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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.

The best mulches for trees are wood chips, bark nuggets, or pine straw. Depending on your goals, you may want to avoid using plastic, stone, rubber, or wet grass clippings. Plastic mulch prevents water from reaching the mulched areas of your tree, stones don’t offer any nutritional benefits to the soil, rubber can release byproducts into the soil when it decomposes, and wet grass clippings can lead to rot. 

Plastic may prove beneficial in cold climates in the winter, but wood chips are the ideal option for most environments.

Mulching any time of year can be beneficial, so you can choose based on your preference. Most homeowners avoid the winter and summer because of the uncomfortable temperatures, so spring and fall are often best. Try not to mulch right before heavy rainfall or a big storm is expected, as wind and runoff can move newly laid mulch around and make more work for you.

There are a few factors to consider when choosing the right size river rock for a landscaping project. First, think about how you’ll use the rocks. For example, if you’re installing them as part of a water feature, medium-sized stones (ranging between 2 and 5 inches) often work best. Smaller rocks (from 1 and 3 inches) are better for walkways and pathways, while a mix of medium and large stones (between 3 and 8 inches) is ideal for garden beds.