How much do you spend (or have you spent) on landscaping?

[rin]

I'm curious to see how much people spend on their yards! I've seen a few threads where people talk about spending a lot to put in a nice yard. We also just spent what I consider to be a lot on our yard, and I'm wondering where we fall in the whole spectrum.

Multiple choice to cover both installation costs (so one-time costs on things like putting in stonework, lawns, perennials, etc) and annual costs for general maintenance (so fertilizer, lawn maintenance/lawnmower tuneups, buying annuals, increased water bills, if you pay a lawn service, etc).

[codex57]

Made the builder put in the yard.

We added roughly $2-3,000 in concrete I think. Another $2500 for an aluminum patio cover. Prolly about $1,000 in plants to replace the ugly ones the builder put in.

Our lawn guy only charges $50/mo to do our yard (front and back). Frickin' steal cuz we have a TON of grass (altho they're done in like 15 minutes).

[ellies mom]

I could only chose one option. So I went with the installation cost.

One of the people who had our house built was a landscape guy who had big plans and talked the builders into not putting in landscaping. Then they got a divorce and sold the house before they did more than put in a few token plants in the front yard. So we had a blank slate going in. Literally. No lawn, just two trees and a couple of rosemary bushes. So we had a no lawn landscaping put in. Mostly, ornamental grasses, heathers and big rocks. It cost about $1800 and that included having it installed. We are making a few changes this spring. I'm pretty unhappy with the lavender. It doesn't do well in the places we have it in. Our back yard is very small and was also completely unfinished. We covered the whole thing in paver stones a couple of years ago. It still needs the final decorative touches though and I'd like to put in a larger landing/ultra-small deck in a few years. The patio part cost about $1000 for materials and we did the work ourselves.

As for maintenance, it is almost maintenance free. No mowing. We water maybe once a week during the summer if it doesn't rain. We weed very occasionally (handful of times a year). In the fall, we cut back the grasses and rake up the leaves. And every other year, we put down more bark mulch. It costs less than $75 if we have it delivered. This year we are thinking about splurging and having someone come out and lay it down. So, normally less than $50 a year and maybe 10 hours of work.

[crl]

We rent and our landscaping is covered in our rent so I can't break it down.

At our last house we paid someone to clear the mess of a backyard when we moved in. We paid for some tree removal and then fence installation (6 foot wood fence around the entire backyard). We did the work of getting grass to grow from seed and some minor planting. We also did the work of spreading a lot of gravel in an area that was too shady to support grass. We did this work over the course of a year. I would estimate we spent $8,000--the bulk of that by far was the tree removal and the fence installation.

When we have owned houses I have done all the maintenance myself, so the only costs were tools and materials like grass seed to overseed.

Catherine

[rin]

Oh no! I think I messed up the poll and didn't actually allow for multiple choice. Mods, is there any way to make it multiple choice after the fact?

[geophne]

We put a pool in last year and did lots of landscaping around that. We wanted the space to feel like a tropical oasis and I think we accomplished our goal because I almost feel like I am on vacation in the backyard! We also redid the front garden, added a stone border, replaced a tree that was dead in the backyard, put in an irrigation system, and put new sod down because we had lots of dead spots. It was a major ordeal, but totally worth it. The whole project was about $17,000. This Spring we had to spend close to $1000 more for some more new sod because we had another huge dead spot (we live in a major drought area and have had watering restrictions).

As far as maintenance, we pay our mowers $40/week and about $200 once a year for cleanup. I wish DH would mow to save money, but it's so hot here and he works long hours so he won't go for it.

[BabbyO]

We spend under $500 annually on maintenance. We get mulch every couple of years and for a while had a lawn service that did some maintenance...but it was minimal.

We spent about $2-3K on a patio and about $2-3K to have my cousin design and plant all new landscaping around the entire house. This included pulling out old beds and shrubs, planting, transplanting 1 tree and the cost of all the plants. We got the family discount (basically free labor). The patio work was done by a separate concrete company.

[elliput]

I am currently renting, but do spend some money on maintaining the lawn and gardens. I don't pay anyone to do the work for me though.