Curb appeal means a lot: it demonstrates pride of ownership and helps build a community. With income property, a well-maintained home, including a welcoming exterior, attracts better quality tenants and sets the tone for the care you expect tenants to have for space.
As spring is around the corner, now is a good time to address landscaping for your rental property. When addressing the yard for a rental property, low maintenance is the name of the game. While it may take planning, energy, and money to set up, the less hassle for upkeep throughout the season, the better. If you’re planning a major overhaul of your front garden, do get in touch with landscapers by the end of winter or at the very latest in early spring. The best companies book up quickly.
Top Tips for Low Maintenance Landscaping
Less Lawn: Decrease the size of your lawn or do away with it altogether. Lawns require mowing. And lawns require an awful lot of water. An overgrown lawn and/or a sunburnt one will win you no friends among your neighbours. A large lawn is a lot for a tenant to maintain properly and will be an extra expense for biweekly or monthly mows if you offload this responsibility to a landscaper.
So what to do instead of a lawn?
Decorative Paving Stone
Using paving stones, rocks, and gravel alone or mixed together to create a textured zen-like garden can be absolutely gorgeous. There are a few types of grass, mosses, and succulents that can be incorporated into this look for added dimension and interest. Depending on your neighbourhood, this look may have you standing out. The upkeep couldn’t be easier: Just the occasional sweep of the broom will be all you need over the course of the season.
Garden Beds
Creating garden beds is another lovely feature and easier to maintain than a lawn. Beds that sit up against your house and line the walkway are pretty common. Defining these beds can be done with mulch, rocks, and wood planks, which all add unique visual interest and texture to their own rite. If you want more of a wildflower garden that does away with the whole lawn, paving stones are helpful to define space and separate certain plants.
When choosing your flowers and shrubs, give thought to the garden throughout the growing season. Ideally, you want to choose a variety of plants that will bloom at various times over the spring, summer and fall so that there’s always something eye-catching.
Use Perennials
Choose hearty native perennials to save yourself time and money on upkeep in subsequent years. Talk to the garden experts at your nursery or with your landscaper to get a sense of how these plants will grow and sprawl over the years, as this information should inform your initial design plans.
Decorative Planters
Decorative planters on a stoop, walkway, or porch can be an elegant way of boosting curb appeal. It’s also an understated but sophisticated way to celebrate seasons and holidays without hay bales and flashing lights. Sending planters to your tenants around the holidays would no doubt be a thoughtful touch.
Of course, the internet is a fabulous resource for pictures so take some time to do a little research. But a wander through an actual greenhouse during these frosty final days of winter will provide welcome inspiration and a little taste of the warmer season to come.
