My neighbor cleaned his house, over a period of three weeks (end of winter) power washing the driveway, repainting the front fence and power washing the gutters. It made the house look ‘clean’ yet somehow lacked character. The following spring he went and laid a lawn. No fancy gardens, no paved areas, no feature rocks or water-features etc. Just a lawn. I watched with interest and then amazement as the property transformed literally overnight.
Green adds an intangible quality to a yard and that is to transform serviceable objects in the yard to beautiful objects that enhance the living space. Garden beds and planters, the fence and paved areas all are upped in beauty by a well maintained lawn. This applies to both aesthetically beautiful lawns and simply clean lawns.
Curb appeal isn’t about the house
Your house’s first impression is made before you even walk in the door. Most people will make up their mind within the first few minutes whether they like a house or not. The exterior of a home, including the facade, roof line and the window shutters, creates the first impression. The largest unbroken surface area of a home’s exterior is the lawn. In a short amount of time a poor quality lawn can give the appearance that a home has been neglected both on the exterior and interior.
Not only do you get the highest return, there is immediate visual and emotional gratification. Unlike a kitchen renovation that can take 4 months to complete by 3 different tradesmen, answering your calls sometimes.
Home buyers are not reasonable human beings. They fall in love with the first home that they walk through before they check the closet space and the condition of the bathroom. It is the first impression that counts and nothing makes a great first impression than a lush, green front lawn. This is what gives the sense of a well-maintained home and that is what will bring a premium return on investment.
What you’re really investing in
It’s often said that when it comes to property value, numbers are everything. And the numbers that a newly turfed lawn can add to a home are certainly impressive. Studies have found that homes with well-maintained landscaping, a home can have its perceived value increase by as much as 5% to 15%. But we’re all thinking here, what lawn is going to add 15% to my home’s value? The answer is simple: any well-prepared lawn that has been given the opportunity to establish itself. Yes, it’s a simple and cost effective way to add value to your home that’s on the market.
| Outdoor upgrade | Approximate cost | Impact on perceived value | Time to see results |
| New lawn installation | Low to medium | High | Weeks |
| Garden bed redesign | Medium | Medium | Months |
| Deck or patio addition | High | High | Months |
| Fence replacement | Medium to high | Low to medium | Immediate |
The lawn consistently punches above its weight when it comes to adding value to a home, covering the most ground (literally) for the lowest amount of cost to achieve the best return of any singular upgrade.
The lifestyle angle people keep underestimating
It is rare for people to discuss the benefits of a lawn to any extent beyond how much it is going to add to the value of a property and yet the real value of a lawn is how it affects a person’s lifestyle in very real and tangible ways. Which in turn are very valuable and therefore should be discussed at length.
A weedy, bare patchy yard is a yard that is avoided. Nobody wants to lug chairs and cushions out to a lawn that looks like it has been ravaged by a rodent attack. Kids don’t play barefoot on weedy lawns. They get scratched up. A front lawn that looks terrible makes for a terrible impression and is something that people try to avoid. And yes, that means people avoid having barbecues and other outdoor functions at homes with bad lawns too.
Finally once the lawns have been established and are in good health, people notice the extra space available in backyards previously lacking in quality. The strip of grass between the house and the fence, that patch that nobody has any interest in prior to a quality lawn, becomes a destination point. This space is used to create additional living areas outside of the home and become part of the overall living space. This quality of life improvement cannot be underestimated.
Find The Right Grass For Your Backyard Lawn
People buying turf typically expect the excellent quality that they receive during the first few weeks of new turf to last for the remainder of the year. There are some species of grass that initially develop very quickly within the first few weeks to a few months of the growing season, only to then decline rapidly. Other species however will take some time to establish, but will go on to provide a superb lawn for the remainder of the year.
The perfect lawn for your home needs in order to add value to your property consists of green grass. Homeowners with beautiful lawns are sought after by potential home buyers because they create an instant impression that no amount of repainting can match. The grass is the largest feature of most front lawns, and as such it can greatly add value to a home if it is maintained in top condition. It is also very important to choose the correct type of grass for your lawn, in order to achieve the perfect finish. In Australia, there are many types of grass that are suitable for residential lawns. However, the majority of them are classified as either warm-season or cool-season grasses. When it comes to lawns throughout Australia, the warm-season grasses far out perform their cool-season counterparts. One of the most popular types of lawn for homes of all shapes and sizes is Buffalo grass. These lawns look amazing all year round and are capable of withstanding the hot summer sun. They also have the ability to handle a lot of wear and tear, and the grass remains a bright green throughout the entire year.
- Consider your climate before anything else — grass that thrives in Queensland may genuinely struggle in Victoria
- Think hard about foot traffic: a decorative front lawn has completely different demands than a backyard where kids and dogs operate as a daily demolition crew
- Shade coverage matters more than people expect, with some varieties thinning out badly under tree canopy even when everything else is ideal
- Be honest about your maintenance appetite — not the enthusiastic version of yourself you imagine, but the actual Tuesday-evening version
See also: The Rise of Data Literacy: Why Statistical Competency is Non-Negotiable in Modern US Careers
On doing it properly (and why half-measures will haunt you)
Sorry to say but laying turf on compacted and poorly prepared soil is very similar to hanging the best of wallpapers on a deteriorating wall due to rising damp. The turf may hold for a while and look great but it will fail in the end. So it is very important to prepare the soil correctly before laying the turf. Also, it is very important to choose the correct type of grass for your yard. The new lawn needs to be established correctly and watered as required during this time. If the lawn is not established correctly then it may fail in as little as 18 months. This will be very disappointing and expensive to re-do.
(Interestingly this is where I would go back to the start of this article and reiterate just how important choosing the right type of grass is. In setting up a great lawn so much of the groundwork (no pun intended) is done by choosing the very best grass type for your yard’s soil type. There is so much more to setting up a great lawn than this but choosing the right grass is a very important part of the process).
A beautiful green lawn on properly prepared ground is a wonderful thing. It can add enormous value to your yard and make a huge difference to how you enjoy and perceive your outdoor space.
