Landscaping and Your Energy Bill

Beautifying the outside of your home is worth considering for many reasons, with a few being to boost curb appeal, lower your energy bill and generate positive feelings.

1. Benefits of Gardening and Landscaping

Whether you’re looking to add some greenery, flower beds or other enhancements, there is a range of benefits you can expect from adding diverse landscaping to your property.

Greenery provides cooler temperatures

It’s simple: grass is cooler than asphalt, cement and even bare soil. With grass, trees and plants radiating cooler temperatures all around your home. you can actually lower your air-conditioning needs. Along with tall trees on the south and west sides of the property to provide shade, you can significantly lower your AEP Ohio bill.

Landscaping benefits air and water quality

Grass and trees do a great job in capturing dust and smoke particles, removing carbon dioxide and producing oxygen we can all use more of. Keep in mind that one tree can also supply enough oxygen for four people every day. Lush landscapes are also helpful during storms as they act as buffers, reducing erosion and filtering out pollution from the water on its way to a city’s source of drinking water.

Landscaping improves our life quality

Just looking at plants is shown to reduce blood pressure, lower stress levels and improve attention and memory. People living near green spaces report lower healthcare costs so it can be concluded that being in nature improves our health.

Increased resale value

When you landscape your yard, you can rest assured that your investment will increase your home’s market value as buyers are willing to spend more on a house that has professional landscaping, both front and back.

2. How Landscaping Can Affect Your Energy Bill

A few simple changes to your home landscaping can even lower your summer energy bills such as a strategic placement of trees, shrubs and other landscape elements that block heat from reaching your home.

Shade your roof, walls and AC unit

The roof receives the most sunlight so it’s the first location to protect with tall shade trees that can reduce your summer energy bill by as much as 20%. In North America, shade trees work best when they are on the sunny south side of your house, and on the west side of the home to combat the late afternoon “dragon sun” of summer. If you don’t have tall trees and don’t want to wait for years for planted ones to grow enough to provide a shade, just build a trellis or pergola and plant it with fast-growing vines. Just like your home, your AC unit needs to be protected by not crowded so it still works efficiently. Just plant a tree or shrubs close enough to provide shade.

Create cool ‘islands’

You can plant clumps of shrubs and other plants to create summer “cool islands” around your home to cool the air around it. A lawn is much cooler than asphalt which absorbs heat so the greener, the better.

Direct cooling breeze towards your home

You can use windbreaks to direct airflow in the summer for cooling effects. You can create a wind tunnel with a row shrubs on one side of your home and a wall or second row of plants on the other to funnel cooling breezes toward your home.

3. Gardening and Landscaping Tips

Anyone with a well-tended garden knows the endless hours that can be eaten up as there is always something else to do.  There’s a reason why retirees take up gardening as it can easily become a full-time job. But there are ways to lighten the load and pros have plenty of tricks up their sleeves.

Plant a meadow

If you have a big space to maintain then think about giving some of it over to a meadow as a spring bulb meadow is a lot less work than a traditional summer meadow.

Plant a container garden

Save on watering time by using larger pots, which will dry out much more slowly. They will also add a more dramatic effect.

Choose low maintenance plants

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most beautiful ones. Choose native plants that are already accustomed to the climate and therefore have higher odds of making it through without a lot of engagement from your part.

Takeaway

Landscaping is vital for a healthy body and mind. When you choose to add creative landscapes, you are even helping the environment and boosting your bottom line, as long the landscape design is implemented correctly. Just keep in mind that when it comes gardening, there’s no finish line but you won’t feel time passing by.