A Guide To Low-Maintenance Landscaping

Every homeowner dreams of having that perfect garden. Being that it’s the first thing outsiders see before even making their way to your home, the last thing you’d want to have is a messy and unappealing garden. While ideal, however, maintaining a garden could also be the last thing on the mind of many homeowners. Busy lives with work and other indoor chores will take their toll on your hours, and the next thing you know, you’ve got guests over the weekend and a jungle-like garden.

Fortunately, cultivating and maintaining a beautiful and well-landscaped garden doesn’t have to be time-consuming and expensive. There are ways for you to come up with a garden that’s just as eye-catching but has the advantage of being low-maintenance.

Here’s your guide to achieving one: 

Automate Watering

According to https://bendpinenursery.com/nursery/, maintaining your landscaped garden entails watering it regularly, too. Particularly if you live in a warmer country where the chances of rain aren’t that frequent, the need to water more is there. For busy homeowners, watering the plants can be time-consuming. Forgetting to water your plants is unavoidable.

As a remedy to this, automate the process so you won’t have to be bothered by doing this chore yourself. Bigger gardens can benefit the most from automated sprinkling systems.

Automating the process of watering your plants entails installing an irrigation timer. As its name implies, it turns off on its own based on the time you’ve set. With this system in place, you’re able to achieve a low-maintenance system of caring for your garden.

Create An Outdoor Living Space

If you have quite a big backyard to work on, one of the best ways to simplify your landscaping process is to build an outdoor living space. With one, you’ll have a smaller area to landscape and take care of.

Builders consider outdoor living spaces as a part of landscaping as those two go hand-in-hand. Your outdoor living space and landscape design should be well-coordinated. Otherwise, you’re going to have a backyard that’ll look like an unpleasant hodgepodge of different design concepts.

Creating an outdoor living space is a big project, but it’s worth doing, especially nowadays with the emphasis on outdoor living. You can make so much use of your outdoor living space by entertaining guests, hosting parties, or having relaxing weekend dinners with your family.

If you’re interested in creating one as a part of your garden project for this year, you can check this landscape directory, here are some tips for you to get started on creating that outdoor living space:

• Plan how you’re going to use your outdoor living space so that you can incorporate your desired features in the design;
• Make the most out of your surroundings by highlighting those features (e.g., you have a water feature or a swimming pool, so make sure your living space is also well-coordinated with that);
• Take note of comfort, so you can still use your outdoor living space even when the weather is bad.

Straighten Or Smoothen The Edges

Different owners each have their respective desired landscaping designs. Some homes have square or straight edges on pathways, while other homeowners prefer to have curved ones. The latter design is attractive, but it’s not the easiest to maintain because mowing your lawn will take more effort to follow the curved edges.

An easier and low-maintenance option instead is to have straight or smooth edges. This means having the usual straight pathway. This will be easier for you to mow.

Put The Right Plant In The Right Spot

A seasoned landscaper will tell you there’s more to landscaping than just putting your plants in random places. There has to be a sense of system and style. But most importantly, the positioning of the plants has to be accounted for.

For example, there are plant varieties that won’t overspread. If you have those types of plants, they’re fine to place close to each other. However, for those plants that spread quite fast with proper care, you have to be more mindful. Sure, you can easily move and replant them later. But that’s not exactly what low-maintenance landscaping is about anymore.

If you’re not sure about proper plant positioning and design, it’s best to hire a landscaper instead. They can ensure all your specifications will be in place, and your desire to have a minimalist and low-maintenance garden will become a reality.

Pick The Right Stones

Another cumbersome part of landscaping is cleaning the stones used and the pathways you have. The amount of work you have to put in depends on the kind of stones and pavers you use. Like choosing the right plants, you have to get this right, too.

Choose outdoor stones which don’t just look good but are also easy to clean. Some outdoor stones may need little care and maintenance compared to others. The last thing you want is to brush or pressure wash your pathways, driveway, and other stoned areas every so often to get rid of any mold and moss formation.

Use Mulch

If your garden currently doesn’t have a layer of mulch in it, then that could be the reason why your weeds are constantly growing. It’s cumbersome to have to till your soil and remove weeds regularly because they start to go over your chosen grass.

The solution to this is to apply mulching. Typically, you need at least two to three inches thick of mulch, so it can suppress weeds and reduce water evaporation. This means less weeding and watering for you to do.

If you live in a warm state or country, mulching has to be done at least twice a year. For colder countries, mulching annually will suffice.

Choose Easy-To-Care Plants

Plants come in various types and characteristics, so choose wisely. If not, you may be left with plants that can be troublesome to clean and care for. Some plants can survive the whole year round with very little care needed. Those plants are perfect for the busy homeowner who may forget about watering the plants.

Trees and shrubs are some of the most low-maintenance plants, which also have a big impact on making your garden look better. They’re great to fill up big, bald, and empty spots, so you won’t have to worry about putting numerous small plants in them.

There’s no one uniform list of easy to care plants to share with you in this guide, as it matters where you’re reading this from. Rather, it’s best to consider your local area, including conditions like weather and temperature.

Plan Your Layout Strategically

This need for a layout strengthens, even more, the notion of having a landscape artist and contractor work in your garden. This step is like starting with the end in mind. When you have the desired outcome, picture that and use it to plan your landscape layout. That way, you can have a garden you’ll be happy with for many years to come.

One of the reasons why gardens become high maintenance is when you regularly have to re-plant. You’re not satisfied with how it looks, or some plants are dead. Planning carefully and strategically can help avoid some problem areas relating to maintaining a landscaped garden.

Use Grass Wherever And Whenever You Can

A beautifully-landscaped garden doesn’t mean you have about a hundred different plants. There’s no need to crowd your home with plants. If you want to enjoy having a wide yard without worrying about caring for too many plants, grass will always work.

Plant a nice grass choice instead. Typically, you’ll want to go for the kind of grass famous in your local area as being able to withstand different conditions. With grass, all you have to do is mow it monthly, depending on how fast it grows.

If you still have children at home, planting a lot of grass is a good choice. It gives your kids more space to play and run around, with the grass providing a safer environment for slips and falls than stone and concrete would.

Incorporate A Water Feature

This guide started with building an outdoor living space. Now, it’ll finish off with this adjunct advice of incorporating a water feature. This is an effective way to elevate your garden’s landscaping style, minus the need for too many plants. The water feature is already beautiful in itself.

There are so many choices of water features you can build, depending on your budget. Some well-loved ones include a koi or fish pond, a waterfall, and a swimming pool. As for maintaining those water features, you don’t have to do the hard work yourself. All you need to do is to schedule the proper maintenance team to visit regularly as they do the cleaning for you.

Conclusion

Do you want a garden that’s easy to care for? The ideas above are worth emulating in your garden, regardless of size. Having a low-maintenance garden doesn’t make it any less attractive than more intricately landscaped gardens are. You’re going to enjoy it even more when taking care of it doesn’t have to feel like a lot of hard work. Most importantly, a low-maintenance garden is also easier on your budget. Now, all that’s left for you to do is to hire your trusted landscaper or get your hands dirty by starting an easier, low-maintenance landscaped garden.