[Blog] Low Maintenance Landscape Design Trends

Improving your landscape can be an expensive investment. For those looking to spend less money on their yards while maintaining a great cosmetic look, consider a low maintenance design. These designs minimize upkeep and establish simplicity in your landscape that will, in turn, increase your property value. 

Use a Cost-Efficient Ground Cover for Garden Beds

Garden beds are such a great landscaping asset. It’s in your best interest to provide ground cover for your garden bed to ultimately retain moisture for plants, negate muddy runoff, and show off the creativity and beauty of your plants. 

Types of Ground Cover

• Pine Straw – Pine straw is baled together and spread by shaking them into loose pine straw. 
• Pine Bark – Usually bagged at retail stores. Pine bark is good for pathways and small garden beds. They’re a nice touch to bring out bright, warm colors. 
• River Rock – River rock or river stone encourages water to sink more into the soil of the garden bed. River rock designs are a good cosmetic look. 
• Mulch – Mulch lasts for about a year. Its high cost makes up for durability. Lightly rake fallen leaves from mulch the next few months to keep this ground cover clear. 

Outdoor Wood Flooring

If you’re thinking about installing an outdoor space, be sure to use a good deck calculator before starting your project. Source materials that are environmentally friendly and durable. Composite flooring is an excellent choice and doesn’t require the maintenance of natural wood. It can be easily cut and maneuvered to fit any design you’ll need. Outdoor composite flooring it an extremely practical solution for areas around pools, decks, patios. 

Due to the chemical and thermal process of composite, this material is likely to last longer than most deck wood. Composite flooring is water-resistant as well. In addition, it’s less likely to warp under harsh weather conditions. 

Effective Drainage Solutions

Part of managing a low maintenance landscape is ensuring that your outdoor area effectively drains excess water away from the home. Ignoring standing water can damage lawns, garden beds, and soil. 

While there are many different drainage types that you can use for your landscape, a reliable and affordable patio drainage system is extremely valuable in cases of inclement weather. Anticipate where floodwaters will stand and dig channels that gradually lower in elevation. This incline will influence water to flow much easier. Consider installing an innovative permeable paving system in your backyard or driveway and be sure that all the pipes lead away from the home or garden bed. Connect pipes to a catch basin. To prevent catch basins from clogging up, cut the shape of the grate from an aluminum screen-roll. 

Pick an Efficient Lawn

Homeowners often struggle with keeping their lawn from dying in dry periods of the year. Some lawns are certainly harder to maintain. Maybe the blades of grass are too thin, or maybe the grass is out of control. 

Grass Types You Should Explore:

• Turf Grasses – Grasses like Bermuda, Centipede, or Zoysia grow even in the winter. Even though they’re not green, their roots stretch out underground. If not properly managed, the roots will make their way to crevices in driveways or pathways. 
• Perennial Rye Grasses – These grasses flourish in mild times of the year, but still need attention in the summer and winter. If the soil is balanced with the right minerals these grasses will continue to prosper and require low maintenance when properly taken care of.

Go Green, Stay Green

Evergreen shrubs and grasses are effective against excess water and gardens. Once rooted into the ground, they’ll continue to grow. Keep them trimmed and neat to your taste. 

Some shrubs add color every season like the blooms on Azaleas and berries on Holly shrubs. 

Low Maintenance Landscapes Save You Money

Low maintenance designs are simple. Imagine them as a blank canvas that you’ll illustrate later. Many homeowners go with DIY method instead of hiring landscaping professionals. Keeping a simple, low maintenance design can inspire more ideas in the future. 

Matt Lee is the owner of the Innovative Construction and Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value.