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Good landscaping can add up to 28 percent to the overall value of a house, says landscape economist John Harris, and cut its time on the market 10 to 15 percent. Even taking your landscaping to the next level, upgrading from “good” to “excellent,” in terms of design, condition, and placement, can add six to seven percent to a home’s value, according to a Clemson University study.

But don’t landscape merely to flip a house. You won’t get your money back, Sandy MacCuish, a California appraiser, tells us. Instead landscape for your enjoyment (Did you know trees reduce stress in just five minutes?), knowing that you’re making a good investment.

Listed are a few essential elements and a few nice-to-haves for value-adding and beautiful landscaping:

Essential #1: Trees

Maybe only Mother Nature can make a tree, but the National Tree Benefit Calculator can tell you what it’s worth. Your trees can even add value to your neighbor’s property.

A Portland, Ore., study found that trees with a sizable canopy growing within 100 feet of other houses added about $9,000 to their sale price and shaved two days off its time on the market.

Of course, to add value, the trees must be healthy, mature but not elderly, native to the area (more on the importance of native plants later), and appropriate to the neighborhood.

If you’re growing a forest and the rest of the neighborhood looks like a prairie, you’ll have a hard time recovering the trees’ value at sale. If your neighbor’s manicure their lawns and yours is a jumble of weeds or worse, their great landscaping will make yours look even shabbier and hurt the value of your home, says Domenich Neglia of Neglia Appraisals in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Just three properly placed trees could save you between $100 and $250 a year in energy costs, says the U.S. Department of Energy. Planting windbreaks and shade trees can reduce winter heating bills by 15 percent and air conditioning needs by 75 percent.

Just looking at trees produces “significant recovery from stress” within five minutes, according to a Texas AM University study.

Essential #2: Native Plants

If you introduce trees, plants, or shrubs, go native. Indigenous plantings thrive without the extra TLC (time and money) you’ll devote to anything that’s forced to live outside its natural habitat.

A study by Applied Ecological Services Inc., a Wisconsin ecological consultancy, shows maintaining an acre of native plants over 20 years costs $3,000, compared with the whopping $20,000 price tag of maintaining a lawn of non-native turf grass.

Native plantings help wildlife, too. The National Wildlife Federation awards a special certification to homeowners who create natural backyard habitats for birds, butterflies, and other animals looking for places to roost or feed.

Rain gardens with native plants and trees also are becoming a plus for properties increasingly plagued by extreme weather. These gardens filter and distribute runoff underground, preventing storm water from seeping into basements and overwhelming municipal sewers.

Essential #3: Outdoor Lighting

Outdoor lighting consistently tops the list of most wanted outdoor features. In an annual What Home Buyers Really Want survey, 41 percent rate it “essential;” 49 percent say it’s “desirable.” But that’s not the only reason it’s one of our landscape essentials.

Tasteful lighting paints your home at night, highlighting your other great landscaping choices and directing guests to your home’s focal point — the front door. It protects against slips and falls.

It makes a property a more difficult target for intruders. That added security can reduce burglaries, and therefore claims. Some insurance companies give five to 15 percent discounts to homeowners with reduced or zero claims.

It makes your home feel homier. Soft lighting on a wrap-around porch or just a front stoop feels warm and inviting.

Just of few of the extra “nice to haves” are fencing, retaining walls and terracing and walkways.

Article prepared and submitted by Lisa J. Heyer, owner/broker with Jackson Realty.

Looking around your neighborhood, you probably see front and backyards dominated by turfgrass and ornamental plants that are not native to the region. Native species are plants and animals present within a given area prior to European contact. Non-native (or exotic) plants or animals are defined as those species that were not present before European contact. The impact of urban landscaping on biodiversity may warrant altering conventional or “exotic” urban landscaping to emphasize native landscaping. Biodiversity refers to the variety of life and its processes. Biodiversity includes species diversity, habitat diversity, and genetic diversity.

Stokes Aster (Stokesia laevis), a flowering native plant that can be used in landscaping. Credit: UF/IFAS Photo: Tyler Jones

The conventional approach of landscaping with turf and ornamentals affects biodiversity in two ways: 1) it limits the diversity of native species in urban areas dominated by turf and ornamentals, and 2) it can affect surrounding natural environments, altering habitats in ways that exclude native plants and animals.

Let’s first look within the city limits. Simply put, landscapes dominated by turfgrass and non-native ornamental plants create an artificial environment that offers very little opportunity for most native species to thrive. A monoculture of turfgrass infused with non-native ornamentals excludes native plants and provides little to no habitat for most wildlife. However, biodiversity measures improve with the use of native plants. For example, more native plants serve as host plants for native butterfly larvae. Overall, the diversity of native plants improves urban biodiversity by simultaneously creating wildlife habitat and increasing the presence of native plants.

Looking beyond the boundaries of cities, the use of turf and some ornamental plants can negatively affect biodiversity of surrounding habitat. Non-native species that invade and impact natural areas are called “invasive exotics.” Most invasive exotic plants in the United States were originally introduced as ornamentals in urban areas and then escaped and became established in surrounding natural areas. We are not saying that all non-native plants are necessarily bad, but today’s non-listed exotic could become tomorrow’s invasive species. Further, the maintenance of lawns and exotic plants with an array of insecticides, fertilizers, and herbicides can also affect biodiversity. With insecticides and herbicides, most people use these chemicals to keep other plants out and to keep turfgrass and ornamentals healthy and alive. The end result is usually the eradication of native plants and insects. For example, many insecticides are not specific to the pest insect and kill many of our native pollinators such as bees, beetles, wasps, and butterflies.

The Precautionary Principle: Some will argue that evidence of impacts by exotics is not conclusive and exceptions occur. Further, they argue that if homeowners and the landscaping industry managed lawns and ornamentals appropriately, we could minimize our impact on natural environments. However, the risk is great, and thus the precautionary principle may be most appropriate here. Essentially the precautionary principle states that “where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, the absence of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing measures to prevent environmental degradation.” Maybe we should look at each ornamental plant as a “risk” and overall, reduce the number of non-native plants installed in our own yards.

Certainly, non-natives do have their place (e.g., vegetable gardens, turfgrass for recreation, and exotic flowers for show), but the dominance of exotic vegetation is at the expense of our natural heritage. Alternatives do exist and people are increasingly interested in sustainable options. Become the first in your neighborhood to switch your landscaping practices and incorporate more natives into the yard!

Portions of this blog were first published as an article in the Journal of Extension: “Native Landscaping vs. Exotic Landscaping: What Should We Recommend?”

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