Everyone loves to have some kind of landscaping for their property to enhance their own enjoyment and make the place attractive to others.  However, garden chores are often heavy and time consuming, and if you work all day you might prefer to keep your weekends for playing sport or just relaxing rather than weeding, mowing and doing all of those other  never-ending gardening chores. There are several ways you can have the best of both worlds; great landscaping and time for leisure as well. How?

Lower the Maintenance

First off, you need to plan your garden to be a low maintenance one. This means forget the annuals that are so showy and need to be planted, watered and weeded every season. Instead, find perennials or permanent shrubs and bushes that offer attractive flowers, seedpods, autumn foliage and bark so that your garden will have something of interest in it all year round. If you dearly love annuals, grow a few in pots that are quick and easy to replace. Garden Design Photo Courtesy of LandscapesWA

Low Maintenance Landscaping Ideas

Shape Rather Than Colour

Think in terms of shape and different shades of green to give the visual interest you need. Have plants with narrow, spiky leaves, fat round leaves, tiny oval leaves – and so on. Many plants have multi-coloured or variegated leaves and flowers and new leaf growth that is pink. Have tall and short, erect and weeping types of plants; deciduous and evergreen. Choose trees and shrubs that do not have large seedpods to drop over your lawn and look untidy. Read more: Deciduous and Evergreen Trees

Hardware for Visual Interest

Visual interest and colour can also be added by the careful use of hardware. A stone bench, or a colourful garden statue will never need replanting or watering.  Choose plants that are suited to your climate and are drought hardy to save water and watering. Automate chores such as watering with an in ground sprinkler system. Choose plants that can grow to their full size and don’t need to be pruned constantly.

Options to Replace Lawn

If you hate mowing the lawn, consider replacing some of it with pavers – or a pool, if you don’t have one. If you have children and a swing set, consider digging some of the lawn up and making an area similar to the playground in public parks. Pine chips or even sand are great for the kids to play on and fall on. You can have their swing set, trampoline and slide in this area. Add a cubby house for hours of outside play and an area that does not need mowing or maintaining.

Hire a Gardener

Hire a gardener to come on a regular basis to maintain your garden. Imagine sleeping in on Saturday morning while someone else is busy making your landscaping look terrific. You’ll enjoy your garden even more if you don’t have to slave over it all the time. Once you have a low maintenance garden, having someone else tend it will be even more affordable. They will not need to come in every week, but perhaps once a month, or more in the summer for mowing. And you will have more energy to expend on fun things such as playing golf or shopping.