Traditionally, relaxing in a beautiful yard is one of the best ways to end a long workday or a hectic workweek. However, in this turbulent times of global pandemics, those lucky enough to have gardens and outdoor spaces rely on them as personal sanctuaries more than ever.
Not everyone has a lot of time or effort to invest in creating or maintaining a beautiful yard, however. The good news is that there are several tips homeowners can utilize to create a beautiful landscape design in their front and/or back yards that reduce the amount of effort necessary.
The following five tips are prime examples of how to begin creating a beautiful yet low-effort design that requires minimal landscaping maintenance.
1. Choose Native Plants Over Exotic
When a plant is “native” it means that it will grow naturally in the region your home is located. An “exotic” plant is one that does not naturally grow in your home’s region. Native plants are already adapted to your climate and will, therefore, grow with very little effort on your behalf. Exotic plants, however, can require hours of your time each week to continue growing because they require additional steps to thrive in a climate that is normally unnatural for them.
2. Ditch the Clutter
One major mistake many homeowners make is creating a lot of clutter in their landscape design. This clutter may be in the form of excessive lawn ornaments, too many haphazard flower beds, or excessive plant life. Not only does clutter decrease the curb appeal of your lawn, but it also makes general maintenance tasks significantly more difficult. General maintenance tasks include items like mowing, edging, and weeding, among others.
3. Install Sprinkler Systems
Sprinkler systems will automatically water your flower beds and lawn for you once set up. Some need to be manually turned on and off, while others have timers incorporated that will go off at specific times of the day. Although there is some effort required in installing the sprinkler systems, once they’re properly installed they can save hours of work each week.
4. Reduce Lawn Damage with Pathways
Lawn damage takes a lot of effort to reverse and sometimes reversing the damage is impossible. When reversing lawn damage is impossible, it becomes necessary to entirely redo parts of your lawn. Not only does this require a lot of effort, but it takes up a lot of time better spent elsewhere.
To reduce lawn damage, you can incorporate pathways into your landscaping design in high-traffic areas. Prime examples include creating pathways between the front door and the driveway or the back door and your shed.
5. Consider Rock Gardens Over Flower Beds
Rock Gardens are a low-effort option to line your home or fence line with, which require considerably less effort than flower beds. A good rock garden takes a little time to set up and incorporates a variety of different colors, shapes, and sizes of rock or stones. Once a rock garden is set up, however, it requires no effort to maintain, thus making it the perfect choice for busy homeowners.
Conclusion
The five tips listed above can help busy homeowners create low-effort landscape designs for their front and back yards. Creating an outdoor space that you can enjoy without placing too much effort or time into it is possible with a little ingenuity. For the most low-effort landscape design, however, homeowners can consider hiring a professional landscaping company to take care of both the design and maintenance of their lawns.