Whether you’re creating a new flowerbed around your home or building a new park within a city block, landscape design has several different advantages that can benefit you, local businesses, customers, visitors, and even the environment.
The advantages of landscape design are to reduce soil pollution, stop erosion, preserve the natural environment, manage water runoff, reduce heat, clean the air, support local wildlife, protect homes and businesses, increase property values and impressions, promote better moods, and promote a sense of community.
There are many advantages to landscape design, but what is it, and how does it compare to traditional landscaping? Read on to find out more about the benefits of designing outdoor spaces the right way.
What is Landscape Design?
There is a difference between landscape design and landscaping, although one may not know it. Both are seasonal businesses, but a landscaping business provides basic lawn care while a landscape design business provides design work and optimal planting, along with construction, on an outdoor space, usually led by a landscape architect.
There is a similarity though, because both companies can provide many of the same things—including planting services, lawn planting services, garden and lawn maintenance, garden landscaping, corporate and business landscaping, and even building on decks and patios or golf course maintenance.
So, what is the true difference? As a landscape designer, you can create beautiful exterior spaces with your artistic abilities or even through a computer program, allowing you to get larger and more corporate business contracts.
Whether you’re landscaping a smaller location or are working on a city park, many of the benefits are the same.
Good landscape design can help the environment by reducing soil pollution, stopping erosion, and preserving the natural environment.
We’ve all been to a larger city that is made out of stone and concrete. This is not the way that the earth was made, and there are times when this comes back to harm us through smog and pollution. So what does good landscape design do? It helps cut back on that.
Cities that are too large do affect and sometimes hurt the environment, so one of the best ways to combat it is by creating good landscaping within the city limits. Deforestation in large areas can cause enough issues for the environment, and the less green space in a city, the more the city hurts the world around it.
How is it fixed? By creating large green spaces in those big cities. Central Park isn’t just a beautiful place to visit—it helps create a pocket of green space that can help preserve the local environment.
But green space doesn’t just preserve the natural environment—when you’re creating a green space close to a factory or even land that has a penchant for flooding, planting the right trees and plants can help the soil from eroding or even keep toxic chemicals out of the water table.
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Water management is made easier through the use of proper landscape design.
While landscaping can help with soil erosion, it can also help with water runoff and even the possibility of flooding. Green spaces, especially in cities, help to control water movement and can help mitigate potential floods by up to 25 percent.
Because landscape designers can use water drainage techniques in their complete designs, it can also help to protect other naturally existing resources by not allowing them to be polluted. Overall, not only can landscaping help with giving the water a place to go, but it can also make sure that water doesn’t go where it shouldn’t.
Besides just protecting the environment, landscaping can reduce heat in large areas.
Landscaping helps with erosion and keeping the world healthy—but it can also keep you cool. Especially in cities, where pavement and concrete reside, the heat created can be increasingly hotter than surrounding areas. Because of this, then, more electricity is used to keep cool, which adds even more pollution to the natural environment.
How do you stop this from happening? Better planned landscaping. Trees can help reduce the sunlight dropping onto concrete and asphalt by creating natural shade, so the more situated around streets, especially busy ones, the better. Cutting down the ambient heat for the inhabitants of such large cities can help decrease their use of air conditioning, which therefore decreases electrical use and helps with pollution.
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The air you breathe is cleaner when landscaping is applied.
We all know that plants and trees take in what we breathe out, but did you know they also clean the air of other toxins? Trees and plants can absorb up to a third of our emissions, like smoke, ozone, and other chemicals that can hurt us or make us sick.
When it comes down to it, it just makes sense to create landscaping areas, especially in larger cities. When you have so many vehicles in one place, having enough trees and plants to help take in those chemicals can give us all a breath of fresh air.
Even in big cities, proper landscaping can help with the local wildlife.
We’ve all seen photos and videos of wildlife that shouldn’t be in large cities, trying to traverse the roads like the paths and streams they had before. So how can landscape design help out the local wildlife? Easy—it gives them all a place to go.
Consider a location like Central Park. How many birds, squirrels, and even coyotes can be found there? More than you’d think. With proper landscape design, more creatures can thrive in areas that they typically wouldn’t, and they can help with pest control, as well.
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Homes, businesses, and buildings can gain protection from proper landscaping.
When you’re building a new building, it may seem counterproductive to rip out extant trees and plants only to put down more when you’re done. But there’s an important reason for that—because tree roots can become a very invasive part of the construction process, by pulling them out and giving them new spaces to grow, you can protect your home or business from later issues.
No matter the location, proper landscape design can help provide a great first impression and increase the value of the local property.
Regardless of whether you’re in a big city or a small community, the right kind of landscaping can help give a great impression. If you’re looking for additional beauty at your home, you can still utilize a landscape designer to get the most out of your land, along with knowing exactly what kind of plants would thrive where.
It also increases property values. At your home, it can add so much more worth to your property if you ever wish to sell. At a business, looking good means that your customers know that you care—and that opinion is one of the most important advertising tools you can get.
You and the people around you will benefit from good landscaping through better moods and promoting community.
If you look outside and see a bunch of dead trees, unkempt plants, or high grass, it’s not going to bode well for your mood. But if there are flowers, trees, and even places for birds to eat and roost, that kind of landscaping can help improve your mood and even your work output.
So many people rely on the outdoors for exercise and recreation. When it doesn’t look exciting and welcoming, we don’t want to go out into it. Being outside has been known to lower stress levels and increase your mood, which can also help keep you healthy. Planting a few flowers may seem like a small thing, but it can benefit more than just you. Your community, whoever it may be, can benefit from great landscaping, too—by leaning into these advantages, you can help create one of the best things imaginable—promoting that sense of community and creating good feelings that will radiate throughout your city.
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Frequently Asked Questions
When is the best time for professional landscapers to do their job?
The optimal weather for landscape design depends solely on where your business is stationed. If your business is in the Snow Belt, you can expect to do your job during the late spring, summer, and fall. If you’re in the South, your time for landscaping is much greater and you can work throughout the winter—and when the weather is hot, you may feel more and more apt to complete your work in the middle of those supposedly cold winter months. One important thing to remember is what you’re planting and whether it can withstand the weather in which you are planting it. Do your research before you plant.
How much does it cost to start a landscape design business?
Generally, it takes about $60,000 on the higher end to start a landscape design business. This encompasses your computer and design software, equipment to complete the work, a vehicle and trailer, and licensure. It’s important to note that you will have to receive at least a bachelor’s degree in landscaping architecture to start a business with the proper credentials.
To learn more on how you can start your own landscaping business, check out my startup documents here.
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Meet Shawn Chun: Entrepreneur and Landscape Business Fan.
I’m a happy individual who happens to be an entrepreneur. I have owned several types of businesses in my life from a coffee shop to an import and export business to an online review business plus a few more and now I create online resources for those interested in starting new ventures. It’s demanding work but I love it. I do it for those passionate about their business and their goals. That’s why when I meet a landscape business owner at a job site, driving down the road or anywhere else I see myself. I know how hard the struggle is to retain clients, find good employees and keep the business growing all while trying to stay competitive.
That’s why I created Landscaping Business Boss: I want to help landscape business owners like you build a thriving business that brings you endless joy and supports your ideal lifestyle.