Affordable Landscaping in Winnipeg

A medium-sized rectangular backyard patio with grass filling the remainder of the landscaping.

There are different ways of viewing “affordable”:

Cheap upfront cost. This is often affordable in the short-term only.
Affordable over the medium- or long-term.

Unfortunately very cheap initial cost often equates to low-quality or misguided landscaping which ends up being more expensive over the medium/long term. This is a version of “affordable landscaping” but it is only “affordable” in the narrow right now sense.

The other version of affordable might cost more initially, but later reveals itself to be more affordable, all things considered.

Contrasting both of these versions of affordable are:

Unnecessarily expensive landscaping. Expensive for no real purpose.
Expensive but premium and amazing landscaping.

At Earthworks Landscaping, we certainly can do, and often do, the premium option. But we specialize in the kind of quality, practical landscaping that is truly affordable to Winnipeggers over a longer time horizon. That is the topic of this article.

Summary of what makes landscaping affordable (specifically in Winnipeg)

For landscaping to truly be affordable, we have to consider the upfront costs, the maintenance costs and the longetivy (ie. how long it will be before there needs to be a major repair or rebuild).

We specialize in high quality, low maintenance, long lasting landscaping, with timeless design and without gimmicks. This is what we believe is ultimately the most affordable.

To keep landscaping affordable, both now and in the future, we need to:

Build something high quality that lasts. If it crumbles and needs to be redone every few years, this is very expensive. Winnipeg has challenging clay soils which expand and contract dramatically through the seasons with changes in soil moisture content.This can be very hard on patios, fences and garden structures if not properly built.
Build something that does not require much on-going maintenance, especially maintenance that’s going to require you to hire a landscaper to do your lawn care or gardening.
Only build features that will actually enhance your life. There are many complicated and expensive options for landscaping that might not really matter that much to your actual life.
Build something adaptable so that it does not have to be fundamentally changed as your lifestyle changes.
Resist following trends. Sometimes it’s just too fun to follow trends so we should do it anyway, but for affordability, we should stick with more timeless designs that are virtually guaranteed to be as pleasing in five years as they are today. Many people have the money to re-do things when trends change, but those who value affordability will prefer timeless design.
Design with simple shapes rather than complex. For example, rectangular patios are generally simpler and cheaper to build than those with complex curves.
Build something that increases your home’s value. If you plan to sell at some point, it’s possible you could actually make money by getting us to do the landscaping. The landscaping cost might be less than the increase in property value. This is the ultimate in affordable landscaping!

Let’s go into a bit more detail about these aspects of affordability.

High quality landscaping is often more affordable than low quality

This is especially true here in Winnipeg. Winnipeg's climate and difficult soil conditions are extremely hard on bricks, concrete, fences and decks. If landscaping work crumbles or breaks soon after it is built, and therefore needs to be redone, it’s not affordable no matter how cheap the initial price was.

For patios, this means:

Low-maintenance landscaping is more affordable than high-maintenance

The cost of your landscape does not end when the contractor sends their invoice for the construction. Depending on what is built, you will end up with either a lot of maintenance cost or very little.

For Winnipeg landscapes, an affordable combination for a new yard is a bit of patio and the rest grass. Patio maintenance is extremely easy, the closest thing you will get to zero, but there’s an upfront cost to getting the patio built to high enough construction standards. Grass is relatively cheap to plant. It is probably the most economical way to cover a large area. It does require mowing, but that’s not nearly as much work as weeding a flower garden or keeping weeds out of a rock garden.

The best way to balance upfront costs against ongoing maintenance costs would be to build as much patio as you can afford, with the rest of your yard planted with grass. Other elements such as shade trees and garden beds should also be taken into account, but if your budget is tight, these are easily added in the future.

Not building it is the most affordable option: Only build what will actually enhance your life

$0 is the most affordable! So if that built-in BBQ or woodfire oven is not something you are sure you will use, you can get that price right down to zero by just not building it. It is always possible to add these items later.

Only build features that will actually enhance your life.

Adaptable landscaping is affordable landscaping

As your lifestyle changes, you might regret some choices you made earlier with your landscaping years earlier. These are expensive regrets! Instead, let’s build something adaptable so that it does not have to be fundamentally changed as your lifestyle changes.

All designs are predictions about what will be good for the future. Most predictions are wrong in some way! The solution is to accept this and build something that is adaptable for an unknown future. This is a very good affordability strategy over the long term.

Timeless is the most affordable. Trends are the least affordable.

Most people love trendy things, but a sober evaluation shows that trends come and go. To make landscaping affordable it must be as close to permanent as possible. Therefore, for affordable landscaping we want to favour timelines designs. For example, we will want to use brick styles that do not belong to any particular era, but look attractive in all eras.

Usually a good way to tell if something is “timeless” or “tendy” is to ask the question: Was this in style ten years ago? If it wasn’t, it’s probably trendy. Timeless things were in style 10 years ago and still are today.

A simple example from fashion: In 2026, high school kids are wearing baggy jeans. This was not in style 10 years ago. It was in style 20-25 years ago, but it was very not in style 10 years ago.

Following trends with clothing can be reasonably affordable because we expect clothing to wear out in a few years, but for affordable landscaping we need something that’s going to look good for many years.

Simple shapes are more affordable than complex shapes

Simple geometric stonework is much faster to install than complex curves. There's less cutting and less waste, making both the labour and the material costs more affordable.

Landscaping that increases your property value is the most affordable landscaping

If you get landscaping that increases your property value more than the landscaping contractor bills you, you have the ultimate affordability.

Many of the factors we’ve already discussed affect this:

High quality landscaping construction means that it will still be looking good when you sell, even many years later.
Features that honestly enhance your life tend to be easy for prospective buyers to imagine enjoying too. If people can picture enjoying spending time outdoors they are going to want to buy that house! And people have a good intuition for what makes a space really enjoyable to be in, even when they cannot articulate it.
Adaptable landscaping choices means the new owner is not locked into anything they might not like. No one feels good when they are house shopping and see something they will immediately want to tear out because it doesn’t suit them.
Timeless styles and designs mean that prospective buyers will find the landscape pleasing even if you sell many years after the landscaping was done. The opposite is when a prospective buyer sees things in a house that are obviously very dated, rather than timeless.

We've seen what works and what doesn't

During the 28 years we have been in the Winnipeg landscaping business, doing almost 1400 jobs in that time, we have seen what works and what doesn't for affordable landscaping. In addition to new construction, we do maintenance and updates on older projects long after the original contractor is gone. In most cases it seems like the homeowner has gotten their money's worth. Other times, not so much. This may be due to poor design or poor execution.

Let us put our experience to work for you. We can develop an affordable landscaping plan and then make it happen!