Want to stress less and enjoy your garden more? Don't forget maintenance and repair when planning and budgeting your landscape!

It's about that time of year: took the shadecloth off my honeyberries now that we're reliably below 85 for a high. What was under there wasn't that impressive. They always look a little raggedy during summer dormancy.

After taking the shadecloth off this year, I also decided to pull the two year old, ad-hoc frames I made for the shadecloth.

I'm going to put in a trellis for a concord grape which will grow over top of the honeyberries. It will help give them shade and make a better looking frame to hang the shade cloth on.

When the lawn sprinklers ran next, sure enough I had a lake out there! A big sprinkler leak. Digging up the pipe, I found the problem. One of the green posts I'd hammered in a couple years back had hit the line. Not a nick either, I punched clear through a section of it.

The fix wasn't hard. As you can see below, some digging and a coupler got the job done.

But this whole drama brings to mind something you should be thinking about when you plan your landscaping: budget for maintenance and repair.

It'd be nice to think that you could somehow get your design and landscape up to a certain point and then sit back, but that's not the case.

Maintenance and repair will be ongoing. Preparing yourself psychologically and financially will help you actually enjoy your landscape more.

Having been at it a while, here are my suggestions to help you in your budgeting.

1. If you have sprinklers (drip or otherwise), you can almost be sure of at least one repair per season at start up. Something is broken, something needs adjusting, there's a leak somewhere. In my experience about $25 per year is a good amount to set aside for repairs here. If you don't need it, great. Get yourself a coffee or an ice cream. Wait til Fall for that though: still possible to have a break all the way to Fall shutdown (as you can see above).

2. Rock and mulch need maintenance and replacement. You can be as careful as you'd like, but you WILL lose rock out of xeriscape. Shovel the driveway over winter? There goes some. Back over into the xeriscape bed next to the driveway? There's more. You will also lose mulch whether by kicking it out like with rock or by simply having it break down. I'll do a future post with tips on saving money here, but for now figure about 10% or so of your original cost of material into maintenance every year or so. If you spent $200 on mulch (the cost of the material, not any delivery fees), figure on putting aside about $20 or so a year to replace it. Maybe you don't replace this year, but next year, you'll need $40.

3. Chemical. Whatever you're using be it pesticide, be it fertilizer--and, yes, this includes compost--whatever, this is an ongoing cost. This one is harder to predict and is so variable that I can't really give you an estimate. I CAN give you a tip: keep track of your costs in year one. Budget for about that same amount next year (unless you're an addict like yours truly and you're getting more plants all the time then figure you need extra).

4. Plants. If you're an addict like yours truly, you're always adding, but you have to know your plants. Are they annuals? Long-lived or short-lived perennials? If they're annuals you buy seed or plant every year. If you have short-lived perennials, either save yourself money by doing divisions/cuttings, or plan to buy new when they die off. Keep track of those costs.

5. Water. This one is often a bit of good news. If you xeriscaped and put in xeric/low water use plants, and have a rain catchment system (legal in Colorado with some caveats) heading into year two you will pay LESS for water than in the past. Your plants by year two will be better established (even more in year three). That savings can help defray the cost of doing the xeriscaping in the first place. I wouldn't put a number to your savings, I wouldn't spend any freed-up money, til you have a sense of just how little you're using. Wait til you pass year two til you start counting those chickens.

These are the heavy hitters in terms of budget and they're also the more predictable. Every garden, every yard, every gardener is different, however, and so there might be more things on the list that are particular to you.

I am more than happy to help with your particular situation. Book a consult with me (here) and let's put our heads together.