In his 30-plus years as a professional landscape contractor, Kevin Mulkern has found many ways to help homeowners save money while maintaining an idyllic outdoor setting. His best advice?

Take care of what you have.

“A lot of times, it’s not about spending a lot of money on a brand-new landscape,” explains the owner of Mulkern Landscaping. “Sometimes you get better value by simply renovating the landscape and then doing the necessary maintenance afterward.”

Mulkern presented us with three of his recent landscaping projects, all of which prove that you don’t have to break the bank to beautify your yard. 

1. A Pond Worth Preserving

This page: Kevin Mulkern and the crew at Mulkern Landscaping cleared away 36 inches of debris to give new life to this decades-old pond. Opposite: Day-blooming water lilies add color to this rejuvenated pond.

This Kahala homeowner built his large backyard pond nearly 50 years ago. “He did a superb job,” assesses Mulkern. “The quality of workmanship was just terrific. He arranged the rocks wonderfully, and he even created these beautiful hand-carved stone lanterns.”

The pond, however, was full of debris and had gone from an eye-catching centerpiece to a potential eyesore. Because it was about 50 years old, some landscapers might have recommended spending money on a new water feature. Mulkern, however, had other ideas.

“A lot of times, during the consultation process, I try to get homeowners to restore what they have,” he explains. “It’s kind of like a car that isn’t washed. It looks old and no good, but when you wash it and wax it, it becomes a nice car again.”

Mulkern originally thought the pond was 12 inches deep, but after clearing away all the accumulated muck and debris, he discovered that it was about three times that depth.

“It was pretty easy to restore,” he says. “We took the muck out, repotted the plants and filled it back up with water and fish. Now, it’s a neat ecosystem: The plants help to keep the water clean, and the fish take care of the insects.”

Mulkern also added more modern, energy-efficient light fixtures, but he was careful to keep the original lighting effects intact. “We tried to respect the homeowner’s artistic skills,” he explains. “We didn’t want to change his painting. We just wanted to preserve it.”

2. Have Avocados, Make Guacamole

This page: As a helpful bonus, Mulkern aided the homeowner in figuring out the best time to pick fruit from her flourishing avocado tree. Opposite: Landscaping provides privacy as a fence-like boundary between homes.

This Palolo Valley homeowner turned to Mulkern for help because her landscape, in her own words, “was turning into a jungle and was out of control.” A couple of days of pruning, mowing and hauling waste away, however, transformed her yard into a tropical oasis.

The homeowner wanted to remove the wedelia that covers about 500 square feet of her sloping yard, but Mulkern convinced her to keep the hardy ground cover intact.

“A lot of people don’t realize that when you yank out a bunch of plants, you need to buy new plants and put them in,” Mulkern points out. “Too often, clients will have me rip out big areas of their landscape and then decide that replanting is too expensive. The area becomes a major disaster; what was there might not have been perfect, but now there’s nothing, and you have to battle weeds and runoff or erosion.”

“Now, the backyard is a nice little jungle that pretty much thrives with the rainfall,” Mulkern continues. “Her gingers and bananas and avocados are great plants because her house is on a little bit of a slope, and they help hold the soil and keep the weeds down.”

Mulkern even helped the homeowner to appreciate her avocado trees. She thought the fruit was always bad, but after some experimenting, Mulkern discovered that it was simply overripe.

“The skin on that particular variety of avocado was really hard,” he says. “So by the time the outside got soft, the center inside was rotten. I was able to show her how to test the avocados so that she could eat them when they were ripe. We even made guacamole!”

3. A Low-Maintenance Revival

The front entry to this home is highlighted by a nifty water feature that Mulkern created from an existing boulder.

The owners of this Kalama Valley home were looking for a simple landscape that didn’t require arduous upkeep. Mulkern’s answer was to install El Toro zoysia, a thick, hardy grass that doesn’t require lots of water.

A close-up look at a Hong Kong Orchid tree. Mulkern trims trees after they bloom, allowing them to bloom multiple times throughout the year.

“When I was a kid, we used to call it ‘pokey grass’ because it would poke you when you sat on it,” recalls Mulkern. “But today there are new varieties of zoysia that are softer, easier to cut and compete well with weeds. The homeowner loves it. He cuts the grass about every other week. That’s all that’s really required.”

What a great idea! Mulkern places an anthurium plant in a sleeve (a larger pot that's installed in the ground). Sleeves allow for rotating plants and flowers while creating the illusion they're permanently planted in the soil.

The front entry showcases a large rock that Mulkern and his crew converted to a nifty water feature. “We just made a little puka in it to put in a recirculating pump, and that was it,” says Mulkern. “And because it’s not a pond—it’s what we call a disappearing fountain because the water trickles down and disappears into a bed of river rocks—it’s very difficult for leaves or debris to get into the pump system.”