As newer generations begin to purchase homes and the economy continues to thrive, many homeowners are losing the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) bug and turning more towards Do-It-For-Me (DIFM).
When it comes to projects around the home, many simply do not have the time to keep up with certain home maintenance projects. As such, more homeowners pay to outsource these tasks whenever they can.
The transition from DIY to DIFM applies to many household needs, especially landscaping and gardening. If you have a yard that needs maintenance, you are likely facing a similar decision. Perhaps you work long hours and do not have extra time for gardening, or you simply have no green thumb. If you are not sure if you should choose the DIY or DIFM route, compare some of the pros and cons offered below.
If you work in an office for 40 or more hours a week, you may not get to spend much time outdoors with Mother Nature. If you crave the outdoors and do not mind getting your hands dirty, landscaping could even be therapeutic during your days off. You not only get the satisfaction of starting and completing a task yourself, but you also build discipline and experience. This is why many homeowners also choose to start their own garden as a way to relax and distract themselves from their busy lives.
If you have neighbors nearby, caring for your lawn gets you out of the house so you can interact more with those who live around you. If you have a family, you can also make landscaping a family event, where every member gets a task. In a world that caters less to experiencing the great outdoors, landscaping is a household activity that can help get you back to nature.
If you plan to maintain your lawn, you need to weigh the pros and cons of taking on the role yourself. If you work 60-hour weeks and spend your weekends shuttling your kids from one event to another, you probably do not have time to mow the grass and trim the hedges.
On the other hand, after you and your family return home from a long day of baseball games or dance competitions, you do not want to fight your way into your driveway because you neglected yard work for several weeks. If you are going to struggle to make time to maintain your lawn, then it might be best to consider DIFM landscaping.
Depending on the size of your yard and the kind of plants you need to maintain, DIY landscaping may be a larger commitment than you originally planned. When you factor in all the components of DIY landscaping, you need to include the cost of purchasing and maintaining the necessary equipment.
A yard is a living, breathing thing, which means you need the fertilizers and pest control treatments to keep your grass and plants healthy. Since these products contain pesticides, you also need to find a place to store these treatments that are away from children and the family pets.
Related Article: Easy Renovation Tasks You Can DIY
If you do not have a garage, running out and buying a shed to house the new equipment might not seem like the best idea. If you need to spend thousands of dollars to get your home ready for DIY landscaping, it may make more sense to hire a landscaping company.
Any service that you pay for is going to cost you money. As such, you need to weigh the cost if you are leaning towards DIFM landscaping. This is another expense that you are adding to your household budget and learning how to not overspend on projects can be tricky.
If you have a big landscaping plan that is not going to be an ongoing project, then you can benefit from hiring professionals. Not only will they know what they are doing when it comes to ripping out old shrubs or planting new bushes, but they can also get the job done quicker. If you have no experience in landscaping but decide to take on a tremendous project, you may end up spending more time and money to correct the problem than if you hired professionals in the first place.
However, if you have a small yard and the right time and equipment to maintain your yard, then you may be better off with DIY landscaping. It can save you from an ongoing expense and aslo help grow your knowledge about landscaping.
When you hire a landscaping crew, you are not only hiring people to take care of and maintain your lawn. You are also hiring a team that brings the equipment, fertilizers, and pest and disease control treatments with them. When you hire professional landscapers, it is their responsibility to buy, store and maintain the equipment.
Therefore, if you do not have space in the garage for an array of lawn tools, you do not have to run out and buy an expensive shed to house everything. You are also not responsible for purchasing gas for the lawnmowers or buying weed eater strings. With DIFM landscaping, your only responsibility is to agree to a lawn care schedule and to pay the company on time.
DIFM is also a good idea if you do not have much of a green thumb and have trouble keeping your plants alive. If you are inexperienced with lawn care, you may not be able to spot plants that have diseases, deficiencies, or infestation problems. When you ignore or do not understand these signs of trouble, then your yard could end up needing to be heavily treated for diseases.
This can cost a significant amount of money. Moreover, you may end up killing some, if not all of your landscaping. This can also be extremely costly to replace. When you hire a landscaping crew, they are responsible for catching any pests and diseases that can cause problems in the future.
Related Article: Hardiest Plants to Use in Your Landscaping
