You’ve decided to expand, renovate or add a garden. What should you put in it?

The answer depends a lot on your lifestyle and budget. Some renovators are wild over vegetable gardens or like the low maintenance approach of having mostly perennials. Others add lots of ground cover with a few bursts of color from annuals. As you think about trees, shrubs, flowers, grasses and vegetables, consider:

Maintenance

The amount of planting will vary based on how much maintenance you want. If you want low maintenance, consider putting in more ground cover to reduce the amount of grass to be mowed. If you have children and want lots of grass for them to play on, then keep the big lawn and consider adding perennials in other parts of the yard. Overall, perennials offer less maintenance than annuals, although they will not provide as much vivid color.

Ground cover is another solution for those who want low maintenance. Hostas, ferns and ornamental grasses are popular ground cover selections because they blend well with different colored shrubs and flowering plants and are easy to maintain.

What About Privacy?

If privacy is a concern, consider a mixed border of low growing shrubs and taller trees to separate your yard from the neighbor’s. This adds a more graceful barrier than a tall fence or stiff rows of tall trees. If you want to keep children and/or a dog inside the yard, a fence might be a better option.

Adding Individuality

When Kathy and Tim Lee bought a townhouse in the Chicago suburbs, they wanted to create a unique outdoor environment. They decided to forego the standard concrete slab patio offered by the builder and add their own brick patio and extensive landscaping. The patio is about 300 square feet and is L-shaped.

Instead of having grass along the perimeter, they added dirt. “We wanted to be able to line the patio with plants,” Kathy said. “I have Lilly of the Valley and red roses and one of the beds will be a tulip garden.”

They also added about eight tons of black dirt to make the area more conducive to planting and a two-tiered garden for perennial and annual flowers.

Kathy estimates her costs at $2,500 for the patio and $1,000 for the other landscaping. And, she’s not finished yet. “You buy the things you like, but they don’t always work out, so you redo it,” she said. “I think it’s going to take me a few years.”

Cost

The cost to add trees, shrubs and flowers will vary based on the size and type of planting. A five gallon tree starts at $20 and goes up to thousands of dollars. A consumer could spend $25 to $200 on annual flowers or the same amount on perennials or ground cover to fill in their garden. Also consider the cost of dirt, mulch, and fertilizer.