Upgrade Your Outdoor Living Space with Top 10 Affordable Landscaping Trends in San Antonio

Are you planning to revamp the landscaping of your San Antonio, TX home? Do you think it’s a costly course? – No, it’s not!

Improving your outdoor living space is an excellent idea that doesn’t have to cost a fortune and there are many ways to enhance your outdoor area – like adding colorful flowers, creating a cozy seating space, or implementing creative landscaping ideas. 

By putting in some effort, you can create an outdoor space that will leave your family, friends, and guests in awe. Even more, such improvements will help you create a beautiful and inviting space that your family, friends, and guests will love. 

With these budget-friendly ideas, you can turn your front and backyard from drab to fab and make your neighbors envious.

Consider these top 10 ideas for affordable landscaping in San Antonio, Texas and transform your home’s curb appeal and create an outdoor oasis.

Reduce landscaping with functional hardscaping

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The idea of replacing some areas of your green lawn or yard with creative hardscaping helps you reduce your workload. You can use pavers, bricks, gravel, rocks, or decorative stones to construct your garden pathway, driveway, and patio. 

While it gives you a sturdy surface, it requires zero to minimal maintenance. There is no need to water the grass, take extra lawn care, or even worry about weeds popping up from time to time.

Moreover, you can choose from a variety of affordable design options, like organized grids or a more diverse patchwork style. With such hardscaping ideas, you can achieve low-maintenance gardens and front and back yard landscapes.

Build patios and walkways with gravel & stones

You can use unevenly shaped rocks, stepping stones, or pavers for your walkways. You can also use pebble and gravel on the driveway to create a simple and natural look. These stones and rocks accentuate certain parts of your yard in a cost-effective style.

For maintenance, you can use a rake with wire tines to remove the stray leaves for the minimal cleaning required for such patios and walkways.

Get zero to low-maintenance mulch

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 Rock mulching doesn’t require yearly maintenance. For best results during fall to spring, build a 2- to 4-inch rock layer with an unsubstantial layer for gravel. 

To give you an example, you can get zero maintenance mulch with pea gravel or river rocks and protect your outdoors from weeds.

You can also replace rock mulch with organic materials, like wood chips or pine straws. Organic mulching adds a textured cover to your flower beds keeping the weeds away. 

This mulching choice also helps to lock in moisture and adds nutrients to the soil. Hence, organic mulch is better for your plant’s additional nutrition. Also, you should always keep an eye on the weeds – if any pop through the mulch, pull those even before they get to the seeds!

Plant low-maintenance perennials

Do you want beautiful blooms every growing season, but the shortage of time and the hassle of replacing all the plants may be the reason you’re skeptical?

You can stop with the worries since perennials can save time and effort while you get colorful blooms every season. 

To double down on that decision, perennial plants are sturdy, drought-resistant and help you create a low-maintenance garden landscape – though buying perennials costs much higher than annuals, these are more cost-effective in the long run.

You can choose some beautiful perennials for your San Antonio home garden, like tulips, hydrangea, lavender, daylilies, aster, etc. 

Invest in evergreen trees, shrubs

What could be better than lush, green, overgrown plants all year round? Evergreen trees! 

These native trees and standard shade trees can reseed all over the lawn and don’t fall a lot (if you’re concerned about raking it regularly.)

We recommend going for the dwarf or creeping varieties to ground cover the flower beds, grow shrubs close to your main house building to hide the foundation, and get tall, columnar trees in the boundaries to create some much-needed privacy.

For a more successful plantation, you can select native plants suitable for the San Antonio USDA hardiness zone. You can also ask professional landscapers to perform a soil test to choose the right plants for your soil type.

Go for vertical gardening

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A vertical garden is the most cost-effective option when you wish to utilize your small yard in the best possible way. 

While this might not be the choice for homeowners who want to reduce lawn area, it is ideal for gardening enthusiasts with a small outdoor space –  and not only that, but vertical garden options are equally great for indoor plantation.

