Budget-Friendly Landscape Projects: Beautify Your Yard Without Breaking the Bank

It’s spring and you want to deck out your yard with a fresh, lively aesthetic. 

But, you also don’t want to wind up waist-deep in costly landscaping projects that require thousands of dollars in materials, either.

How can you beautify your yard on a budget and achieve dazzling results? Here’s how. 

Mulch & Mulch Alternatives

Mulch is a versatile material composed of tree bark, wood chips, clippings, pine, moss, and other natural materials like compost. 

Mulch is a terrific accent to grass, hedges, shrubs, rock paths, flower beds, and gardens and helps tie together and balance the aesthetic of your yard. Mulch is a simple but effective solution for dressing up ugly, unkempt patches of dirt and Earth. 

However, mulch itself can be expensive depending on where you get it, costing anywhere from $15 to $65 per cubic yard. One cubic yard of mulch will cover about a 320-square-feet area at one inch deep.

You can search for local vendors near you with quality mulch at affordable prices on the ADIY website. 

(BUTTON): Find mulch near me. 

If you find that mulch costs more than what you’d like to spend, there are plenty of mulch alternatives to consider that will elevate your yard’s appearance and decorate boring, blank spaces. 

Try using pine needles, grass clippings, or gravel or crushed stone. Check the ADIY website for local gravel and stone vendors near you. 

Plant Perennial Groundcovers

Groundcover is an inexpensive addition to any landscape that offers both functionality and a colorful, textured appearance. 

Groundcover is a leafy plant that hugs the ground and grows across most surfaces. It’s commonly used between flower beds, or to cover up dead grass or dirt.

Choosing the right perennial groundcover will add vibrant, natural visuals to your yard while helping to control erosion, fight off weeds, and complement the plants around it. 

Groundcover not only brightens the look of your yard, but requires far less maintenance than water-thirsty grass and plenty of other sensitive plant species. 

People often think of groundcover as an understated green growth that extends across the surface of a yard. But you can opt for more colorful variations: 

● Vinca is a groundcover with lustrous green leaves and purplish-blue flowers that can cost as little as $1 per plant. Vinca is often referred to as “Periwinkle”. 

● Thyme, or Mother of Thyme, is a beautiful, compact, fast-growing groundcover with small leaves and clusters. Thyme can cost about $4 per plant. 

● Early Snow Glories are a perennial groundcover with green leaves and stunning light-blue flowers that blooms at the start of spring. Early Snow Glories can cost about $2.40 per plant.

Install A Centerpiece In Your Yard

When someone steps onto your yard, what’s the first thing they’ll notice? 

You might have flower beds tucked away in a corner or a pristinely watered and mowed lawn, but does your yard have a strong centerpiece that draws the eye? 

If it’s safe to have fires in your area, consider building a simple fire pit by stacking concrete retaining wall blocks or cinder blocks in a circle and laying out chairs around it. 

You could also search for a more artistic centerpiece like a stone fountain or metal structure someone is giving away. 

Stop by your local thrift stores and garage sales, search online marketplaces, and ask friends or neighbors for tips. 

Get creative by gathering scrap metal and recycled items and building your own art structure as the centerpiece of your yard. There’s no rules, it’s your yard, after all. Start

thinking about what looks good to you, then go out and find it or build it without free or recycled materials. 

Upgrade your yard without spending a ton of money by using mulch and mulch alternatives, planting a low-maintenance perennial groundcover, and installing a centerpiece that draws the eye. 

Good luck with all your budget-friendly landscape upgrades!