Landscaping as a smart investment

You search for the best interest rates. You pour money into your 401(k). You compare depreciation rates before purchasing your car. So what's stopping you from landscaping your home? When you mention landscaping to people, they tend to think ornament, not investment-beauty, not value. Think again. If it were a mutual fund, you'd bite. "Studies have shown that proper landscaping can increase the value of a home by as much as 10 percent," says Mark Epstein, landscape architect and principal of ArchetechurA, a landscape architecture company in Portland. Mark Madsen, manager of the landscape design department at Bachman's in Minneapolis, agrees that a good landscaping job can easily provide a high rate of return on its investment. "A good landscaping job can not only increase the value of your home, but trees alone can help reduce heating bills by 20-25 percent," states Madsen. Trees provide shade in the hot summer months, which reduces your air-conditioning costs, and in the winter they drop their leaves so that the warm sunshine can provide free heat. When it comes time to sell your home, landscaping is, again, beneficial. "Most real estate agents know that nice landscaping increases the curb appeal of a house," explains Epstein, "and those homes usually sell faster than non-landscaped homes." But let's not be completely analytical about it. As you can see by the pictures on these pages, the beauty that landscaping can bring to your home is chock-full of less tangible benefits, as well. Flowers, bushes and trees can provide elegance and spectacular color; trees and retaining walls can create dimension and depth; all can be used to create shelter and a relaxing, peaceful seclusion. Landscape when you build? If you're reading this magazine, it's likely that you're at least mildly considering picking out a home and building it. If you do decide to build, now may also be the time to do your landscaping. "There are many advantages to doing the landscape at the same time as the house," notes Epstein. He lists four important reasons: 1) You can finance the cost of the landscaping with the mortgage or construction loan. 2) You can coordinate the landscape construction with the other work being done on your home (such as wiring switches for outdoor lighting or doing work on the drainage system at the same time your foundation is being dug). 3) Doing the landscaping now means you don't have to go through the cost of digging things up later -which can be expensive, dangerous, messy, time-consuming and possibly damaging to existing areas, like patios, walls or sidewalks. 4) Finally, landscaping provides a pleasing, finished look to your brand new home. The total time it takes for a good contractor to complete your landscape project? "About two weeks or so, depending on the scope of the job," claims Epstein. Hmmm . . . two weeks to increase your home's value by 10 percent -while possibly lowering your heating bills by 20-25 percent? What would your broker say about an investment that offers that sort of return?

Top photo courtesy of Keystone Retaining Wall Systems, Inc.
Photos courtesy of Bachman's Landscape Services