ heads turn.
Plan Where Everything is Going to Go
Once you have a pretty good idea of how your want your yard to be landscaped and where your flower beds will be you need to start planning what plants will go where. This can be a bit of a challenge but is also the most fun part of doing your garden yourself.
You have complete control over where everything will go. But how? Where do you start? There are so many different varieties of plants it can feel pretty overwhelming.
The best way to start this process is to sketch out your yard from a birds-eye view. It doesn’t have to be perfect. As long as you can draw some simple shapes to help yourself visualize where the flower beds around your yard will be that’s really all you need.
When it comes to flower placement there are a couple of different things that you will need to keep in mind.
What Plant Hardiness Zone Are You In?
You need to be prepared for what your particular climate will be for where in Florida you live or plan to live. Because we have many different areas that vary in climate there are different plants that do well in some areas and not in others.
That is why we have specific plant hardiness zones and it is important to stick to them the best that you can. There are 7 altogether. 8A, 8B, 9A, 9B, 10A, 10B, and 11A. For Southwest Florida, we are going to be mostly in zone 9B and zone 10A.
So when you look at plants, try to make sure they are suited for your particular plant hardiness zone. Remember, we want to upgrade your Southwest Florida garden not turn it into a plant cemetery.
Think About Plant Colors and Textures
The placement of your plants is so important. You have to look at what types of plants will look good together. Things that will compliment each other.
Are you wanting a bunch of flowering plants? Or are you looking for something more like foliage plants? Or maybe you want a combination of both. Take a look at some popular garden styles here in Florida.
You can also go to a local nursery and ask some of the people there what flowers they like and what they have had success growing and pairing in their own gardens.
What Will Bloom and When Will it Bloom?
This is the time of year when everyone is ready to start planting and preparing their garden for a beautiful spring. This is the perfect chance to upgrade your Southwest Florida garden. But you need to remember that not everything will grow and bloom when you want it to.
And different plants will not do well at certain times of year here. So you need to think about what will bloom when and how that will affect your garden.
For example, one particularly gorgeous plant that a lot of gardeners recommend for a Florida garden is the Bougainvillea. There are so many different variations of the Bougainvillea. It comes in all colors and sizes. And it tends to bloom year-round which is really nice to see in the winter months.
There are some variations of the Bougainvillea that grow really tall and vine up and others that stay shorter and act more as a shrub. But both types will flower and bloom if they get plenty of direct sunlight.
However, spring is not the right time to start a vegetable garden. The Florida heat is extremely harsh on most crops. Spring is the time to harvest crops that have been growing through the winter.
These things can really make or break a garden and curb appeal is everything when it comes to valuing and actually selling your house. If you are planning to sell your home this summer or in the near future, keep your yard in mind and more importantly, what you put in your yard.