Since switching the space and plants can be difficult after growth initiates, you should plan and structure your vertical garden beforehand. A professional gardener and landscaper is the best help here. These small vertical gardens save space and make gardening an even greater pleasure. 

You can grow edible greens like lettuces, spinach, and herbs (mint, parsley), or corps like sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, garlic, and peppers, or succulents, ferns, bromeliads, vines, vanda orchids, etc., in the vertical garden.

Choose eco-friendly options

Sustainable gardening is a growing trend that gives you a chance to repay nature. If you consider the environment as a whole while designing your surroundings, opt for eco-friendly landscaping and gardening practices. 

You can develop an eco-friendly yard by composting food waste, collecting and harvesting rainwater, reserving space for pollinator-friendly plants, and other practices to make resistance against climate change. 

You can also add multiple eco-friendly practices over time instead of adding them all at once. 

Decorate with lights & lanterns

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Don’t let the beauty of your courtyard go unseen after the sunset. Instead, transform your entire outdoor space into a magical place only you and your family can see. 

To start, you can hang luminescent string lights around your outdoor sitting area, place lamps in your surroundings, and set lanterns at the entrance and along the walkway. 

Also, you can consider sustainable solar-powered light options as part of your eco-friendly and sustainable living practices.

Keep it simple

Creating a beautiful garden is not equal to having a complex one. 

Easy, functional, and effortless landscaping is the raging trend these days. Pursuing a low-maintenance style and keeping it minimal is the best option. 

Instead of planting a wide variety of plants, focus on a few high-performance, enduring plant varieties available to you.

Xeriscaping is the topmost trend

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When we talk about affordable yet exciting trends in the landscaping community in San Antonio, xeriscaping tops the charts. 

Xeriscaping is the combined approach of less lawn, sustainable practices, and simplicity. Though it is ideal for desert climates, it also does surprisingly well in wet conditions. 

Initially, xeriscaping requires specific planning and soil analysis to choose the right plants for any specific location – but in the long run, it is low maintenance and saves water as it needs no irrigation.

Is it important to hire a professional San Antonio landscaper?

Absolutely. A landscaper who has all the experience, expertise, and know-how is essential before starting any DIY landscape project to avoid costly mistakes and potentially spending more than necessary.

Instead of risking it all and ballooning your budget, you can consider hiring a landscaping specialist who can offer you more budget-friendly options.

You can start by reaching out to local landscapers in the San Antonio area to explore various design ideas and add a curb appeal to your existing property. Working with a professional landscaper helps you achieve the result that may have been unattainable on your own.

FAQs

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Still confused? Have more questions in mind? Well, here are some common questions answered for your benefit:

How can I make my front yard look more expensive?

Adding fresh plants and flowers is the most common way to improve curb appeal. You don’t need to create an entire garden to enhance your home’s exterior. 

Instead, consider adding planters that frame critical visual points, such as windows and entryways, and add a touch of DIY lighting.

How can I save on landscaping costs?

With a bit of creativity and research, there are many ways to save on landscaping costs by doing the following:

• reducing the lawn size
• buying plants on sale
• choosing perennial plants
• using easily available rocks & gravel for hardscaping
• focusing on water conservation plants and techniques
• DIY fertilizers from compost, kitchen scraps, etc.

Having a tight budget does not mean that you have to settle for a poorly done yard. If you feel like we haven’t covered everything with our guide, you can design an attractive yard on a budget with these tips.

Does landscaping add value to the home?

Improving the functionality of your yard can significantly increase your home’s value. 

Adding a deck or a patio can make your yard more functional and attractive while giving you an amazing resale value should you sell the house. 

Patios are usually less expensive than decks, and their resale value is 100%, which is a bit higher than a deck’s 76% resale value.

Can you negotiate the landscaping price?

It is perfectly reasonable to negotiate the price of landscaping services. Reputable contractors do not feel offended by questions or negotiations. 

However, it is essential to be careful not to lose a good project over a few dollars.

How much does the average person spend on landscaping?

On average, landscaping costs range from $3,300 to $13,200, with a typical price range per square foot of $4.50 to $17.