Maturity…it’s what everyone wants… Or should I say “mature-tree?”
In a previous newsletter I talked about the value of your landscape as an investment. To unpack that a little bit more, I’d like to focus on your trees.
The value of trees is obvious from a reselling point of view. A study from Clemson University found that potential home buyers will guess at the value of a home value 11.3% higher if it has professional landscaping. A recent poll found that 84% of real estate agents surveyed believe that homes with professional landscaping are 20% more likely to sell. What’s more, they find these homes have an average selling price 4 to 5% higher than their neighbors without it.
Instead of thinking of your property in the terms of someone buying it, what about the value to you today? Large, deciduous trees provide cooling in the summer and solar warmth and the winter. Trees act as a filter of any air and ground, prevent erosion, provide privacy and sound buffering in urban areas. Well-placed evergreens provide a buffer against winter winds and can reduce energy costs energy cost as much as 20%.
When budgeting for landscaping project, most often the place to start is on your hardscaping. The ground has to be leveled with retaining walls. Access and gathering areas need to be paved with bricks or natural stone. The hardscaping is the skeletal structure of the landscape. It is oftentimes the most expensive, but also yielding the best return for dollars invested (12.4%.) We usually break down a large project two ways-hardscaping and planting. But as we’re talking about a mature landscape here, it presumes that the trees need to grow.
Remembering the rule of plant growth – “the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, in the third year it leaps” – it would be prudent to figure a way to get the best of both. Every situation is different, but one option might be to plant your shade trees during the hardscape process, then plant shrubs and perennials the following year or second phase.
Another option may be to plant a larger tree later. We can supply and install up to a 6 inch caliper tree (about 18 feet tall) without specialized equipment. The best solution would be to call Groundhog Landscaping and schedule a meeting with our estimators to put together a plan that works with your budget.
**The environmental benefits that mature trees provide can be measured monetarily. Here is a fun little tool that you can figure out how much the trees on your property are worth annually: http://www.treebenefits.com/calculator/index.cfm
**For more information about the benefits of trees in the landscape, this is a great resource site: http://www.treesaregood.org/Home.aspx