You’ve just bought a house with zero curb appeal. Maybe you loved the house so much you overlooked the lawn. Maybe you got a good price because the property is a disaster. Now you have a great house with an awful lawn. Under the overgrown hedges, dying grass and out of control wild plants, there’s a good lawn that you can restore.
Restoring a Lawn Takes Time
Lawn neglect is usually the result of the previous homeowner being unable to keep up with the property due to age or infirmity. When homeowners don’t use a full-service landscaper, large properties get out of hand.
Completely restoring your lawn will take about a year. Landscaping work is done seasonally. You can’t prune your flowering trees in the spring. That has to wait until fall. Overseeding your lawn and removing unwanted plants will make an immediate difference.
Planning a Lawn Makeover
No one wants to live with an ugly lawn for a year. With proper landscaping and temporary solutions, you don’t have to.
An initial consultation should include walking your property with your landscaper and making a seasonal lawn repair plan. Things to include in your plan are:
- Grass care
- Cutting back overgrowth
- Installing/repairing irrigation systems
- Tree inventory
- Planning your new lawn
- Planting in-season plants and trees
- Adding water elements and hardscapes
Seeing changes right away will make you feel better about your lawn and give you ideas about what you’d like to do next.
Getting Started
Removing unwanted landscaping elements gives a yard an immediate lift and clears the way for your landscaper to start work.
Install or make sprinkler system repairs and any other repairs that involve digging up the yard. Then have your soil pH tested. The soil’s pH tells your landscaper what your lawn needs in terms of fertilizer.
Hard-packed soil needs aeration so that the roots of your grass can breathe. This is done before overseeding. When you overseed your lawn, you seed it all and then go over thin spots again when your new grass starts to grow.
Inventorying Trees
Dead or dying trees need to be marked for removal. This must be done in the spring or summer when foliage begins to appear and your landscaper can assess the trees’ health. The landscaper will mark other trees for pruning at the appropriate time.
Your New Lawn
Now it’s time for the fun part: designing your dream lawn. There are many more drought-tolerant plants available besides succulents, cacti and wild grasses. You can have a flower garden, fruit trees or a rock garden.
Don’t forget decor like water elements. They need to go in before your plants. Hardscaping includes everything from creek rock to retaining walls.
Potted plants will give your yard color and can be planted after all the essential tasks are accomplished.
Things to Remember:
- Fully restoring a lawn doesn’t happen overnight
- Potted plants and annuals are excellent temporary solutions
- You need a full-service landscaper to repair a lawn disaster
We’ve turned wrecked properties into showplaces. Contact us today to get started on your beautiful new lawn.