Houzz released its 2015 Landscaping & Garden Trends survey, which found that a third of homeowners are updating, reducing or removing their lawns due to water issues.
The survey, which was sent to registered Houzz users in the U.S. in May, included results from 1,600 homeowners who completed an outdoor project in the past 12 months, are working on one, or plan to start one in the next six months.
“In light of water-related challenges across much of the country, homeowners are embarking on projects to tackle a lack of or excess water in the long-term,” said Nino Sitchinava, principal economist at Houzz. “This includes installing rainwater harvesting systems, adding drought-resistant and native plants, and others.”
Thirty-five percent of homeowners reported updating their lawns due to drought, while another 19 percent updated it due to flooding. Seventy percent of Californians reported drought as the top challenge to maintaining outdoor spaces, while 47 percent of Texans reported flooding as their top challenge. Californians and urbanites were the most likely to replace their lawns with synthetic turf.
Upgrading and removing outdoor spaces due to water issues was just one aspect of the study. Here are some other trends the survey results showed:
- Seventy-one percent of homeowners upgrading their outdoor spaces value an easy to maintain space most in terms of functionality, followed by spaces that are easy to entertain in (60 percent) and easy for the entire family to enjoy (48 percent) are prioritized next;
- Nearly all homeowners are updating greenery during their outdoor projects (92 percent) by planting perennials (66 percent), shrubs (54 percent), annuals (51 percent), trees (44 percent), and other plants, and nearly one in five homeowners are planting cacti or succulents (19 percent);
- Over half of homeowners are enlisting the help of professionals to upgrade their gardens, two in five are hiring a landscape architect (37 percent) or designer (21 percent) for their recent, current or planned project;
- Half of homeowners are budgeting less than $5,000 on their current or upcoming outdoor project (52 percent) and just under half already spent this amount on recent projects. Similarly, one in four are budgeting over $20,000, compared to over a third that actually spent over $20,000 on recent projects;
- Three in four homeowners are purchasing products to enhance outdoor living, including outdoor furniture (55 percent), benches (27 percent) and grills (27 percent); and
- Three in four homeowners are making changes to one or more structural elements during their outdoor project (73 percent). Patios or terraces are the most common updates (43 percent), followed by arbors/gazebos/pergolas/trellis (28 percent) and decks (25 percent).
