Landscaping Services Are a Plus

Your landscaping is important. Not only can the landscaping in your front yard make or break the appearance of your home, it can also play a role in drainage, and even home security! If you're up to the challenge, you can of course tackle your own landscaping; professionals are certainly not a necessity, but when you get down to brass tacks, hiring a pro for landscaping services is often the most effective way to get the look and performance you want from your property's lawn, plants, and trees.

Landscaping Services for Outdoor Makeovers
There are several situations where landscaping professionals are beneficial, but few landscaping tasks will more markedly show the difference between a do-it-yourself job and professional work than landscape design. If your existing landscaping problems are as numerous as they are glaring, calling in a pro is not only the most effective strategy, it often turns out to be the cheapest. Here's why:

Handy homeowners who are willing to do a little research and get their hands dirty can dramatically and successfully alter the look of their landscaping if they plan well and refuse to cut corners. However, more often than not, homeowners simply do not have enough free time to devote to this labor intensive task. Those who can keep their patience often end up skipping several of the alterations they had planned due to time constraints; those who are itching to see all their plans come to life are frequently forced to rush through each phase of the process and end up with results that are not as impressive and/or durable as they had hoped. In both cases, landscaping professionals are often hired after (or even during) the DIY project; since the companies that offer landscaping services must be able to stand behind their work, they often have to backtrack and redo some or all of the DIY work. In a nutshell: Many major DIY landscape projects often end up requiring the assistance of landscaping professionals anyway, and the sooner you hire a pro, the faster the project is likely to be and the less it is likely to cost you!

Landscaping Services for Improved Home Security
While most people think of landscaping projects as focusing primarily on things like water distribution, drainage, grading, plant selection, wall or fence construction, and creating paths and walkways, the fact is some companies that offer landscaping services are also able to enhance your home security. Landscaping professionals that specialize in home security (or home security professionals that specialize in landscape design) will examine your property and give you a list of areas where the addition or removal of certain features will dissuade intruders. Adding fencing may, of course, be a part of the process; trimming large trees (that might offer access to upper windows or roofing), removing and replanting shrubs that are near the house (that could be a potential hiding spot for intruders), adding outdoor lighting or motion sensors, and rearranging other landscape features that could obscure views from the road are other likely steps in creating landscaping that is not only beautiful, but security conscious.

Landscape Maintenance Services: Who to Hire (and How to Hire Them)
For many properties, the existing landscaping is already a good balance of form and function; however, a professional touch-up every once in a while often makes the difference between a house that looks okay and one that looks stunning. Companies that provide landscape maintenance services are not exactly "a dime a dozen", but there are enough of them out there to make finding a good one a bit difficult.

While many companies who offer landscape maintenance services are perfectly legitimate and reputable businesses, there's no doubt that there are a few bad apples out there. Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to tell the difference between a good landscape maintenance company and a bad one from an ad in the phone book!

Here at HomeAdvisor, all of our landscape maintenance service companies are put through a ten-step screening process. When we match you with one of these companies, you can rest assured that they are no fly-by-night operation! Additionally, anyone who goes through us to find landscape maintenance services is encouraged to leave feedback on the experience; this feedback is available for anyone to read, and will give any prospective clients a better idea of the kind of service he or she can expect from a particular company. It also gives anyone who hires through HomeAdvisor a forum to air grievances, and an added incentive for each of our service professionals to leave every client they work for satisfied with the results!