Many homeowners continue to invest in their property long after they have bought it, and a popular way to invest more in a property is landscaping. Landscaping is the general act of modifying terrain to make it more appealing and useful, and this can quickly boost a property’s value on the real estate market. Many homeowners know this, and they invest in landscaping, such as garden centers, for their own benefit as well as making the home more appealing on the real estate market. In fact, it has been estimated that investing just 5% of a property’s value on landscaping, such as plants like trees or shrubs, can result in a ROI (return of investment) around 150%. A property’s value may climb as much as 14% with proper landscaping work done, and such homes tend to sell faster. This can involve a wooden deck or a swimming pool, but plants are another popular route. A yard garden for vegetables or flowers can look nice, and a person can visit a plant nursery to pick up new species and gardening tools.

Americans and Gardening

Many Americans have a green thumb, especially middle-aged women who have their own back yard. All sorts of plants may be set up, from a hardwood tree to vegetables to flowers, and these plants can be protected and fertilized as need be. The American home and garden market is currently growing, and it was worth close to $272 billion in 2017, and was estimated to climb another $10 billion by 2018. Many Americans are getting involved with plants on their properties; as of 2017, for a recent example, nearly 117.6 million Americans had done some gardening within the past 12 months. Nearly 30% of all households have at least one houseplant, and an entire home vegetable garden may be possible, too. More and more, younger homeowners are getting involved with gardening. Right now, around 28% of all American gardening households are 18-34 years old, and they are slowly catching up to older gardeners, who make up 35% of the entire gardening population. More and more people of the Millennial generation, those born 1982-1995, are now old enough to afford a house. By extension, this vastly increases the number of younger adults who are gardening in their back yards.

The Plants

There is more to a plant’s need than “be rooted in soil.” Different species of tree, shrubs, and flowers, among others, may have particular needs for sunlight exposure, temperature, watering, and soil type. A gardener is urged to visit a nursery and consult the staff there, who can inform the gardener about which plant species thrive in their local area. Some households may live in an area too warm or cool for certain flowers, or the soil type may be wrong for certain flowers. With these guidelines in mind, a gardener can pick out the flowers or vegetables that they like among all plants that can grow well in their area. And these plants can be boosted with fertilizers, which contain the elements and nutrients that plants will need to grow faster and bigger.

Gardening involves some hardware, too. The gardener may need not only their gloves, hoe, and rake, but also bricks or wood timbers to frame the garden. This can better define the garden’s limits and keep the soil contained, and it can also look appealing. However, some wildlife such as gophers, rabbits, and others may decide to raid a garden, especially those with vegetables like carrots, tomatoes, and peas. Rabbits can be kept away with wire mesh cages set up over the garden whenever the gardener is not present, preventing the total loss of the garden. Underground meshes can be installed to keep away gophers, which are underground mammals with large appetites for roots and plants of all kinds. Gophers can also be deterred if sound systems are activated in their tunnels. Gophers can’t stand loud sounds, so these systems, along with wire mesh screens underground, can easily deter them. Even some birds may raid a home garden, so a homeowner may need to set up a wire mesh cage to keep them away, too. All of this can keep a garden in fine shape, 24 hours a day.