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The best way to landscape your front yard on a budget is to invest in hiring a professional for hardscaping—things like upgrading walkways, redoing driveways, and installing partitions around garden beds. You can often do the softscaping yourself—think laying down mulch, caring for your lawn, removing weeds, and planting flowers and shrubs. It’s also almost always worthwhile to pay a professional for routine yard maintenance, as this dramatically improves curb appeal and delivers above 100% ROI in most cases.

Landscape boulders, especially porous stones like sandstone or granite, can crack or break over time. Cracks occur when water seeps into the surface of the stone and freezes. The risk is highest when it rains during the day and temperatures freeze overnight since the moisture has time to penetrate deeper into the rock before expanding.

When laying gravel, it's often a good idea to apply a base layer, such as sand or crushed concrete. You may also want to layer a weed-blocking membrane on top of the base layer to prevent weeds and grass from sprouting up in your gravel driveway. Without the appropriate base layer, the gravel you lay may sink into the soil.

When it rains, decomposed granite can become muddy and mushy in texture and start to wash away, leading to erosion of the surface. Decomposed granite’s inability to endure heavy rainfall is one of its biggest drawbacks.