Investing in professional landscaping services is one of the best decisions you can make to have a truly attractive, impressive, and functional green space. However, you have your work cut out for you once you begin maintaining and enhancing your landscape, especially if you decide to do everything by yourself.
Experts say that you will have an easier and faster time maintaining and caring for your landscaped outdoor space if you work with your contractor from the start. But whether or not you choose to hire professionals for the job, this article will guide you through the best practices in building low-maintenance outdoor landscapes.
How to Achieve a Low-Maintenance Yet Stunning Landscape
To achieve a beautifully designed, low-maintenance outdoor area, keep these tips and tricks in mind during your planning and implementation process:
- Try xeriscaping.
You need to water your yard sufficiently and regularly to get lush, lovely grass. Watering your lawn is often an exhausting and time-consuming chore in desert cities like Dubai.
By filling your green space with slow-growing drought-tolerant plants that will conserve water and help xeriscaping, you can drastically cut back the time spent watering plants properly.
Your landscaping contractor should provide recommendations regarding which plants you should grow as well as helpful xeriscaping tips in your yard.
- Use rocks and stones as landscape features that stand out.
Placing more rocks and stones on your lawn is a key component of xeriscaping.
Rocks or stones prevent grass from growing where they are placed, so you will have fewer areas to mow.
They are also excellent materials for walkways, paths, or edgings. You can also group them artistically to form decorative outcroppings that work great as additional outdoor accent pieces.
If you have large rocks on your lawn, use them and start a low-maintenance rock garden. Choose a particular spot in your yard to place this garden so you will have another interesting focal area in your outdoor space.
The rock garden itself will be a décor that will never need to be watered or tended to in any way whatsoever. However, you can add drought-tolerant plants to this spot to make it more appealing.
- Choose tall grass varieties that do not require frequent mowing.
Tall grass varieties like fountain grass grow fast and require very little maintenance. They require little to no mowing as well. Moreover, they can even provide a natural privacy screen if you plant them along the fence line.
When starting your landscaping project, choose these types of grasses or other tall native ones so you won’t have to mow often. You’ll get to save money on your water bills as well.
- Add potted plants.
Aside from growing plants directly on the soil, you can choose potted plants to decorate the area for a hassle-free green space. Incorporating pots into the landscape makes the area more versatile, too.
Incorporating potted plants into your landscape is an easy way to inject color into different parts of the space. Moreover, you can even have outdoor plant pots and containers made specifically for the area for a more cohesive-looking landscape.
- Have moss planted in some areas on your lawn.
Mosses are fuss-free plants that work great as an alternative to grass, especially when planted in shady spots and areas with compacted soil where grass simply refuses to grow. They enhance the natural beauty of a lawn and add texture as well. You won’t need to mow, trim, or water them regularly.
- Consider having an automatic irrigation system installed.
Install an automated watering system or sprinkler system in order to save money, time, and water while saving both. This may save both money and water in the form of savings over time and water consumption.
With an automatic irrigation system in your lawn, you’ll rest easy knowing that key areas will receive sufficient amounts of water when required. It’s a surefire way to avoid wasting water.
- Have a walkway designed to connect points of interest.
To avoid trampling down the lawn and creating a makeshift path of dead grass to and from your patio, garden, fire pit, and other outdoor areas or features, have one walkway created to connect all these places. You can build your walkway with concrete stepping stones, natural flagstone, decorative brick, or crushed stone.
By following this tip, you won’t have to worry about having patches of dead grass or brown spots ruining your landscape. You won’t have to waste time growing grass again, either.
- Use objects to add color to your lawn.
Lastly, color is the secret to having a striking lawn. But you don’t have to rely on growing flowers and other plants to give your yard the brightness it needs. You can use various items, accessories and decors to give your yard the color it needs.
Besides choosing colorful pots for your plants, you can also pick chairs and tables, benches, large umbrellas or pergolas, bird baths, lamp posts and lanterns with striking colors as well. You can also paint your fence and other outdoor features and fixtures with bright hues to add more color to your outdoor space.
With sufficient research, careful planning, and proper coordination with your landscaping contractor, you will have a magnificent landscape that won’t require too much hard work. You’ll be able to save money on water, energy, and maintenance bills as well.
