If you are like multiple Gainesville rental property owners, you intend to do your part to make your rental more environmentally friendly. One pretty simple yet effective thing that you can engage in to make a difference is to design and create a pollinator-friendly yard. Proven best practices for rental property landscaping aim at designing yards that are attractive and very easy to maintain. But really, besides that, it’s most likely you or your tenant would like to make your property’s yard pollinator-friendly, too. It’s an intention worth seriously investigating for considerable reasons. Not only is it a worthy investment for the environment, but certainly, it could furthermore add value to your property as well. When done and accomplished correctly, setting up a pollinator-friendly yard may even be a great way to effectively attract environmentally conscious tenants.
Even supposing you are not a very avid gardener, you may have heard that pollinators like butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and other flying insects are swiftly reducing in number. These pollinators are an integral element of our ecosystem; without them, we would not have various fruits, nuts, and seeds that most of us eat and take pleasure in. But take heart, with just a few alterations to your rental’s landscaping, you can greatly impact pollinator populations in your location.
Plant With Variety
One of the first and most important things you can bring about to encourage pollinators to visit your rental yard is to choose to use a wide variety of plants in your landscaping. As much as possible, get plants that will bloom at various times and seasons, from early spring to late fall. In a lot of locations, you should be able to see native plant varieties that are both trouble-free to care for and appealing to pollinators.
Add a Feeder
Another simple tactic to bring in hummingbirds and butterflies is to hang a nectar feeder in your rental yard. Most people will be delighted watching these pollinators feed, and they will as well bring quite a lot of benefits to your landscaping plants. To engage even more pollinators in your yard, you could furthermore lay down a dish of ripe fruit or water mixed with sea salt. Butterflies are definitely drawn to these items.
Rethink the Lawn
A healthy, green lawn is a substantial part of the landscaping for a majority of rental homes. You can equally support pollinators with your lawn by integrating a few worry-free and simple changes. For example, allowing the grass to grow a bit taller (about 3 inches) and develop seed heads will not only protect the moisture in the soil but, moreover, draw pollinators to your yard. You could as well try mixing in particular low-growing plants with your grass, similar to white clover or violets. These non-invasive plants will help offer local pollinator populations a boost without wrecking the health of your lawn.
Use Alternatives to Pesticides
Spraying the lawn or other plants with pesticides is a regular practice for most property owners. But it really doesn’t matter what sorts of insects you plan to drive away, you’ll kill off beneficial pollinators with them. If you must spray to ward off harmful insects or other issues, take into account putting into use options that are more environmentally friendly. Several oils and soaps can effectively keep pests away without killing off pollinators. Cornmeal will regularly eliminate worrisome ant colonies, while garlic, pepper, and even beer can keep certain biting insects far, far away.
If your tenant is the one who is looking to add pollinator-friendly elements to your rental yard, you might try actually letting them do it. Definitely, you’ll want first to make sure that you and your tenant get a clear idea of what changes will be made, who will do the work, and who will pay for the improvements. Even if your tenant would like you to help subsidize the costs of the plants or other things, if it will add value to your property or certainly make it more attractive to future tenants, it may just be a good investment and worth saying yes to.
Designing a pollinator-friendly yard for your rental that will also boost your property values is surely plausible. But definitely, it can be a challenge to find out completely what changes will add to your property’s appeal. You may need to consider recruiting expert Gainesville property managers for answers and advice about this and several other questions you may have in regard to managing your property. To learn more valuable information about all of the terrific services that Real Property Management Diversified has to offer – including landscaping advice – contact us online today!
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