When a two-tiered timber retaining wall deteriorated at this residence in south Minneapolis, the homeowner called in Villa Landscapes to replace the failing wall with a two-tiered segmental retaining wall.  Our designer specified a 4-foot-tall VERSA-LOK weathered Mosaic wall for the lower tier and another 4-foot-tall wall for the upper tier, built from a mix of weathered VERSA-LOK Standard and Cobble units. “We were able to build columns, steps, walls, and a double-faced wall all from the same solid wall units,” explained Josh Peterson, field supevisor. The result is a stunning, coordinated total solution to this homeowner's soil erosion problems.

If you're thinking of putting your house on the market, you may want to consider some landscaping improvements to beef up your sale price.

Landscaping is a good investment, according to a recent study by the Journal of Environmental Horticulture. For every dollar you spend on landscaping, your home will see a $1.35 increase in value.

Results of the study were reported in the September 2010 issue of Lawn & Landscape Magazine: 

In a crowded and depressed real-estate market, homeowners may be best served to undertake exterior home improvements like landscaping in order to increase the value of their homes and to help their property stand out to prospective buyers, according to the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado (ALCC).

A study in Lubbock, Texas, published in the Journal of Environmental Horticulture, evaluated 75 homes and concluded that every dollar invested in landscaping returns $1.35 – or a 35 percent return on investment. The same study found that having high-quality landscape compared to an average home increases the sales price of the home by 5.7 percent. This number jumped to a 10.8 percent increase in the value of a home when comparing an excellent quality landscape to an average landscape.