Here’s What to Know Before You Try to DIY Your Whole Yard

Going from apartment life to a house with a yard is a very specific kind of humbling. In an apartment, grass is just there, sure, usually, the trees get trimmed by someone. You probably know that the leaves vanish eventually. Plus, mulch appears like seasonal magic. Basically, the outdoor lights work, or they don’t, and either way, it’s probably not your problem, and you don’t need to worry about doing any sort of transforming gardening work or whatever. Which, sure, that sounds nice to a degree. 

Then you buy a house, and the yard is there, which, maybe at first, is fun, it’s a novelty even. You get to mow, you get to have flowers, theres wholesome weekends now with fresh air, BBQing, maybe you will even get an Intex pool. But there’s still a lot of work to be done, you need a routine, and ideally, before you try and DIY any of this on your new lawn, there are some things you need to learn first.

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First, Figure Out What You’re Even Looking At

A new homeowner can stare at a yard and have absolutely no idea what’s intentional and what’s just taking advantage. Are those plants meant to be there? Is that patch supposed to look thin? Is the tree healthy? Is there anything wrong with the lawn? For example, you could get the soil checked, see what type of soil you have, see if the lawn needs to be erated, if there's a pest problem, if there’s a fertizilizer problem, these are the sorts of things you’ll want to look into. 

But honestly, here, this is where it helps to slow down before buying half the garden center and all the cute outdoor cushions for your dream patio. So, before taking on every outdoor job at once, reading through common questions about residential property maintenance can make the basics feel less like a guessing game. Like, if you’ve never done any sort of gardening, let alone even plant a single seed, then it’s going to be in your best interest here to hear about it and read up on watering, mowing, pruning, weeding, things like that.

The Yard Doesn’t Need a Makeover on Week One

Or week 2, or week 3, maybe not even within the first year, either. But yeah, needless to say, though, there’s this temptation to fix everything immediately because the yard is visible. It’s not like a messy cupboard where the door can close, and everyone can pretend to be fine. Like, everyone sees this, everyone can judge it, it’s not like the mess or all the boxes that are in the living room; this is something everyone sees, which means that it creates opinions of you.

But trying to overhaul everything right away can get expensive, sure, if you have the money, then go ahead, but don’t worry. Of course, you need to get a lawn mower and a weed eater, and take time to pull weeds. But when it comes to everything else, though, it can wait til you have time.

Tools Won’t Save You if the Timing is Wrong

A mower, trimmer, hose, rake, pruning shears, gloves, and mulch can all help, but they’re not magic little problem-solvers. For example, did you know that cutting grass too short can make it weaker? Did you know that watering at the wrong time can waste water? Did you know that pruning the wrong plant at the wrong moment can ruin the thing you were trying to improve? That's why you need to learn up on all of this first.

This is a contributed post.

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