Condominium Landscaping Ideas to Excite Owners
If you live in a condo, you may think you don’t have enough real estate to landscape, so you don’t do anything. At Turf TitanZ, we disagree with this premise! A landscaped condo yard can make a huge difference in the visual portrait of your home. First impressions are strongly influential. Whether you are a resident or the owner of a condominium complex, landscaping should not be overlooked. In this article, we give some compelling reasons and ideas for creating an attractive landscape in a condominium.
A Well-Maintained Condominium Landscape Increases Property Value
When your landscaping isn’t well maintained or doesn’t even exist, it speaks volumes about how your property is being managed. If you are actively soliciting buyers for your unit, this can be a deterrent. Curb appeal is a huge aspect of the real estate market. If you have an attractively landscaped unit, it draws interest when people are looking to purchase. Trust us, studies have shown that homes professionally landscaped can bring 15% to 20% more at the time of resale than homes with less attractive landscapes.
Condo Landscaping: Smart Ideas and Best Practices
When dealing with a small yard, you may struggle with ideas as to what to plant. Here are some best practices and smart ideas for landscaping a condo unit.
Try Layering
Layering the heights of your plants is perfect for a small space. For example, have low groundcovers and ferns at the front of the space, then gradually have taller shrubs and plants behind and at the back. Use bulbs, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials as crevice plants and add rocks for visual interest.
Get Creative with Variety
Having a variety of plants helps a small space to be more interesting, as well as using planters and pots. Trailing plants in a pot or window box is a way to have more visual appeal and soften a hard surface like a wall or steps. Another idea is to use dwarf plants that aren’t usually seen in gardens. All kinds of trees are being cultivated and introduced continuously. For instance, you can grow a pine that matures at one foot! Even zinnias and black-eyed Susans have dwarf versions. Other plants that are small and a bit different from the usual are thyme, candytuft, creeping jenny, and pincushion flower.
Color is Everything in Condo and Townhouse Landscaping
Planting flowers in a variety of complementary colors give a very large punch in a small yard. A combination of pink, red, yellow, and purple will delight visitors. Some flowers that provide colorful blooms are petunias, violas, salvia, lavender, dianthus, sedum, geraniums, begonias, and pansies. Most of these are annuals, which means they don’t live past a season and will need to be replaced the next year. These are great for planters and pots.
But, many perennials also provide color and will come back year after year. Perennials such as rosemary, Veronica Vernique, sage, asters, astilbe, and peonies are good choices in small yards for variety and interest.
Low Maintenance and Native Plants
Living in a condo, you may be a fan of the low-maintenance lifestyle it affords. If so, you may not be in favor of having a yard that requires a lot of attention, albeit a small space. You want plants that require little maintenance. In addition to this feature, you can get a bonus by using native plants that work in your ecosystem. Native plants can save you more money, time, and resources than non-native plants. Here is a list of some very low-maintenance plants that are also native to our area:
- Hydrangea
- Goldenrod
- Hibiscus
- Lupine
- Blue Star
- Milkweed
- Asters
- American Bellflower
- Coreopsis
- Dwarf violet iris
- Phlox
Trees and Plants Create Privacy in Condos
Condos are close together, which causes privacy to be a challenge. Trees and other plants are superb for creating privacy for condominiums. You need something that grows rapidly and wide more than tall. Evergreens and shrubs are a natural solution for privacy issues. They are great for the environment by reducing erosion from wind and rain. Here are a few we recommend for creating privacy and noise screens:
- Bottlebrush
- Oleander
- Silverbell
- Holly
- Wax Myrtle
Less Is More–Think Simple
When you have a small space to landscape, it may be obvious to state this but less is definitely more. You need to think of simple instead of complicated. Using the principles of landscape design still applies even with a small space. Having unity, scale, balance, simplicity, variety, and emphasis creates attractive lines, forms, textures, and colors. This means choosing a few strategically placed plants of color and a variety of bushes with color in the leaves that don’t overcrowd. Don’t get lots of different plants that become a confusing mish-mash of plants, have no design, and don’t add any visual interest.
Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening is a concept that is perfect for a condominium that has a fence or outside wall. A vertical garden saves space (which is at a premium), allows you extra mobility, provides many planting options, and improves the appearance of your home. Trailing plants and vegetables do well in vertical gardens.
Hanging Planters
Just as with a vertical garden, anything that is “up” helps with utilizing minimal space in a small yard. Hanging planters and window boxes are excellent in providing a space for colorful flowers and trailing greenery. You can use decorative poles for hanging baskets for visual interest. And, we suggest planting more than one flower in a hanging basket. A general rule of thumb when planting a hanging basket is to use one plant per inch of basket diameter, so a 12″ basket can hold 12 plants. This gives you the opportunity to create a basket with a variety of flowers.
Contact Turf Titanz for Beautiful Small Space Landscaping Design
Our team at Turf Titanz has experience in designing and creating beautiful small yards for condos and townhouses. If you struggle with ideas for your space, contact us. We have the know-how to construct a small yard that will be appealing to you, your visitors, and prospective buyers if you are looking to sell. Let us show you what we can do! Call us at (919) 562-0771 or fill out the form below.