While some people have a “green thumb” and love to be out in their garden and outdoor living space, most of us prefer to look at a beautiful yard and curb appeal without having to maintain it. While you can hire someone to take care of your landscaping, it is possible to have a beautiful lawn, without endless hours of watering, mowing, trimming, weeding and taking care of garden beds.
Xeriscaping landscaping is landscaping where conserving water is a priority. Most plants and flowers require a lot of water to stay alive, but with xeriscaping, these plants and flowers are replaced with hardscaping materials, like rock, and drought-tolerant plants. Adding xeriscaping to your landscape will cut down on watering and weeding, and is great for environmentally conscious homeowners. Decorating ideas like, Hardscape like walkways, retaining walls, and stone work of surrounding areas of your home will be able to limit the use of water while still adding to curb appeal.
Nothing can compare to the smell and feel of real grass, but artificial turf is slowly becoming a popular option for lawns, and with a good quality artificial turf, it is hard to see the difference from real grass. (art. Turf). While artificial turf does need to be cleaned periodically, it does not need to be mowed, trimmed or watered like regular grass, therefore significantly cutting down on maintenance.
If you cannot part with the look and feel of real grass, consider adding an irrigation system to your lawn. This way, you will be able to have a healthy lawn, without having to drag your hoses everywhere, or set up a sprinkler system.
An application of mulch not only spruces up your garden and trees, but can reduce your watering significantly by maintaining soil moisture. Not only that, but mulch also supresses weeds.
Ornamental grass adds depth, texture and beauty to a landscape, and is low maintenance. They fill in space in the garden, and come in a variety of sizes, textures and colors.
If you want the look of a garden without the extra work and mess of maintaining it, a good alternative is to put plants and flowers in decorative containers. This allows you to move the flowers and plants to whatever area of the yard you want, and you can even preserve them over the winter by bringing them inside.
While trees add a major impact on the look of a yard, and provide the added bonus of shade, some trees are messier than others, and require quite a bit of maintenance. To minimize that maintenance, opt for trees that do not shed that much, and do not grow over 15 feet tall. Smaller trees usually drop less leaves, seeds and fruit, so you will not be stuck raking your yard every weekend.
With all of these available options, homeowners can have a gorgeous landscape, while still being able to enjoy time spent with their family, and less time maintaining their yard.