While giving your yard a fresh look can seem overwhelming and sound expensive, it doesn’t have to be. There are many free things that you can do to show your neighbors that you care about the appearance of your yard. Here are 8 free ways to give your yard a refresh.
1. Weed your landscaping
We don’t care if you have weeds in your yard. These Joneses have lots of non-turf grass plants in their yard — and we prefer it that way.
However, if you have weeds growing out of your landscaping rock or taking over your flowerbeds? It’s time to do some due diligence.
We’ll never encourage you to use harsh chemicals. We occasionally use vinegar on driveway cracks, but generally, we pull weeds by hand.
Elbow grease and gardening tools go a long way and never do long-term damage to Mother Nature.
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2. Remove old, uneven landscaping
If the brick ring around your tree is lopsided, heaving, or buried, dig it out. Same goes for paver or brick walkways, edging, and retaining walls.
Whether or not you choose to redo them is up to you, but if people can’t see it poking out of the ground, it’s a tripping hazard and it’s not doing a thing for your aesthetic.
3. Let your grass grow
If you’re cutting your yard as short and as infrequently as possible, you’re doing your yard a disservice.
Turf grass doesn’t do well If it’s much shorter than 4 inches. If it’s too short, it will quickly be overtaken by weeds.
If you want pretty turf grass, care for it properly. Personally, we’re aiming for a low maintenance clover yard. Clover is plush, stays short, and smells wonderful when in bloom.
4. Edge
Crisp edges make things look tidy. If you have lots of grass growing from your yard onto your sidewalk, driveway, and/or curb, cut it.
If you don’t own an edger, you can probably borrow one from a friend or neighbor. You could also use a shovel or invest in one of these inexpensive manual edgers.
The inexpensive manual ones are my personal preference anyway.
5. Thin out overgrown bushes and plants
I’m looking at you, hostas! It’s amazing how quickly some plants will fill in a space. It’s also amazing how much better they look when they’re given room to thrive.
The extra plants? Brighten up another corner of your yard or put them out on the curb.
No need to put much work into it. Most plants will do just fine on a piece of cardboard or in a plastic bread bag or shopping bag until they’ve been rehomed.
Wanna make some money from your bonus plants?
Some people are more than happy to spend a couple of dollars for a rehomed plant. If you have the time and energy, repot them and make a sign.
- Ask for donations to your favorite non-profit in exchange for the plants.
- Split proceeds 50/50 with your favorite non-profit.
- Make it a learning experience for your kids! Have them do the repotting and share the lesson with your neighbors.
- Money for their college fund.
- Costly school trip.
- Learning about hard work and business.
6. Prune bushes & trees
You don’t need to be Edward Scissorhands to keep your bushes in tip top shape. Just clip any rogue branches and keep it in its natural form.
**Pro-tip: look up when the right time is to trim your plant. Most will do better the following season if pruned at the proper time.**
7. Sift out landscaping rock
Everyone loves the look of a fresh landscape. But over time, it always begins to look lackluster. Yard debris accumulates and decomposes; rocks begin to sink.
Instead of adding more rock on top, lift it up, rinse it off, and re-lay it.
8. Rake
I like to think of springtime raking as the equivalent to scrubbing floors in your kitchen. Mowing is like sweeping or vacuuming— and it’s fine for most days. In order to get a really good, fresh feel? Raking will provide that.
- Remove dead leaves that accumulate in nooks and crannies.
- Sweep up accumulated pine needles that acidify soil and can kill grass.*
- Lift matted grass and remove the dead undergrowth.
We hope you found value in this list! These 8 free projects can give your yard a refresh.
Bonus: We find that when we spend more time in our yard, we develop more ideas! (It might also be a curse instead of a bonus….)
Anyway, if you love landscaping and DIY, we hope you’ll snoop around our site for some ideas and don’t forget to join our mailing list!
If you have any other simple, free landscaping projects, we’d love it if you’d share them in the comments below!
— Melissa, The Joneses Four
*Pine needles can be great fertilizer for acid-loving plants and can be composted elsewhere!
