Professional Landscaping Vs. DIY Landscaping

Where to start…. So a few weeks back I announced that we were going to get the front of our house landscaped by a professional. What a professional? But you are a DIY blog, aren’t you? You are suppose to inspire us to do things ourselves, forget the professionals, tackle it all. Well, yes and no.

I believe that first and foremost you should do as many things as possible that you are motivated to do, that you can handle based on your personal situation and that fit in to your financial budget. That being said my husband and I decided that with so many other projects happening, a two year old that runs around the house every time he is outside and the ability for us to only work during naps and night-time, left us with one option: hire a professional landscaper.

Here’s a quick video that pretty much sums up what happens every time we go outside and it also shows the past state of our landscaping….

Cute huh? Not really. The first time, maybe a little, but the millionth time, not so much. The running around the house in a circle had become such a constant thing that we really had to put our foot down. You see he never ran to the road just around the house but regardless it isn’t safe. So, now we are happy to report that as of this week Jude is now learning not to run around the house, every time he does he goes inside as a consequence. He’s caught himself a few times and says, “Jude, Not running.”  I love that little stinker.

As I had stated previously and if you watched the video you could see that the landscaping was filled with millions   gazillions of tiny pea pebbles. We choose to remove all of this ourselves. Some of it was placed into our son’s new Rockbox and the rest was given to neighbors. This allowed us to save several hundreds of dollars in labor. Score! But after all of that scooping I was so happy that the professionals were going to do the rest.

Now, take a look at the before picture of our landscaping. It was not horrible but in comparison to the rest of the neighborhood with  pristine lawns ours was not up to par.

The hollies were one of the biggest issues literally. They lined the entire house. Because they were not maintained they were too large and blocked the entire front porch. Even after trimming all of the bushes, they just had to go and we needed a fresh start. Surrounding all of the landscaping were concrete grey colored bricks, we gave those away as well.

You are looking at the right side of the house.  Clint Hester from South Branch Nursery and Landscaping designed our landscaping project. He made a great decision on extending this bed and giving it some natural curve. The front shrubs are Kaleidoscope Abelias, the back two plants are Oakleaf Hydrangeas and the small tree to the right is a Fireglow Japanese Maple. Clint left us some space for future planting which we will fill later with some perennials of our choice.

Oh the mounds of mulch, I love it so! I know I may sound crazy! But dealing with that pea gravel everywhere was a headache. In this section you see the Kaleidoscope Abelias running through the middle, along the back are Indian Hawthorne, and the tree is a French Blue Scotch Pine Topiary. Our current neighborhood is definitely on the formal side, many people have topiaries, and shaped shrubs. We feel that these choices really fit the look of the surrounding homes. They also will be low maintenance which is exactly what we need.

So this is it! For now at least. The little shrubs to the far left are Faulkner Boxwoods, they should give that area a little more height. The first night it was completed we sat on the front porch after we watered and got tons of compliments. Even though we only did some of the work I’m glad others noticed the improvements. Clint Hester and his crew at South Branch Nursery and Landscaping did an amazing job and were a pleasure to work with. Thanks guys.

If you are able  tackle your own landscaping project,  like Mom did, go for it! But if you can’t and you need to get some extra help think about hiring professionals or even getting friends and family over to help. Sometimes when you have too much going on, DIY isn’t always possible. You may need to Do it with Others and not just Do it Yourself.

(The opinions in this post are mine and mine alone. I was not paid or compensated in any manner to endorse or advertise any company mentioned in this post. Thanks! LHW)