From cedar chips to a bark blower, there’s a lot that goes into making your outdoor spaces look nice, and it takes regular upkeep and maintenance to keep them that way. But having a nice lawn or outdoor space is hugely recommended, and can increase your enjoyment of you home considerable. This is especially true if you are preparing to place your home on the market and hopefully sell it. In fact, around ninety percent of all real estate agents recommended that home owners renovate and update their landscaping before showing their home, as a nice yard or outdoor space can get homes to sell for fifteen percent more than what similar homes without landscaping would sell for and in a shorter span of time, typically less than six weeks before the final sale is made. Landscaping is also hugely beneficial for public spaces as well, updating the look and the experience of playgrounds and public parks and making it a safer place for children to enjoy and play in.
It’s true that nearly seventy percent of all people and home owners in the United States are of the belief that nicer landscaping can be obtained with the help of a professional landscapes specialist and that this can lead to property improvement. However, private properties and outdoor spaces are not the only places that benefit from professional landscaping services. Playgrounds, for instance, greatly benefit from them too. Fortunately, playgrounds are very common all throughout the United States. Chicago alone has more than three hundred playgrounds and Portland has more than one hundred and thirty playgrounds within city limits. Playgrounds are hugely important for children of all ages, as playing regularly on a playground can actually stimulate important brain development, such as fine and gross motor skills.
But there’s a lot to consider when landscaping a playground such as, namely, what kind of flooring will be installed. There are a number of viable options. Cedar chips is one and cedar chips have popularly been used on playgrounds for a number of years. But cedar chips are certainly not the only option for playground flooring. Aside from cedar chips, barkdust has become a popular material. Barkdust is typically ten to twelve inches deep on the average playground, per the recommendation of barkdust professionals, and can be created from a number of different trees. Firs, for instance, are commonly used to create the barkdust that is so often found on playgrounds. Hemlock is another popular material used for barkdust and is second in popularity only behind that of fir.
Landscaping is important, that we all know. But what many of us don’t consciously realize is how far landscaping spreads, from our private backyards to public playgrounds, and how much goes into the maintenance of it. For instance, the choice between cedar chips and barkdust seems like a small one, but it’s still important to the overall appearance and feel of a playground and the target age of the playground must also be considered. For instance, cedar chips may be ideal on a playground geared at older children with more complicated equipment, but maybe not so much at a playground for toddlers and younger kids. But having outdoor spaces is important no matter how minute the details of getting one together, and more and more people are emphasizing their lawns and the importance of their outdoor spaces. In fact, having a nice lawn or other outdoor space can even increase the selling price of a home by more than ten percent, as many potential buyers are looking to spend a lot of time outdoors at their new home and on their new property.