Yard & Garden

Landscape Improvement: DIY or Contract It Out?

Front Yard House

The time has come to fix your lawn and landscaping. Now the question remains – should you do it, or should you hire a contractor to? This is probably the most important question you’ll have to answer early on in the planning process. And it’s not a bad idea to get an outside opinion into the mix as well.

You could potentially be doing major landscaping projects on the horizon. Or perhaps you’re just trying to figure out how to maintain what you already have. Does the improvement project require heavy machinery or expensive tools? Knowing that will help you find your answer. And then don’t ever forget that if you don’t have an eye for design, you should probably not be doing the planting of bushes, flowers, or other trees and foliage.

Major Landscaping Projects

For significant landscaping projects, especially ones where you’ll be bringing rocks into your yard, it’s probably better to hire out a third-party contractor. They will have specialized knowledge about particular landscaping techniques. There’s a good chance they can get materials less expensively than you might be able to. And they can give you advice about certain aspects of your lawn renovation.

Lawn Care Tips

If you’re just looking for tips to maintain your lawn, you can probably do that on your own without too much trouble. You might have to buy an edger, a string trimmer, and a good pair of gardening gloves, but a little bit of elbow grease will go a long way if you’re just trying to tighten up the edges and details of the way that your lawn already is. And if you like outside gardening, DIY is definitely the way to go because it will be a meditative experience for you as well.

Requiring Heavy Machinery or Expensive Tools

Does your landscape improvement dream involve heavy machinery or expensive tools? If it does, then you definitely should push more for the outside contractor to work on it. Think about a project like building a gazebo in your backyard. Do you have a way to dig a hole and set the foundation? Do you have the time to go over each step individually, as opposed to having a contractor do it all simultaneously? A pro and con list will get you the answer you’re looking for.

Do You Have an Eye for Design?

And finally, you may want to do the landscape improvement project yourself, but it might be that you just don’t have the artist’s eye for the endeavor. If you don’t know how to use lines, textures, colors, and other artistic elements in a way that is pleasant for yourself and others, then landscaping may be something best left to people who already specialize in the field and have years of practice behind them.

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Anna Johansson is a freelance writer, researcher, and business consultant from Olympia, WA. A columnist for Entrepreneur.com, Business.com and more. Anna specializes in entrepreneurship, technology, and social media trends. You can follow her on LinkedIn.

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