Lawn vs. Garden: What’s Better For Your Yard?
Photo – Veronica ReverseA green space in the yard is always desirable for any homeowner. Every homeowner expects their yard to look lush, warm, and welcoming that would help them get a better price out of the subsequent resale.
Even though lawns are more preferred among homeowners nowadays, both lawns and gardens in the yard have the potential to do so.
Some homeowners may botch them up with the statement ‘They are the same type of landscape on the yard’. Well, that’s not true– both of the landscapes are different considering a lot of factors. A lawn is the grassy portion of your home’s yard. This space can be utilized as a kid’s play area or for outdoor leisure activities.
The grass is mowed or chopped short to a certain height to maintain a lawn’s appearance. In contrast, a garden is a place set aside for planting, a living showcase of your favorite plants. This is a landscape that surrounds your home and is often considered a significant component of your living space.
2023 homeowners choice: Lawn Vs Garden
A well-kept lawn is currently preferred by 80% or more American households over a front yard garden. This predilection is caused by a number of factors, including the lawn’s visual appeal, adaptability, and need for little maintenance. 84% of American homebuyers make the decision on buying a home depending on the front yard landscaping.
Garden also has the same potential as a lawn in the front yard– but they are much preferred in the yard of modern luxury homes. Homes that are worth over a million or around in the current market, support having a garden instead of a lawn.
Taken from (https://www.lawnstarter.com/blog/studies/time-spent-on-lawn-care-gardening-hits-low-then-surges/)
Lawn expert Trevor Lively from Blue Jay, commented that “Lawns have become the top choice among homeowners in the current years because of the maintenance. While gardens require huge attention of time in your daily lives, lawns are easily maintained by a professional team monthly and a weekly notice by yourself is enough to keep it neat. 67% of homeowners in US and 71% in Canada lean towards professionals for better landscaping in their yards.”
There are lots of other factors and variables in play in the case of Lawn versus Garden. The debate is complex and multifaceted. To gain a comprehensive understanding of this topic, let’s explore all of its aspects thoroughly.
Things that lawn offers: The living carpet of your yard!
Environmentally beneficial
A healthy, well-kept lawn avoids erosion from wind and water, aids in the breakdown of organic pollutants, reduces noise, provides habitat for wildlife, has a cooling effect in the summer, and enhances aesthetics.
If you live near a beach or in a flood-prone location, it also improves flood management. At the same time, they are much better at reducing the emissions of CO2. Because grass grows more quickly and has a higher leaf density than native plants, it is significantly more effective at reducing CO2 emissions.
Increase in home value
According to a number of professional real estate studies, in the present real estate market, a well-kept lawn can increase a home’s resale value by 15% or more and delivers a return on investment of 100 to 200%.
Together with the financial advantages, the intangible enhancement in curb appeal will attract the right kind of buyer to your home whenever you decide to sell.
Improves water quality
Did you know that rainwater filtered through a lawn is 10 times less acidic than runoff from a hard surface like asphalt? It is a big plus that lawns improve water quality by reducing runoff and collecting pollutants like smoke and dust.
Photo by Glen Carrie
The pitfalls of a lawn
Regular grass maintenance
The grass on your lawn needs to be cut on a daily basis (at least once a week). If you DIY the work as the majority of Americans do, then mowing entails time and physical exertion, not to mention the expense and maintenance of a lawn mower.
The average time required for a 30 to 50 year old personnel to mow the grass of a 1,500 square feet lawn in the front yard could take around 30 minutes to 1 hour or even more.
Good balance of chemicals
To grow some good and healthy grass in your lawn, you require a good balance of chemical and fertilization usage. At the same time, you don’t want to really make your yard’s soil defective with some low-quality and cheap composites or chemicals.
For gardens, eco-friendly fertilizers are enough and available in the market at low cost.
The symphony that a garden offers: The scentful blooming gallery of your yard!
Sunlight and vitamin D
Having a garden in the front yard means working regularly with more effort and time compared to working on a lawn. That means an exposure of an hour, 3/4 times a week beneath the sun, eventually getting vitamin D for your body. This time of exposure will get your body 8,000-50,000 units of vitamin D which can save you from:
- Colorectal cancer.
- Multiple sclerosis.
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
- Bladder cancer.
- Breast cancer.
- Prostate cancer.
Reduces stress and blood pressure
While gardening may help reduce melancholy and anxious feelings, 10 minutes of lawn mowing may be monotonous and taxing. Also, engaging in 30 minutes of moderate physical exercise most days of the week can aid in the prevention and treatment of high blood pressure.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute actually recommend gardening or leaf raking as ways to reach this objective for 30 to 45 minutes.
Grow on your own, eat healthily
If you plan to make a vegetable or a fruit garden in your front yard, means you are getting some fresh production of foods on your own. You know the vegetable and fruits are good, not grown using pesticides, and above all get them whenever you need them.
The pitfalls of a garden
High initial expense
One of the major disadvantages of a garden is, the initial expenses are too high. That’s why you’ll find a few parts of the homeowners’ community has a garden in the yard, not a lawn.
The landscaping for the garden alone will cost you $4-$12 and as a whole, it might cost you $15,000 in the current housing market. They will not even grow your home value much compared to lawns, like around 6%-10%.
Higher water usage, higher cost
Suppose you have a garden of 1000 square feet and every day it requires a minimum of 1000 gallons to take care of which are 30,000 gallons a month. The current cost of water is around $0.005 per gallon– based on that the monthly cost of garden maintenance would be $150.
While in the same circumstances, lawn maintenance requires 623 gallons a week which is weekly $12.50 and monthly $50, much or less. So it’s clear that a garden in your front yard will cost you much more compared to a lawn.
You are not going to live in your home forever, you might live it within a year or maybe after a decade. So when it comes to the debate of lawn and garden, what matters most is what are your plan. If you are planning to resale soon, watch out for the trends and what attracts the buyers most.
If you are planning to stay for a long time do what you feel is right on a long-term plan. But don’t stress over the fact too much, there are also ways to convert your garden into a lawn and remodel your lawn into a garden which might incline a specific amount of expense.