Landscaping can help you create a visually appealing yard, enhancing the curb appeal of your home or business.
If you’re planning on investing in landscape design for your home or commercial property in New Orleans, you may be wondering where to start, and how much money you will need.
Landscaping prices can vary massively, and your goals in terms of water features, front yards, and other landscape ideas can make a big difference to the price too.
What Are the 6 Main Types of A Landscape?
There are numerous different types of landscape, although the differences between some of the landscape varieties are small.
When you invest in landscape design for your home or business, you will usually be trying to recreate a look and feel of a specific place or biome in your outdoor living space.
The core types of landscapes are mountain, coastal, riverine, desert, karst, and tropical.
While the rocky, unstable look of a karst landscape is undesirable, you may want to add a water feature – even to the extent of a stream or small waterfall running through your garden.
You could plant lush trees, or add rocks to make a Japanese water garden.
People with small front yards won’t be able to achieve the ‘botanical gardens’ look that some manage, but you can still achieve a lot if you are creative with your landscape ideas and find a professional landscaper that can help to make your ideas a reality.
How Do I Design And Landscape My Backyard?
Landscaping can be tricky.
It takes some knowledge and expertise to truly understand what will work for the size of the space, the type of land, and the desired look of the property.
Good landscape construction services don’t just come in there and “make a rock garden”, they will consider the location and take into account things that you might have overlooked.
For example, it would not make a tropical courtyard in an area that does not get enough sun for the plants to thrive, or to have a pool in an area with dry, dusty ground that is going to constantly contaminate the water.
So, find some landscape contractors that you can trust and sit down with them to discuss exactly what you want out of your outdoor living space.
They will work with you to consider the condition of the ground, whether the garden is north or south facing, the size, the number of users, and the New Orleans climate.
They’ll make recommendations such as working with an outdoor lighting service to allow you to get the most use out of the space, and picking plants that will thrive in your area without requiring too much maintenance.
Good contractors will help you pick the features that you will be able to use, and will give you realistic feedback on how much you can fit into the garden without it feeling cramped.
How Much Should I Budget For Landscaping?
Landscape management is a complicated task, and it’s hard to predict how much a project will cost.
Depending on the size of your garden and the landscape design that you are looking for, a project could start at $5,000 and go up to as much as $200,000.
You should have some idea of your budget in mind before you call a contractor so that they can tailor their recommendations to your budget.
The team at Big Easy Landscaping offers options to suit all budgets and will provide detailed plans that include feedback about irrigation, lighting, soil, architectural features, and other things that often get overlooked.
This means that you’ll have a good starting base for your new landscaped garden.
What Can I Get For My Money?
If you want to convert an open garden with a lawn into a pleasant space for entertaining, you can often do that for around $20,000 if you’re willing to go for a stone or desert courtyard with benches, and perhaps a pergola or simple table with a parasol.
You may even have room in the budget for an outdoor kitchen.
A good rule of thumb for working out how much to spend on landscaping is to target 10% of the value of your home.
So, a $500,000 property would be worth investing $50,000 to get a stunning courtyard or outdoor kitchen.
As the features get more complex, the budget increases.
Adding trees, flower beds, paths, decking, and lighting will add to the work that needs to be done, and the level of expertise required to get it right. If you want a water feature, that again increases the cost.
Make that water feature a swimming pool and you’re reaching the realms of a full construction project, with prices in excess of $100,000 being entirely possible for a swimming pool, deck, paths, and new garden in a large yard.
As you can see, transforming an outdoor living space can be an expensive undertaking.
That doesn’t mean you have to give up on the idea, however. Working with a professional landscaping firm is the best way to ensure that you can afford the project and that you will get results that you are happy with.
One way to ensure that you are happy with the results of your landscaping efforts is to ask for a prefabricated model of the garden.
State the upper and lower end of your budget, and also state what features you are desperate to have, and what you’re willing to give up in order to manage costs.
Get several quotes, and read not just the bottom line but the full explanation for how they arrived at the price.
Professional landscaping services will charge you for the planning, the materials, the plants, and also their labor.
You may be tempted to think that you could do the job for less yourself, and while it’s true that DIY would save you the labor costs, don’t underestimate how much time it takes to do a good job.
Something that could cause you days or weeks of stress could be done by a professional landscaping company in a weekend. Sometimes, paying the experts makes sense.
