DON’T RIP OUT THAT BUSH – PART 1

As someone who has moved a lot (I have lived in 16 houses, not including dorms and apartments in college), I know a thing or two about moving into a new house. This post discusses the benefits of waiting a full year before making major changes to the yard. Seeing the yard in 4 seasons will give you a much better feel for how your new home can best be showcased.

It’s common for new homeowners to want to immediately make their recently acquired residence “theirs.” It’s a natural urge – former owners may have had wildly different tastes in design and colors – sometimes so different that it’s nearly impossible for the new owners to stand the look.

For others, the itch to revise the home’s layout is tempting. This includes redoing kitchens, baths and demoing walls or building new ones. But home improvement and design experts warn that it’s much better to live in a space for at least a year before making major changes. By waiting, the natural flow and design preferences can be reasonably considered and implemented in stages, if necessary.

The same thing can happen in new yards. An overgrown or less-than-beautiful yard can be an enticing project for a new homeowner. However, here patience can truly pay off. It’s hard to truly understand a landscape until it’s been lived in and studied for a time. By watching how the yard travels through the seasons, including how sun hits – or doesn’t – various areas in it, will give vital clues as to what might thrive in specific areas. Nothing is worse than putting in shade plants in an area that, over time, is sunny most of the day. It’s a waste of time and money.

Each season is bound to bring surprises and new experiences worth taking note of. Things to watch for include the amount of light available for plants during each growing season, the path of the sun (it does change throughout the year), the force of winds and rain and how the yard drains rainwater. In addition, you can identify trouble spots (are those the markings of grub worms?), diseased plants and denote areas for different activities, such as a child’s play area and a spot for parties.

Spending 12 months looking around the yard also allows for identification of the various plants, bushes and trees. Something that may look really ugly in the winter could be the yard’s crowning glory in the summer. It’s wise to wait before ripping out anything (unless the yard is hideously overgrown, that might be an exception) so the beauty of what’s there has a chance to shine.

Watching the yard for a year, doesn’t mean nothing gets done, however. The next post will outline things you can do in each season to keep involved with your yard without making major changes too soon.

Founded in 2008, Better Life Maids, based in St. Louis, Missouri, is a professional “green” house cleaning service. Having created a unique partnership with Better Life, a natural household cleaning products manufacturer, Better Life Maids is the first franchise green house cleaning service to co-brand with a product line, which creates both a greater consumer experience and a better franchisee opportunity. The service and products are centered being earth/environmentally friendly in order to protect your home and family from the ill effects of toxic products while also protecting the planet. More information about Better Life Maids green house cleaning franchise can be found athttps://www.betterlifemaids.com or to find out more about Better Life and their line of natural household cleaning products visit http://www.cleanhappens.com.