Landscaping and managing your personal property takes planning, innovative solutions, and good ol’ fashioned hard work. Get prepared, get creative, and get to it with these tips for maintaining your land.

Decide how you’ll use the land.

Before you can effectively landscape a plot of land, you need to figure out how the land will be used. Do you have children, pets, and livestock? Or do you plan on gardening and/or farming on your land? Here are some elements to keep in mind before you start mapping out your landscaping plans:

Children
Outdoor living areas
Livestock
Ponds
Farming
Gardening

Plan ahead.

Once you’ve figured out what all you’d like to do with your land, map it out. Don’t just jump right in with augers and mowers and go to town.

If you’re creating an outdoor living area, make sure decks, fountains, and ponds, where you’d like to create a space for socializing and unwinding, are near your home and easy to access. Design areas for dogs, kids, and small gardens where you can keep an eye on them from the main living area of your property. Land for livestock, large scale farming, and large fishing ponds can be farther away from your living spaces.

Drawing out a map of your land allows you to visualize exactly how much space you’ll want to dedicate to each purpose.

Invest in the right equipment.

To do your best landscaping, you need the best equipment for your needs. Depending on the size and terrain of your land, you might want to consider investing in commercial-grade equipment to keep your property maintained. For smaller projects, handheld tools and basic power tools might be enough. For managing large areas of land, consider investing in a skid steer or mini-excavator and attachments like:

A post hole auger
A brush cutter
A mulcher

Mini excavators with versatile attachments are particularly useful if your land has rough terrain or tight areas where traditional machinery wouldn’t be able to easily maneuver. See what your excavator can do when you partner with Rut Manufacturing.

Break it up.

When you’re first starting out, tackle your land project by project. You’re not going to knock out the mowing, mulching, fence building, pond filling, and gardening on a Saturday afternoon. Prioritize your landscaping needs and wants, see how they fit into your budget and availability, and go from there.

Stick to a schedule.

Make sure you set up and stick to a maintenance schedule to keep your land healthy and in check. Mow when your grass is at the appropriate length, typically about once a week, keep weedy brush and debris from storms in check by clearing debris off of your property every few months, drain and clean ponds every spring, etc.

Your best work starts with the best equipment. Get the most out of your excavator today with attachments that make your equipment more versatile and more powerful. Find your new favorite tools at Rut Manufacturing.