As the days get longer and the weather warms up, you can look forward to spending balmy nights outside in your garden. To get your outdoor space ready for summer, there are some simple DIY steps you can take. These measures will ensure you can make the most of your time in nature—and some of these measures can even boost your property value.
Read on for a quick guide to updating your yard for the summer months, courtesy of Signature Decks & Construction.
Plan property upgrades mindfully
As you make changes to your property, keep your personal comfort and home value in mind. Make a wish list, and consider shaping a dream board for your specific projects. Contemplate time, energy, and cost, and as you go hang on to receipts and warranties, stashing them away safely. You can use this documentation to quantify the investments you’ve made in your property.
This is especially important if there’s a chance you’ll sell your property soon. The receipts can then help boost your home’s appraisal value. Support this evidence by taking before and after photos of your upgrades.
Enhance year round enjoyment with a sunroom
A sunroom offers a tranquil space to enjoy natural light and the beauty of the outdoors, creating a seamless connection between the interior and exterior of your home. It provides a versatile area for relaxation, entertaining guests, or even cultivating indoor plants year-round. Additionally, sunrooms can increase the overall value of your property while enhancing its aesthetic appeal and functionality.
Create more privacy with fences or hedges
When you’re spending time with friends or family in your yard, you don’t necessarily want everyone in the neighborhood peeking in. You can create more privacy by installing fencing along your property’s perimeter. Another option is to plant shrubbery or hedges that grow tall and have dense foliage. According to Homes and Gardens, great options to shape more privacy include Schip Laurel, Inkberry, and Mountain Laurel. Opt for flowering bushes to boost aesthetic appeal.
Add more color to your surroundings with flowers
Make your outdoor space look and smell lovely by incorporating more flowers. When planting flowers, consider your geographic climate to select blooms that will naturally thrive in your area. Also think about companion plantings and pest deterrents. This would mean choices like rue, tansy or marigolds, which are known to deter Japanese beetles. You might also opt to create an “all seasons” garden, which has plants that bloom at different types of year. This ensures you always have a pop of color in your yard, even after summer ends.
Find ways to create more shade for hot summer days
Sitting outside in summer is lovely. However, it can get hot and sweaty if you’ve got the sun beating down on you. Provide protection against UV rays by coming up with ways to create more shade. You can start by adding more trees, for example. Although they may be small now, they’ll be valuable shade-providers in the future. For more immediate shade, consider man-made items like pergolas and gazebos. Simple sun umbrellas are another option.
Incorporate hardscaping to create more usable space
One of the best things you can do to increase the value of your home is to create more usable space, whether indoors or outdoors. For your yard, hardscaping is the way to do this. You can use materials like slate and sandstone to create walkways, terraces, and patios, which you can use for lounging, grilling, playing games, and dining al fresco.
Enhance your lighting to show off your upgrades
Once you’ve made all these landscaping changes, you want to show them off as best possible. Improved landscape lighting is the answer. The right lighting will also allow you to make more use of your space, giving you the chance to spend nights outdoors. Houzz has a guide to enhancing your landscaping lighting, including a primer to different types of lights like spike lights, bollard lights, and spot lights. You can also get UV lights to save energy.
When summer arrives, you and your family will undoubtedly be spending more time outdoors. Get your space ready now by following some of the tips above. This will allow you to make the most of your outdoors time while also enhancing your property’s value.
By Esteban Garcia of I Heart Home
