The news gets even better. It doesn’t have to cost anywhere near that to landscape your property! The catch, if you can call it that, is to do the work yourself and, keep your landscaping well maintained, yourself.

Many people think landscaping is beyond their capabilities, but they would be surprised how much they can accomplish with a small budget and the willingness to get their hands dirty. If you are already groaning at the mere thought of landscaping, let the increased sales value of your home be your inspiration.

The key is, keep it simple! Do a bit of research at your local garden centre so you invest in the right plants – ones that grow well in the type of soil type (clay, loam, sandy etc.) on your property and, ones that are appropriate for the amount of sunlight available.  Purchase the largest plants your budget will allow. Nothing looks odder, or says “quick fix” more than tiny shrubs planted around a large house.

Start at the front of your home and think curb appeal.  Add simple entrance gardens or foundation plantings. A few containers placed on the porch or at the end of the walkways give a welcoming feel.

Remove dead, dying or overgrown shrubs, trees and plants.

Trim the shrubs and trees to give them shape and remove dead branches and stems. 

 Keep the plants watered and the beds weeded.

Sweep the sidewalks and porch daily. You never know when someone will drive by just to take a look, so you need to grab their attention by presenting a well maintained property.

One of the most important things you can do to keep your property looking its best, is mow the lawn regularly and at the right height – two and a half to three inches will make your lawn look lush.

Once the front of the house is landscaped, move around to the back. Tidy up the backyard. Remove any materials you’ve been “storing” for a while. Pick up the kids toys and clean up after your pets. Repair pet damage in the lawn by covering the area with topsoil and planting grass seed. If the deck or patio needs cleaning a pressure washer and plain water does wonders.

Place more container gardens on the patio or deck or add a border of annuals around the deck or patio. Keep the gardens in the back yard weeded. Edging the beds will give them a polished look.

Curb appeal is what grabs buyers attention first and gets them to come through the door. By sprucing up your landscape and keeping it maintained, you’ll have a solid edge over other sellers.

The horticulture trades magazines are abuzz about the latest garden trend that is just beginning to emerge in the USA. It is the “GIY” trend! Grow It Yourself in other words. Apparently, this GIY Trend involves not just vegetables, but herbs, annuals, perennials and, houseplants. Yes, the seed companies are rubbing their hands together in eager anticipation of the fat profits they will glean from the increased sales this trend is going to generate. The supply companies (pots, soil mixes, fertilizers, grow lights etc) are likewise excited. Garden centres are re-thinking their sales mix and how best to cash in on this latest turn.

The reasons this trend is developing are listed as economic downturns (less disposable income available to spend on plants), high fuel prices, desire for organic foods, and an increasing wariness about the quality and safety of fresh produce available in grocery stores. Also cited is a concern for the amount of garbage being sent to landfills, so composting is about to become the norm rather than the exception.

The real good news that comes with this trend is it hopefully means the beginning of the end of the” I-want-it-now-I-want-it-big-and-I-want-it-done-for-me” attitude that has been prevalent for far too long. People will soon be tossing aside their cell phones, computers, IPods, TV’s in favour of getting outside, getting their hands and knees dirty and actually simplifying their lives. They will learn how to can and freeze their own produce, how to make jams and sauces and pickles, how to dry herbs. And, get lots of exercise and fresh air in the process. People will actually be gardening again!

For those of us that have always been GIY’ers (a.k.a. Real Gardeners), we can’t help but wonder what all the fuss is about. To us, there is nothing new about growing our own from seed and composting the waste generated from out hobby. Nor is there anything new about preserving the harvests from our own gardens.

We real gardeners are feeling a little smug right now because we’ve know all along about the benefits of growing our own. We are also a little relieved that fewer people will think we’re downright crazy (we probably are, but that’s beside the point). The GIY trend will give real gardeners more friends to share the hobby with, more seeds and plants to exchange, more tips and hints to share. We are likely to see the introduction of many new seed varieties too. It will be a great time for all!

Reduce, Re-use, Recycle has become the mantra of the twenty-first century. We all do our part, Some people take it to extremes, some do not do it enough, while most of us float the middle ground. When it comes to the garden, I have been known to take the three “R’s” to the extreme. Finding new uses for cast off items has become something of a hobby for me. Let me loose in a flea market and nothing is safe from spending the rest of its useful life in the garden. Even dumpsters, on occasion, have yielded treasures that end up as flower pots or outdoor art.

Rustic Victoriana best describes our back garden theme and it is here that my penchant for reusing found objects is most obvious. The wall of our shed is adorned with old, rusty, even broken, garden tools, homage to our professional lives. A couple of weathered advertising signs, pieces of farm implements, an old wash tub with the bottom rusted completely off, and a six pane window frame propped up against the wall complete the vignette. I have even made windchimes from rusty old plow points.

A wander through the gardens reveals more recycled objects. Two iron pulleys, one small, one not, peak through the foliage of plants. An old enamel cooking pot becomes a container garden every spring, likewise three water coolers from the 1950′s. In the herb garden, a hose reel from years past is tucked in amongst the herbs. The fencing around this garden was donated by neighbours who were ready to throw it out until it occurred to them the crazy lady next door would probably take it. Water glasses have been reborn as tealight holders. Old light fixtures have been morphed into candeliers. The settee on our patio and the rattan chair on the front porch were both rescued from dumpsters. Why anyone would through out perfectly good furniture is beyond me when a bit of paint and fabric made them new again.
Even Mother Nature’s cast offs are not safe from our need to re-use and recycle. Branches have been transformed into twig furniture, gates, arbours and trellises. An old tree, sawn into logs is now garden edging.

By now, some of you probably have the picture of a junk yard in your minds. If you are into minimalism, our back garden probably is. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We view our garden as quaint, interesting and for the most part, tastefully accented. The real bonus comes from knowing we have done our part in reducing the amount of things that end would have ended up in the landfill site by reusing them as garden art.