High Maintenance Landscaping
High maintenance properties are show pieces. They’ve got abundant flower beds, rock gardens, water features, flowering shrubs and trees, often arranged across multiple levels and combined with stone retaining walls and other stone landscaping features. The result can be breathtaking, but without regular management weeds, erosion and general neglect can make them extremely unattractive. That’s why they’re called “high maintenance properties.”
Two types of people are interested in high maintenance properties. The first group is financially capable of carrying the expenses inherent in keeping up the property. They can hire maintenance teams to do the watering, pruning, planting, mowing and other chores required to maintain the property’s spectacular appearance. The wealthiest property owners can afford to buy expertise so they’ll have people on hand who can, for example, recommend Penn Blue sandstone for a path or decorative wall.
The other typical owner is a retired, semi-retired or a dedicated workaholic (I’m in that last category) who wants to constantly work on the property. He enjoys it as a hobby, or is a landscaping professional who wants to demonstrate his skills on his own real estate. One of the advantages here is that if you do it yourself, you’ll be able to explore your own ideas thoroughly, instead of describing them in vague terms for a contractor to interpret. If you imagine a hardscape that uses a certain type of granite stone, for example, you can make it happen – as long as you learn the correct skills.
No matter which category belong to, choosing high maintenance properties can, once you apply the right mindset, help you relax, even if you’re taking on a substantial amount of work to develop the land into something you’ll love – and that’s because you will love it. The great thing about these projects is that you are ultimately investing in yourself. It’s your land and your dreams taking shape, so as the project continues your ideas will take you down unexpected paths – a stone retaining wall with a particular bend, shrubs where you didn’t expect them, and other examples of creativity born from your own ideas and the practical aspects of working with the land. That special relationship between your dreams and the real earth and stone of landscaping, creates genuine beauty that is definitely worth the effort.
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