Landscaping is the idea of making a piece of natural land look its best, and this is broadly split into two concepts: greenery (planting trees, shrubs, and flowers) and hardscaping, or adding water features like swimming pools, a wooden deck, a garden shed, and the like. Both routes can make your front and back yard (regardless of their size) look great, and you may be wondering: how to beautify a yard in the city? After all, if you live within city limits, your front and back yard will probably not be the expansive lawns of a rural home, but you can still get some landscaping done all the same. When you look up “how to beautify a yard in the city”, you will find all kinds of ideas that can suit a yard of any size or in any climate, and there is no shortage of references out there, both in print and online. You may soon go from asking “how to beautify a yard in the city?” to having a lawn that is the envy of the entire neighborhood.
Get Ideas Down
Investing in landscaping is going to be a bit costly, and even if your intended landscaping ideas are on the modest side, it is a good idea to write down your ideas and get your hands on some references before any of the hard work is done. In many ways, landscaping is similar to interior remodeling, and when you look up “how to beautify a yard in the city”, this process may feel similar to something like “how to remodel my kitchen.”
The budget is a good place to start; you don’t want to bankrupt yourself doing this and end up not having grocery money. The Department of Homeland Security suggests that you have at least 72 hours’ worth of food for each family member, and during these difficult times of COVID-19, your budget might be a bit tight. But will this slow down your home improvement ideas? Draw up a budget, check your bank accounts, and see what the numbers say. Even if you can only afford a minor landscaping job, this can be a good investment, since a landscaped yard can impress home buyers when you put your property up for sale later on. Studies say that investing a modest 5% of your property’s value in landscaping can yield a ROI (return on investment) as high as 150%, similar to how interior remodeling can boost your property’s value. Spending some money now can pay off later, and a landscaped yard may prompt some home buyers to make offers pretty quickly.
Assuming your budget is all set, there is another step to take before hiring landscapers to remake your property: getting some references. If you are new to this, you are no doubt wondering how to beautify a yard in the city, given the limited size of your yard and the close proximity of your neighbors. But as mentioned earlier, there are plenty of references, since you are far from the first person to wonder how to beautify a yard in the city (or anywhere else). Check out some magazines on the topic, and find websites such as Pinterest, where other homeowners like to show off their own home remodeling and landscaping to give other guests ideas. You can take note of any styles or ideas you like, and combine and rearrange them to suit your own tastes and budget. This is also a fine way to note current trends in landscaping, to impress guests and make your property look trendy. Once you have drawn up a precise image of what your landscaped property will look like and how much it will cost, it is time to quit wondering how to beautify a yard in the city and get the real work done. You’re ready for a transformed and beautiful yard.
Install a Water Feature
When it comes to front or backyard landscaping, you will want to factor in the weather, mainly for plants and water features. If you live in a dry region such as Arizona, the water might evaporate too fast, and in cold states like Maine and Montana, it might not be worth the constant threat of freezing. Otherwise, if your area’s climate permits it, try adding some nice water features to the yard. Looking up “how to beautify a yard in the city” is bound to include images of koi ponds, fountains of all sizes, and even a swimming pool. Not everyone can afford a pool in their yard, but if you can, and the weather is often suitable for swimming, give it some serious thought. This form of hardscaping gives you a 24/7 place for cardio, since swimming is a great workout for burning calories (and it works out all muscle groups). And it’s plain old fun, too. A backyard pool will definitely catch the eye of home buyers.
The same may be true of a few fountains and birdbaths, which can elegantly complement a garden. Birds are an important part of a healthy garden, along with bees and spiders, and they will want a birdbath where they can cool off and get clean.
Consult With a Pro
When you are wondering how to beautify a yard in the city, you can turn to professional help as well as Pinterest and magazines. You don’t have to design the backyard all by yourself if you can’t or don’t want to; a residential landscaper can be a great reference too, and these experts will know what sort of plants, hardscaping features, and patios/decks work well with your yard’s size, your budget, and the local climate. This helps you avoid installing a patio that ends up sinking, or planting plants that suffer from the weather. After all, interior remodeling jobs often involve consulting architects and interior design experts, so you can do the same if you are not sure what a properly (and practically) remodeled yard should look like.
Take Care Of Your Trees
Trees are easy to take for granted, since they are huge, solid, and never move. In fact, sometimes you might not even think of them as alive. But trees need proper care too, and having a few of them in your front and back yard is a great idea for many reasons. For one thing, looking up “how to beautify a yard in the city” may show you some lovely trees, from blossom trees to evergreens to oak trees, and these trees can help shade a garden from strong summer sunlight and even bear fruit, if they are the right species. A tree is a natural air filter, like shrubs, and it can reduce CO2 and dust in the air and act as a windbreak (which helps block freezing winds from hitting your house during winter). These trees can also shade your home in summer and cool it down.
