Landscaping on a budget

Your garden is the first thing that greets you when you get home each day. It lets you connect with Mother Nature in the privacy of your abode, helping you unwind after a long day at work. Plants and flowers also help reduce noise and pollution.

While it makes sense why one should create a lovely garden, it is difficult to determine how much one should spend. Some landscape consultants recommend that 10% of the property’s value should be spent on this area.

If you want to give your garden a facelift on a budget, here’s how:

Prepare a plan

First, come up with a landscaping plan. Write down items that you would like to include in your garden. Landscaping can be “soft” or “hard”. Soft landscaping refers to plants and flowers, while hard landscaping includes pergola and water features. Depending on what you want and how big your garden is, what you spend on landscaping varies greatly. Soft landscaping is usually cheaper. You can just buy the plants and arrange them in your garden.

In short, a good plan should let you look ahead and know what you want to include in your garden.

Start with the basics

A basic 10ft x 30ft to beautify – RM450 for turfing, RM800 for tree planting, RM2,500 for a water feature or pod, RM1,500 for pergola, RM250 for a garden bench, RM150 for stepping stones and RM250 for a garden light.

If you do not have the budget yet for a more lavish version, start with the essential first. An initial effort such as basic grass will do. You can refer to your plan and carry out your work in stages. Let’s say you only have RM450 for your landscaping budget at this moment. You can start with lawn planting. When you have RM2,500 two months later, you can look at other parts of your garden, such as installing a pond.

Simpler measures such as buying and arranging plants in your garden are also a good start. Even a well-placed RM3.50 plant can alter the landscape.

Get very involved in your garden

Things cost less when you choose to do it yourself. Landscaping is no exception. Instead of paying professional landscape architects for their ideas and relying on them to source for the contractor and materials, you should do it yourself.

If you want plants, source it from Sungai Buloh, which is the best place to get cheap and good quality plants. You can also look for a landscape contractor on your own, which cuts out the middleman’s fee.

Look for less expensive alternatives. It is possible for cheaper materials to enhance your garden. It depends on what you classify as quality. You can replace one material with a less expensive one and still achieve a very good result. The important thing is to be creative.

Material vary in prices, so if you’re on a tight budget, you can choose the less expensive alternative. For example, if you’re thinking of doing a pergola, you can choose resak over chengal. Both are Malaysian hardwood but the price of chengal is double of that or resak.

Aside from cutting  costs, your participation can bring a unique quality to your garden. If you need inspiration, help is aplenty, from landscape magazines, books and the Internet.You may also need to know your plants. For instance, some plants need plenty of sunshine while others need to be kept in the shade. You can learn all this from the Internet.