Landscaping is an excellent way to beautify your yard and your neighborhood, but it can also be a costly way unless you give some thought to planning and design. “Low maintenance landscaping” is a term that is becoming more prominent in our cost-conscious, time-crunched society.

To understand low maintenance landscaping, you need to put it into perspective. It would be nice to install a landscape and never have to deal with it again; sort of like painting a picture and there you have it. But, as we all know, plants are going to grow. Plants are living organisms and require routine care to thrive. Low maintenance landscaping is about selecting those plants that require minimum care, arranging them in a low maintenance design, and following correct maintenance procedures on timely basis or, in other words “preventive maintenance.”

How do you convert your existing landscape to a low maintenance one? First, do your research. Take a look at your site now and make a sketch of it, or take some snapshots.

Make note of the areas that receive the most sun or the most shade, that tend to be wet or stay particularly dry, and that fall off in a steep slope or are fairly level. You may also want to do a soil test before planting.

After you’ve recorded what you have, the next step is to decide what you want to do with it. Do you want an outdoor area for cooking and serving meals? Will you be entertaining large groups? Are areas needed for children to play? Do you need a spot for a clothesline? Will shelter of fencing be needed for pets? Are there unsightly views that need screening? Will you be doing all the maintenance work, or hiring part of it done? Are there favorite flowers, trees, or shrubs you would like to include? These are just a few of the questions you may ask yourself, however it is important to answer them honestly because you will be creating your outdoor living space. Now it’s time to design.

Landscape maintenance needs are tied closely to the design. The following are characteristics of low maintenance design:

Simplicity – Avoid frills such as statues and water fountains. Allow plants enough room to grow to their full size without constant pruning to keep them inbounds. Reduced size – Sprawling gardens create a dramatic effect, but a home landscape will be more welcoming, and easier to maintain, if kept on a smaller scale. Plant arrangement – Plants that have similar requirements, such as water and sunlight, should be grouped together. Groups of plants are easier to care for than individual ones scattered about the landscape.

• Grass alternatives – Grass requires more maintenance (and more gasoline!) than any other types of landscape plant. Reduce the area of the yard that is in grass to only what is needed for entertainment, and convert the rest into plantings with lower maintenance.
• Hardscape features – Decks and patios are great additions to outdoor living space and are relatively low maintenance. Edges of driveways and walkways should be low and flat, allowing a mower to ride up over the surface and eliminating the need to hand edge.
• Mulch – Using 2 to 4 inches of mulch around plants will minimize weed growth and conserve moisture. Some mulches will also add organic matter to the soil as they break down.

Choosing the right plants for your site is an important part of low maintenance landscaping. The following are a few tips for selecting and establishing your landscape plants:

	Choose low-maintenance plants. No landscape plant is perfect, but some do require more care than others. Purchase healthy, vigorous, quality plants. Go native when possible. Native plants are adapted to local climate extremes and often are resistant to regional pest problems. Follow good planting practices to prevent poor establishment or death of the plant.

Once your plants are established, you can reduce the time and amount of maintenance necessary by following correct procedures on a regular basis:

• Practice preventive maintenance by watching for plant disease and insect outbreaks regularly.
• Use the right tool for the job. Power tools are faster but they may also damage plants.
• Use the most efficient type of irrigation system for the group of plants you are watering – drip, overhead, spray, or underground.
• Fertilize according to soil test results to avoid excessive growth that needs frequent pruning.
• Prune when a problem first develops. Small branches only get bigger each season.

Taking time to plan and prepare before planting can leave you enjoying a healthy, productive landscape for years to come.

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