Tree pruning is a topic to take seriously, as a tree may need some twigs or small branches clipped off to make the whole plant healthier. Be sure to consult gardening experts and arborists, so you know what problems to look out for in your trees and how to handle them. Also, you may consider having bark dust or mulch placed around your tree, to help block weed growth and prevent the soil from drying out too fast. If your tree is sturdy enough, you can even add fun features like a rope swing set or a treehouse, too. Some treehouses can be downright impressive.
Invest In Regular Lawn Maintenance
When you have some shrubs, trees, and flowers planted, these plants will need some regular care, and the same is true of the grass, too. A neglected yard will soon become unhealthy and look bad, but taking care of it is no trouble at all. Regular lawn maintenance like mowing is easy to figure out, and if you live in the city, it’s probably best to get a push lawnmower rather than spend a lot on a riding lawnmower. Also, be sure to look up how and when to prune your shrubs, rose gardens, and trees to keep those plants healthy and looking their best. You have probably seen people in TV and movies standing there in their yard, trimming the shrubs with those shears to make a smooth surface of greenery. You can do that too, and you should also be sure to pull weeds from your garden. If you’re wondering how to beautify a yard in the city even after the landscaping work is done, here is the answer. A gorgeous yard must be maintained regularly, but the effort is worth it.
Think About the View
This is a simple but helpful topic to explore: sliding patio doors. You will enjoy getting a full view of that gorgeous lawn of yours if you own a set of sliding glass doors, as opposed to a wooden door, and that sliding door should be in good shape. Be sure to regularly clean the glass and perform maintenance to keep the door sliding smoothly, and if you don’t have such a door, you may consider hiring experts who can install one. As for home security, be sure to have a light or two that will illuminate your back porch and have a lock on that door, so no one can easily break into your home via the glass door. Glass doors look great, but they aren’t the most secure door type, necessarily. Having a fence for your backyard can also reduce the odds of forced entry.
Consider Hardscaping
This topic was mentioned earlier, and now it is time to discuss it in more detail. Hardscaping refers to most landscaping types that don’t involve plants, and hardscaping can both make your yard look nice, and make it more functional, too. Having paving stones put down, for example, is a great way to complete your garden, and you can make a trail of them that leads from your back door to the garden, and all the way through it. Or, you can put down stepping stones directly on the grass to make a trail with ease, and you can just as easily pick up and relocate those stones. Such stones can be round, square, or any other shape.
Meanwhile, consider having your fence fixed or replaced, or have one installed if there is none. When it comes to how to beautify a yard in the city, a painted fence will look wonderful, and double as a line of security. A tall, sturdy fence will block unwanted strangers, stray dogs, and some forms of wildlife, and you must make sure there are no holes in the fence itself. Some fences are chain-link, since they are inexpensive and you can see through them. If you want added privacy, invest in a wooden fence, which blocks strangers from looking into the yard. Just be sure to install a gate if need be, such as adding a gate near your garage so you can walk from the driveway to your yard. Consider having a lock on that gate, too. One note: a wooden fence has support beams on one side, often forming a shallow Z shape, and it’s important that this side is facing inwards, not outwards. Those support beams would make for good climbing surfaces otherwise, and you don’t want that.
Pest Control
It can’t be helped; some wild animals will sneak into your yard and try to eat things or break things, and you must know what to do in response. For example, imagine your new vegetable patch getting raided regularly by rabbits and raccoons, or squirrels attacking the bird feeder. Worse yet, gophers can tunnel right under a fence and ransack your vegetable garden. It may be messy or even illegal to try and kill these animals, but you can invest in other methods of pest control. A good line of defense is to set up chicken wire fencing around your garden, supported by wooden rod and braces, to block raccoons and rabbits from reaching your vegetables at all. You might even put a roof on the fence to block them completely, with a hatch so you can access your own garden. As for gophers, you can install underground wire meshes that block these tunneling rodents, or set up sound-emitting speakers down there that scare them away.
As for weeds, as mentioned earlier, you can simply pull them out of your garden when they appear. This will be a never-ending necessity, but it’s worth it to keep your garden in good shape. Pulling weeds can become a weekly activity for your garden’s sake.
Investing in landscaping will take some work, but it can be done, and with the assistance of some experts, your front and back yard will become beautiful spaces that are fun and relaxing to spend time in during fair weather.