To avoid unexpected expenses and stay within your landscaping budget, you first need to make a budget, a REAL one!

So consider the following to avoid breaking the bank:

Break the project down

Break your project down into several categories and/or items to better calculate your expenses. About a dozen items need to be considered when drafting your budget. They will give you a better idea of the expenses you might incur. They are:

Excavation
Granular materials
Electricity
Irrigation
Lighting
Hardscape (inert materials)
Delivery of goods and their location on the property
Vegetation
Outdoor furnishings
Structures (arbor, pergola, etc.)
Hiring a specialist (designer, landscaper, etc.)

You can add or subtract from the list according to scope and number of subprojects. Prices can vary enormously, so list your priorities. Decide what is absolutely want to have and what is nice to have, at least for the time being! Go over your action plan many times to make sure you haven?t forgotten anything.

Calculate costs and make choices

You will then have to assign each of the categories/items a percentage of the overall amount you wish to INVEST (not ?spend? ? a good landscaping job can increase your home?s resale value by an estimated 15 to 20%).

Request proposals from several companies for the jobs you can?t do yourself before putting them on your list. This helps you to avoid surprises. It also gives you an idea of the prevailing services and market prices so that you can forecast your costs exactly and in detail to stay within budget.

Save creatively

Once your detailed budget is completed, there are ways to save so that you can have what you want at lower cost. This does take time and effort, however.

You can begin by identifying the work you can do yourself. For example, you can hire a specialist just to draft your plans or for big jobs while you do the rest yourself. This way, you can have a professional result but at lower cost because you have used their services for only a part of your project.

Three words are especially useful for savings: Recover, Recycle, Reuse. This can be as simple as getting plant cuttings from your neighbor rather than purchasing them, or planting perennials rather than annuals.

You can also turn your leftovers into compost to use as fertiliser ? more economical, more ecological!

With a little imagination, you can also transform old objects into something completely different? for example, turn a watering can into a flower box. Pinterest is full of creative DIY ideas for decorating your yard. Let your inner handyman loose!

Be a wise consumer, shop around, set your priorities, and above all, stay within budget
!