When it comes to landscaping and lawns, you can do some effective landscaping without paying through the nose for it year in and year out. Good basic conservation can go a long way to saving you money and have a nice yard to boot.

A new sweeping rage in this area is called ‘xeriscaping’. Water increases in its value with each passing year, and this has pushed many homeowners to conserve their water by installing plants that don’t require very much.

There is a wide variety of these types of plants, and while contributing to the color and beauty of your home, they save you money at the same time – which is a beauty all its own!

Plants like cedar hedges are the ‘SUVs’ of the plant world. Not a good idea for people who want to ‘water conserve’. But things like peat moss will add to the water retention, and it’s cheap at the same time. By mixing it with the dirt and bone meal, it will retain the water that comes around it, and hold it, or retain it, until the plant has need of it. A kind of ‘distributor’.

By doing the job yourself, you’re going to save a lot of money up-front.

From the picking of your plants to the pruning and weeding, everything you don’t have to hire out is going to save money.

When it comes to weeds, they are a reality and fact of having a lawn. Many weeds don’t have a bad look about them, and if they’re not particularly destructive, it’s cheaper to leave them alone than to buy all the chemical treatment involved in getting rid of them.

By shopping for plants at a larger store that carries a large inventory of plants, you can save money as opposed to shopping at a local nursery. The care of these plants will not have been as good maybe, but if you find some in good shape they won’t cost as much either.

Another way to do budget landscaping is to limit the amount of your green space. The smaller amount of space you have to tend, the smaller your tending costs will be. Less flowers, less upkeep.

Also be careful about the types of filler for the space outside the green, choosing cheaper alternatives to some of the expensive rocks, and implementing things like bark mulch instead.

Budget landscaping can be both fun and rewarding, it just takes some planning and creative thinking, and a little elbow grease here and there.