Tips for a Low Maintenance Landscape

We all would love to have that dream house landscape out front for the world to admire. Taking good care of your lawn can really be as much or as little effort as you want to put in. If you want a low maintenance lawn then while it may look well manicured and nice, you probably don’t want to put in a lot of different plants and shrubs that need different kinds of care. However, if you are willing to put in the work to have a great landscape design, the options are limitless. Lawns that have landscape designs do require quite a bit of lawn care especially where there are a lot of grass and greenery and plants but here are some tips to keep maintenance down to a minimum.

Automatic Irrigation
Instead of getting out and watering your lawn yourself, a great way to cut down on lawn care is to set up an automated watering system. This will also help you to make sure that you are watering your lawn the proper amount. Too much or too little could be detrimental to the health of your lawn. Automatic irrigation systems can actually save you money as well because they will only let out the amount of water that you have set it up to release. You just need to do the research about the type of grass you have, how big your lawn is and how much water it needs how often.

Less Lawn
A simple answer to less lawn care is to have less lawn. There are some great landscape designs that include a very large patio or even rockery areas around the yard so that there isn’t as much grass to upkeep and maintain. Rockery and patios are much simpler and require much less care than lawns do. You’ll save money on water, fertilizer and everything else that grass needs to survive. There are some beautiful ideas out there that incorporate a pergola or some sort of mid garden paving to do away with some of the lawn as well.

Grass Alternatives
Another idea is to use alternatives like clover or moss instead of grass. These seeds are much easier to grow and maintain than real grass. Clovers are insect resistant and need to be mowed less and moss will grow in areas where grass won’t. Both types of seed among other grass alternatives are a great way to still get green into your garden without having to take care of it so much.

Ground Covers
If you live in an area where critters and pests are a problem because they eat your plants, you can deter them by using ground covers. This will also cut down on watering needs as well as how long it takes to mow. Most ground covers tend to also be tolerant of the shade so you won’t have to worry about your plants underneath them dying off because of not enough sun.

Winter Care
While there is less maintenance needed in winter, there still is some lawn care needed. You should plan for winter before it’s actually there. You could install a snow melt system so that your plants and shrubs and flowers don’t have to undergo the major problems that snow and ice bring.

If you really want a landscape but don’t want to take care of it, you could follow these tips and see how far it gets you. Otherwise, you could always hire someone to take care of it for you. There are plenty of landscaping companies available to you. There are even free resources available depending on the community that you live in.

The main key is reducing the size of your lawn. If you can do that, then you will have a lot less lawn to care for, obviously. However, keep in mind that sometimes even pave stones and rockeries can get weeds growing in them that will have to be pulled. They also sometimes need to be washed or repainted or have cracks repaired. Overall, though, they need these things a lot less often than lawn needs to be cared for. Lawn needs a regular maintenance schedule whereas rockeries and patios and pavements can be maintained on an ‘as needed’ basis.