MENUTime to shed those winter blues and start thinking about the landscaping projects you want to complete when the weather breaks and the joy of working in the yard begins. Start by establishing a budget in order to ensure that you can complete those projects you really need to get done. How much do you want to spend and how much can you afford to spend on your landscape this season?If you have no idea where to start, begin with your 2016 receipts. You’re probably pulling your records together for your income tax return, so put landscaping receipts aside as you come upon them. After you’re finished with your taxes, look over the landscaping receipts to determine how much you spent last year and what you spent it on.This can serve as your baseline for 2017. Then, list the projects that are definitely required this year and those that you’d like to do this year, and estimate the cost of each project. You can price out do-it-yourself plants and other materials on the internet. We’d be happy to give you estimates on the projects you prefer that a professional complete.After assigning costs to the items on each list, you can make informed decisions. Can you afford everything on both lists? If not, subtract the total of the must-do projects from the total amount that you have budgeted for landscaping. This will give you the amount you have available for the projects you’d like to do. Then prioritize the projects on your wish list. Plan to do as many as possible this year and schedule the rest for future years.Once you know how much money you can spend and the projects on which you’ll spend it, you can begin preparing for the start of the spring landscaping season. Next week, I’ll offer some tips on how you can prepare early for spring to get the most value for your dollar.
