My front yard could really use a curb-appeal upgrade. What can I do to spruce it up?

The early peak of moving season is upon us and for some are residents, listing their home is on the imminent horizon. Statewide, the number of home listings increased by 7.7% for the first quarter. While most current homeowners have enjoyed an inflated property value in recent years, the question remains on what should be fixed or upgraded to make their property desirable to a new owner. According to Bankrate.com, the average home can increase in property value by 15-20% with a well designed landscape. But you don’t have to list your house for sale to cash out on this potential return. Creating curb appeal by using your lawn may be easier than first thought.

Imagine taking an online tour of a local house on the market and falling in love with every image after every swipe. The listing descriptions are showered with playful wordings such as “lush but low-maintenance plantings” or “stunning colorful landscape.” But once you arrive, you are greeted with a front yard filled with overgrown plants alongside tired hedges sitting in a lackluster design. Disappointment leads to the next natural question, does the inside of the house look like the outside? It is a quick reminder that your home’s worth is initially established by the proverbial first impression or curb appeal. Residents have the opportunity to show the continuity of care from inside their home to the outdoors, and it doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive.

Improving your landscape starts with a full assessment of what is already in place. Allowing dead or compromised trees of any size is not only an eyesore but can be a costly mistake should it fracture or fully uproot. Our climate patterns of hot days and rainy summer afternoons can easily lead to fast plant growth and, if left unchecked over time, it can also become a real issue.

Start from the highest elevation on your property and work your way down to organize the work that needs to be done. Plants that have overgrown their layout position do not always need to be harshly pruned back or even removed. Smart reduction cuts can go a long way to shape and thus correct their position in relation to the entire layout.

A common starting point for many are the dated foundation hedges. Often the original shrubs installed by the home’s developer become landmark plants that are seldom pruned correctly. Any realtor will tell you that natural lighting in a home is an attractive feature for most potential buyers. Addressing the overgrowth around your house windows will make that happen. If you are new to cutting down bushes and would like more detailed instruction, UF Extension has a guide for you at: hort.ifas.ufl.edu/woody/documents/PruningLandscapeTreesShrubs.pdf.

After clean-up and removal, it is time to consider adding new plants. The introduction of fresh new plantings can offer both new textures and pops of color. Spread the love in different locations aside from the front door. For example, consider the ground around your mailbox if you have one, install window boxes and select portable containers.

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Perennials offer colorful flowers that cross the spectrum and make wise purchases because they live more than one year. But annuals serve a purpose too, and are often the most popular and readily available selections. With some planning, you can select flowering plants based on their bloom time. For example, both hydrangeas (hortensia) and lily of the Nile (agapanthus) plants are now boasting large multi-flowered blooms but this will end when the temperatures heat up this summer.

Daylilies and coneflowers (echinacea) start to crank out the color in the summer months and can last until the fall. Firespike (odontonema strictum) and cape honeysuckle (tecomaria capensis) take the end-of-year season to showcase their colorful blooms. Sustainability also ranks high as a consideration for many others. Growing native plants restores the integrity of Florida’s original plant matter and best supports the environment. If native plantings interest you but you don’t know where to start, visit this webpage for a host of links that will assist in gathering information: Florida Native Landscaping, Links

Additional garden tasks that cannot be excluded are weeding mulching your flower beds. While these are most everyone’s least favorite activities, they do serve your landscape on more than just the aesthetic front. They promote garden wide health of your plant investment and help retain moisture for the roots to thrive. And speaking of keeping things wet, relatively new technology is available for homeowners interested in keeping their lawns accurately hydrated. Smart irrigation utilizes controllers that measure water use with onsite conditions. To learn more about how these systems work, check out the following link, AE442/AE442: Smart Irrigation Controllers: What Makes an Irrigation Controller Smart? (ufl.edu)

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Zillow researchers suggest a landscaped yard can add 2.7% more to a home’s sale price. Whether you plan to stay or potentially move, improving your home’s curb appeal can upgrade while physically protecting the built-in financial value of your investment.

Candace Barone is a Master Gardener volunteer with the Duval County Extension Service and the University of Florida/IFAS. For gardening questions, call the Duval County Extension Office at (904) 255-7450 from 9 a.m. to noon and 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and ask for a Master Gardener volunteer.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Garden Q&A: Sprucing up yard will increase property value