Whether you are looking for a charming low maintenance landscaping, or simply an outdoor living space that is beautiful and manageable from the back of the house, there are plenty of wonderful landscape ideas that can be considered. These low-maintenance, smaller-scale front landscaping ideas provide curb appeal without the need for constant weeding, cutting, or even watering of the front yard. A nice looking front yard that requires little maintenance can be an excellent idea, making sure that your home has a nice curb appeal, but keeping your investment low in both time and money.
If you are looking to get a great backyard with little effort, here are six low maintenance landscaping tips to make sure that your yard looks amazing with a minimum amount of work. While no landscaping is ever entirely labor-free, you can reduce the amount of time spent on lawn and yard maintenance, while increasing the amount of time spent relaxing and enjoying it, by adopting one of these low-maintenance landscape tips.
From the small and simple to the modern and cost-effective, browse through these simple landscaping designs to find the low-maintenance options that you will love. These low maintenance landscaping ideas are perfect for those of us who like the manicured appearance of a nice path and a decorative bed. Nice path and decorative bed.
These simple landscaping ideas will free up your time to enjoy your yard more, rather than to do all of the mowing and weeding. From trading in your short-lived bedding plants for better-performing, low-maintenance plants and perennials, to replacing wooden decks with simple, easy-to-remove composite designs, you can build an ultra-stylish outdoor space that is fun to hang out in.
Often overlooked, the best low-maintenance groundcover plants and alpine trees can make for an amazing garden border that requires very little attention. If you like the look of a lush, full-flowering bed, but cannot devote hours to setting up and nurturing the entire thing, try using an array of decorative herbs as a base for a low-maintenance garden border idea.
Ornamental grasses add movement and dimension to your landscape, without adding much work to your to-do list. When some quirky plants that resemble Agaves and Cactus are installed into an unusual bed of gravel or rocks, the result is an amazingly dramatic appearance, and one that requires very little maintenance. When done properly, a rain garden is nearly maintenance-free, as it requires no cutting, no watering, and very little weeding. Vines add height to the landscape, but require little land area, so are good for smaller gardens.
Plus, most do not require any special attention in-season, so you can let them grow on their own after planting. Since few of us want a garden with no seasonal blooming plants, you may wish to minimize your maintenance footprint by planting your higher-care plants in fewer numbers and in areas that will make the biggest impact. Selecting the right plants can decrease the amount of time spent on maintaining them, while increasing the amount of time you can spend enjoying the landscape. Selecting inappropriate plants can increase your maintenance chores with over-cutting, over-watering, and extra spraying for insect and disease management.
Good planning, design, plant selection, and timely maintenance reduces the amount of maintenance needed for your landscape to look its best. When designing a backyard, proper landscaping can help you to have a beautiful, practical space with little maintenance. Patios, walkways, yards, and other hardscape elements can add a little bit of magic to any backyard, while also keeping the maintenance for landscaping tasks low. One of the best ways to lower your landscaping maintenance is by adding beauty and interest through hardscape features like walkways, retention walls, and patios.
Essentially, what this means is a low maintenance landscaping design will feature hardscaping paths, as well as plantings on the sides, or in a designated area not to be walked over. Some homeowners might need small landscapes in their front yard with plants that require little or no watering to look neat and simple, while others may want a yard with a big rock patio, a few evergreen trees, and a smaller vegetable garden.
It might sound obvious, but reducing grass and other plant growth while expanding the area of your paved patio and hardscape features could decrease the amount of yard work you have to do, as well as expanding the living space outside. Using rocks for ground covers, rock gardens, and mulch, as well as native plants and succulents, can be both beautiful and good for wildlife and the environment.