Want to improve your quality of life? Get your hands dirty and plant something. That’s right, putting trees, flowers or shrubs in the ground doesn’t just provide you with beauty and shade, it can also improve your property value, lower your energy costs, clean the air and water—even lower your heart rate.
Our guides can help you with everything from fire resistant plants to what’s wrong with this tree!
Adding a beautiful landscape to a home can increase its value by up to 15% and can accelerate its sale by five to six weeks. -American Nursery and Landscape Association.
A great way to put more green in your pocket is to start putting more of it in the ground. A beautiful landscape increases the value of any home or property. And it sure beats painting. Ever compare the price of houses on a tree-lined street versus comparable places on a barren boulevard? The difference will make anyone an instant plant lover.
Just three properly placed trees can save an average household between $100 and $250 in annual heating and cooling costs. -U.S. Department of Energy
Planting greenery and enjoying its beauty have been proven to lower your blood pressure and heart rate. What’s more, they can substantially lower your home’s temperature and energy bill. By carefully positioning trees and shrubs to shelter your house from the sun and wind, you can reduce your heating and cooling energy consumption by as much as 25%, which should lower your blood pressure even more.
The better the landscaping in common areas of a neighborhood, the more those spaces are used by residents, hence the more opportunities there are for social interaction between neighbors. -University of Illinois
Public spaces are like backyards we all own together. So why not make them better places for all of us to play? Shady, green spaces are like magnets. We’ve all seen the story of the rundown urban neighborhood that plants a community garden on an old vacant lot. The place comes alive. People suddenly come out of the woodwork and the neighborhood is socially transformed. Such is the power of plants to attract people—both to public spaces and to each other.
