Curb Appeal – 3 Ways to Use Landscaping to Sell a Home

The right landscaping can go be a huge benefit towards selling a house. Here are three ideas to guide homeowners in optimizing their home’s curb appeal.

Color Sells –

A well-designed entrance statement can define a home. Along with sprucing up the front door with a new coat of paint, homeowners can increase their entryway’s color impact on prospective buyers by planting colorful perennials and annuals on either side of the front porch or landing.

Bulbs such as daffodils herald spring’s arrival. Dwarf lantanas come in a variety of colors and are prolific bloomers, producing a riot of flowers all through the summer. And Aster novi-belgii (Michaelmas Daisy) blooms well into fall.

Use Containers as Entrance Accents –

Containers and container plants are perfect for curb appeal. They’re relatively inexpensive, and if set up on a drip irrigation system, almost maintenance-free.

Select containers and container plants with colors complementing your home’s finish and architecture. Use tall plants (“thrillers”) in the center or back of the container. Plant ‚”fillers” in the spaces around these taller plants. Finish the container with ‚”spillers” (trailing plants).

Containers come in all shapes, sizes, textures and hues. Modern light-weight fiberglass pots are hard to distinguish from stone or terra cotta, and are much more manageable.

Go Light on the Foundation Plants –

Plants placed around a home’s foundation must be in scale with the house. Homeowners should be familiar with a plant’s growing requirements, especially its height at maturity. Use dwarf or low-growing plants next to the foundation, under windows, and close to the entrance. Remove overgrown or inappropriate plants.

Keep in mind that modern homes may not need extensive foundation plantings, If the home’s foundation is attractive, homeowners should consider letting the foundation stand on it’s own.

Screening unsightly elements is a good reason for using foundation plantings. Evergreen shrubs can hide unsightly air conditioning units, utility meters, and more – just make sure that the plants don’t block access for maintenance or air flow.

Extend Curb Appeal to the Curb –

Homeowners can dress up the area around their mailboxes with groundcovers like Evergreen Candytuft, drought-tolerant dwarf flowering perennials and small ornamental grasses, along with climbers such as Clemantis.

Plants placed by the curb must be tough to survive the harsh roadside environment. Think about the mailman’s welfare, too – use a plant palette with flowers that won’t attract bees.

To quickly sell a house, homeowners need every advantage they can get. Colorful plantings will create the curb appeal that helps make a sale more likely.