10 Low-Maintenance Landscape Tips From the Pros

For most people, an ideal garden would be full of flowers and require no maintenance at all. But short of using silk flowers, that type of garden just doesn't exist.

Flora, after all, are subject to many of the same headaches that afflict fauna: disease, drought, malnutrition and bad real-estate decisions. 

One can, however, minimize maintenance with careful planning and by balancing your gardening hopes and dreams with a realistic appraisal of how much time, interest and money you have to implement those dreams.

Low maintenance does not equal boring. Gardening supplier in you don't have to settle for a shopping-mall landscape just because you are time-starved. The middle of the road is a garden that takes less care but still improves the look of your home and raises your spirits when you see it.

Maintenance is a continuum and it's different for everyone.   What might be considered heavy labor for one person another will consider leisure-time activity.

You need to understand what they're getting into.  If you want an English-style perennial garden, it's going to be more work than a naturalistic garden.

What follows are 10 tips to get you started. And if all else fails? Well, try the ultimate low-maintenance approach: Hire a professional

1. Use plants that are appropriate for your climate. This is probably the No. 1 way to minimize maintenance because it affects so many other areas. Don't try to do rare tropical blooms in Minnesota or Pacific Northwest rain forest perennials in Arizona. Choosing the right plants is half the battle. The more stress plants are under from inappropriate soil and climate, the more likely they are to succumb to insects and disease.

2. Have a less-formal garden. Instead of rigid borders and beds with everything evenly spaced, try a more naturalistic approach with plants such as ferns and wildflowers that are supposed to look a little messy and freeform.

3. Use hardy plants that don't require much care. Annuals, for example, need to be dug up every year. Vegetables are highly susceptible to pests. But ornamental grasses and herbs can fend for themselves in most situations.

4. Eliminate or downsize your lawn in favor of more trees and shrubs and flowers. A lawn takes more maintenance than just about anything else you can plant. You have to mow and fertilize it and keep it disease-free. It also takes a lot of water. Furthermore,  it's expensive. No matter how small your lawn, you still need the same equipment - mower, fertilizer, sprinklers - as someone with a large lawn.

5.. If you can't live without grass, raise the blade on your mower to 3 inches or so. A closely cropped lawn ­ say 1 or 2 inches tall ­ increases plant stress, which in turn increases maintenance. And because taller grass more effectively shades the ground, it discourages weed growth.

6. When planning patios and walkways, resist the urge to economize by using concrete instead of stone or brick. Stone and brick are easily replaced if they crack. Concrete, on the other hand, must be broken up and carted away.

7. Don't forget to mulch. Mulching - which means spreading gravel or shredded bark or other materials around plants - inhibits weed growth and helps soil retain moisture. Some gardeners also first lay down ground cloths or plastic sheeting. A layer of organic mulch should be between two and four inches deep. Avoid using sawdust as a mulch, as it eats up nitrogen as it decomposes.

8. Water wisely.  A conventional sprinkler is one of the most inefficient and wasteful ways of watering your garden says. Far better are various drip-irrigation systems. These are porous hoses concealed under mulch that distribute water where it's needed. There are also systems for container gardens that consist of a main hose with smaller tubes every few inches that go directly into different pots. Drip-irrigation systems also can be regulated with timers that automatically turn water on and off so that you can leave for weeks and not have to line up a neighbor to water your garden.

9. Avoid overkill with herbicides and pesticides. Are a few dandelions such a bad thing? And if they are, why spray the whole lawn? Go dig them up. The same is true with insects. People tend to panic when they see an insect or insect damage. The key is to know your enemy. A single tomato worm can do a lot of damage to a tomato patch, but it's only one worm. Find it and squish it. And if a more serious problem develops, spray selectively. You don't have to spray an entire tree if only one branch is infested with caterpillars.