Your curb appeal says a lot about your home and surrounds your property, giving it a personality. Curb appeal, as you probably know, is one of the biggest selling features and valuation factors for a property, particularly when they look really good, or, really bad. Homeowners venturing out into their yards to make improvements might sabotage their curb appeal, making poor choices.

Just because you see something on the internet, on television, or even in a magazine you’d like to emulate doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea or will even work. What looks good and works well in one part of the country might not perform well in another place. Remember, your landscape, by-and-large, is a living thing. Certain elements won’t thrive, and, non-native inclusions can wreak havoc on an otherwise beautiful outdoor space.

Plan Your Landscape Right to Avoid Ruin

The key to a wonderful looking, fully functional landscape is planning. What too many homeowners attempt to do is incorporate different elements into their landscapes without thinking about the big picture. Your outdoor space ought to have a complementary theme and scheme. Desert-type elements might grow and live healthy but, these don’t exactly fit-in with the local geography.

Neglect has turned many a landscape into an eyesore. In many such cases, pure laziness is not the issue, though. Rather, the homeowner doesn’t feel sufficiently well-versed in landscape maintenance to take on the tasks that need doing. But neglect isn’t always the culprit. Some yards look like hell because of what homeowners have done to them, not because of what they’ve failed to do. —The Spruce.com

A good, workable plan is essential to producing a great landscape. You’ll have to take into account not only the theme and your budget, but sunlight, lines, verticals, and much more. In other words, you don’t want to find a shade loving plant dying because you planted it in an area in your yard that gets a lot of sun. On top of all of this is comfort and function. Here again, you’ll regret putting outdoor furniture away from naturally shaded areas or misplacing new sprinklers, allowing brown spots to grow and spread.

Ways Homeowners Ruin their Landscapes

There are several ways good-intention homeowners can ruin their landscapes; most of them stem from poor planning, but there are others. Some are just born from neglect, which can happen because of high maintenance demands which aren’t met. Here are some of the top ways homeowners ruin their landscapes:

• Boxy walkways and planters. Straight lines are everywhere on the exterior of your home. From the sidewalk that parallels the front yard, to the rectangular driveway, to the exterior home walls. So, you ought to abstain from boxy walkways and planters. Add some curve for more visual curb appeal.
• No clear theme. This is where poor planning renders its ugly results and ruins landscapes. Before you update your landscaping, land on a workable, complementary theme. This is when you ought to be thinking about sun exposure and chose plants that provide a nice color scheme.
• No color scheme. Green is a big part of landscaping, but it’s certainly not the only color. You can go monochromatic, but that’s usually a bit too bland, so, switch it up and opt for a appealing color scheme. For best results, place plants next to each other when you’re at the nursery.
• Random planting of ornamental trees and shrubs. What might look good overall might not be very practical. Ornamental shrubs and trees can add a lot to a landscape, but keep in mind, these will need pruning at different times of the year, which can make it a maintenance nightmare.
• Misapplication of weed-and feed fertilizers. These two-for helpers are great for keeping weeds from growing while providing more nutrients for your grass. However, if you don’t apply it correctly, you might not get results. Worse yet, you might cause damage do to over or under application.