We live close to the city on a suburban homestead. Affordable landscaping takes a little creativity and and a lot of ingenuity. Landscaping is expensive, and that is why I have to find affordable ways to landscape. Creating the beautiful flower gardens require time and patience. I can’t buy all of the plants at once because we live on one income. It is possible to have a beautifully landscaped yard, and here is how:
Build A Deck
Building an affordable deck to add as a landscaping feature to your yard is not cheap. There are ways to cut costs in this area. First, use pressure treated wood to build the deck. It will hold up longer. Building a cheap deck that falls apart in a couple of years ends up costing more money. Put a little bit of money into the deck. Set aside money each month in an envelope to save for this project. Using cash for the project is a going to keep the budget aligned.
Keep in mind the size of your deck will add on costs. The bigger and higher the deck, the more it will cost. Adding a ground level deck will allow for the deck to be stable and more affordable. One more helpful tidbit is to build the deck in the fall. Everyone builds in the spring. If you want to add an affordable landscaping structure such as a deck to your garden area that is also possible with a ground level deck. It doesn’t have to be attached to your home.
Start A Vegetable Garden
If you’re adding a deck, why not go ahead and build the garden. Every home needs a garden area. As mentioned before you can build a deck in or next to your garden. Vegetable gardens are a great affordable landscaping feature, and they reap food! Subtracting from your food bill is always a great idea. The best way to add a garden is to mark off the space that you want to use. Determine the size of yard you have, then decide how big of a garden you want.
After that, rent a plow and get the space tilled. We did this in the beginning. There is a lot of discussion about till and no till gardens. After you have your initial space set up, then you can decide which you would like to continue. We do plow our garden.
Next, decide what vegetables you want to grow in your zone and how many. Keep it simple if you are just starting. I would add one new vegetable each year until you are good with what you grow. Gardens are beautiful and it is rewarding to reap the harvest.
Create A Privacy Fence
Next, another affordable landscaping feature is a privacy fence. Adding a wood fence is expensive between the labor and materials. Another way to create a privacy fence is with hedging, bushes or trees. One year I signed up for free tree’s online. They gave me a day and our family went down to pick them up.
They were just starts at the time, but in time they have grown to be great privacy fences. I used ours to border the neighbor’s yard. Research online or fb marketplace for people rehoming bushes and plants.
Add A Welcoming Trellis
Every yard that is beautifully landscaped needs a trellis. To add a welcoming vibe to your home place the trellis in the front to make the entrance more appealing. Cattle panels are a great affordable landscaping idea for building a trellis. They are inexpensive and easy to manipulate.
Another way to make an inexpensive trellis is to use lattice. I have made different trellis’ over the years, and one year we used chicken wire stapled to 2×4’s. We dug holes and placed those in the ground. Trellis ideas can be found all over Pinterest, but be creative. If you have rope, wire, boards, old fencing then you can make your own trellis. Be creative and make your own.
I love to add various landscaping ideas to my yard. Both front and back yards are years of hard work from my husband and myself. We started with building a screened in back porch onto the back of our home in 2008. Next we started a garden. Over the years we have added one feature each year and the rewards keep coming in. Affordable landscaping is possible with a vision.
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