Why Landscape?  The best way to increase your home's value is to add features that will enhance its appearance and function!

A Gallup Poll of new home buyers and buyers of previously owned homes showed that landscaping can add nearly 15% to the value of a home. Money Magazine reports that landscaping has a recovery value of 100-200%. Such increases should not be surprising, since professionally designed and installed landscaping makes any home more attractive and more livable. A landscape investment today is a growing investment for the future. 

Trees and shrubs add not only attractiveness to a homesite but also helps to reduce heating and cooling requirements. Evergreen trees and shrubs can protect a home from winter winds. Deciduous trees-those that drop their leaves in the fall-can shade a home from sunlight in summer but allow the sun's rays to warm a home in the winter. Both types of trees, if properly planted, can also help reduce noise and dust pollution.

Trees and shrubs are investments; therefore they should be selected and planted with care. Cold north winds can cause large amounts of heat to be lost from a home in winter. A wind-break of evergreen trees reduces heat loss considerably and thus helps you save fuel. The ends of a windbreak should extend 50' beyond the end of the area to be protected. To minimize drifting snow, site the planting at least 50' from the home or driveway. 

A windbreak is effective eight times its height. For example, a dense planting of evergreens 10' tall will check the wind 80' to the lee or house side of the windbreak. Hemlocks, fir and spruce make effective windbreaks. Pine is not Desirable because, once matured, the boughs grow above ground level: thus the effectiveness of the windbreak is lessened considerably.

Smaller evergreens planted next to a foundation wall create dead air space between the wall and the plants, thus providing some insulation in addition to wind protection. Such a planting must be dense and must form a solid wall in order to be effective. In northern climates, Japanese yew is a good choice for foundation windbreak plantings. In addition to providing winter wind protection, Evergreen trees and shrubs planted on the north and west sides of a site direct Cooling breezes around the home in summer.

The best way to increase your home's value is to add features that will enhance its appearance and function, without breaking your bank. This may sound like a tall order, but porches, patios, decks, terraces, gardens, lawns and manicured foliage around a home fulfill these goals in a number of ways.

First, sprucing up your home's exterior makes it more attractive to future buyers. If two homes are for sale in the same area and are similar in terms of size and appeal, the one with prettier grounds, gardens or superior outside structures will be the first sold.

But exterior amenities also offer more than just curb appeal. Consider adding external structures such as porches and decks, which can function as supplementary spaces for relaxing or entertaining and increase the sheer square footage available to a homeowner.

Landscaping can cut energy costs dramatically year-round. According to the Department of Energy (www.eren.doe.gov/erec/factsheets/landscape.html), carefully positioned trees can save up to 25 percent of a home's energy consumption for heating and cooling.

During the summer, trees can reduce the surrounding air temperatures by as much as 9 degrees F and well-planned landscaping can reduce a home's air-conditioning costs from 15 to 50 percent. In winter, windbreaks around houses can cut fuel consumption by an average of 40 percent.

Properly designed landscaping offers substantial environmental benefits by controlling erosion on a lot, managing rainwater in an ecologically correct manner, providing a habitat for birds and wildlife, and improving air quality by absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen.

Landscaping may be the best investment to improve a home's value. According to a study by Money magazine, well-planned, attractive landscaping was estimated to have an actual recovery rate 100 to 200 percent higher than a kitchen renovation (70 to 125 percent) or bathroom renovation (80 to 120 percent).