Having a beautiful landscape doesn’t have to take up all of your time. If you correctly plan and work with landscaping services, your yard can be unique. A lot of homeowners live busy lives and don’t want to spend their weekends maintaining their front yard and exterior facade. This article will explain ways you can do low-maintenance front yard landscaping services at your home! Let’s get started.
Try Using Less Lawn
Keeping up lawns usually is the most-management intensive part of the landscape. Maintaining a good lawn requires fertilizer, mowing, gasoline to power the lawnmowers, and water, a lot of it. This all adds up to a lot of effort and expense, especially in drier climates. Some tips for a good lawn include:
- Try to hang on to the lawn where you need it, like kids’ play areas, but skip the lawn where it is not as necessary.
- Utilize small amounts of lawn for “cues to care”. A crisply mown path framing street-facing planting signals an awesome landscape to the neighborhood.
So what can you replace your lawns with? Well, there are many different options you can use. Try broadening your planting areas, add mulch or groundcover planting to in-between spaces, sub in artificial turf for grass, or expand your paving, gravel, and other hardscape areas. Any of these solutions, or a combination of them- should net less maintenance for you.
Use the Right Mulch
Mulch is a multi-use. It suppresses weeds, preserves soil moisture, and stabilizes soil temperature. Plant-derived mulches can also enrich the soil as they break down/ Mulched planting areas require less weeding and watering, saving you time and money with your low maintenance front yard landscaping.
Groundcover Planting
Groundcover planting can also do what mulch does, and more. Roots for ground cover plants improve drainage and soil health, while their foliage is valuable for stormwater management. From a low maintenance front yard landscaping perspective this means less mess in your yard, healthier plants require less upkeep, and greater groundwater reserves to offset irrigation needs. In order to make groundcover plants look more attractive, allow them to spread between taller ornamental plants, or encircle the base of trees. This establishes a base layer for taller ornamentals to rest upon, producing a vertical-layered, full planting aesthetic while keeping actual plant quantities (and your budget under control). The added vegetation will also help cool breezes as they blow across your yard to your patio. A good tip is to seek out native groundcovers because they usually require the least amount of no maintenance landscaping and irrigation to thrive, and will offer superior habitat value to boot.
Pick the Right Kind of Plants
There’s a lot to consider when choosing plants to minimize maintenance. The plants you choose to determine the amount of water, fertilizer, pest management, and general upkeep required to keep your yard looking curb-ready. Pick plants that are happy in your yard- these will usually look the best and will require the least of your time. Wherever you live, look for native species- they are likely to succeed with low-maintenance front yard landscaping.
Irrigation
The less amount of irrigation that your plants need, the less time and money you will allocate to watering your plants. Select plants that can survive with minimal or zero irrigation once they are established. This approach usually won’t limit your options to succulent gardens. By choosing species well-adapted to local weather patterns, you can support planting designs filled with plants of all types, from perennials to shrubs, trees to groundcovers. Look to your regional landscape for inspiration. AN irrigation system will save you a lot of time, but an inefficient system will use more water than you need and you’ll pay the bill for it.
Make sure you:
- Use drip irrigation for everything except for lawns (use spray on your lawns)
- Make sure any spray irrigation hits its target-don’t water your driveway
- Incorporate a weather sensor in your interrogation system- it will stop watering during wet weather.
Stormwater Management
Stormwater is precipitation that falls onto your property. If it is left unchecked, it roams the grounds sweeping debris into unwanted areas and eroding unprotected slopes. Planting is your best defense against this mess. Mulch can be swept away, but plant matter holds fast, capturing water and coaxing it back into the ground. Managing your stormwater runoff will keep your no-maintenance landscaping to a minimum while reducing flooding and pollution in your region.
Hardscape
Durability is crucial for exterior design materials, and paving is no exception. An appropriate paving material can withstand stresses from weather, site conditions, and plain old wear and tear, but the low quality or regionally inappropriate materials will crack, crumble, or find a new way to fail before their time, aesthetically as well as functionally.
- Look up which materials perform best in your area and use them, particularly in high visibility front patios or porches. Look for regionally-sourced materials
- Invest in high-quality materials upfront to avoid early repairs or replacements down the road.
Wood (and its counterparts)
Wood is gorgeous, but it requires work to maintain. It’s also softer than rock or concrete, and deteriorates more quickly, particularly in extreme weather- it’s a bad call for the desert heat. If you are committed to wood, apply coats of paint, stain, or sealant every one to two years (most often in intense climates) to maintain its integrity and appearance. This regimen is not low maintenance front yard landscaping, per se, but it will increase the overall longevity of wood features, and keep them looking as good as can be expected. You’ll still see some weathering over time, but this can be awesome in the right context.
If this seems like too much work, try composite decking. If you blend wool fiber and recycled plastic, composite is an environmentally friendly, attractive, and durable wood alternative. The best part is there is no waterproofing necessary. All you need to do is install it and you are done.
Paint and Sealants
Paint is a big factor in creating awesome curb appeal. Exterior paint sets the stage for front yard landscaping, and paint color, finish, and quality merit good consideration. Paint selection is very important for low-maintenance front yard landscaping. Premium paints tend to offer better protection from the elements and help offset maintenance to your home’s exterior. As with other exterior home decisions, we recommend investing more upfront to save yourself the effort and expense down the road.
Decor
Exterior decor, such as mailboxes, house numbers, planters, and lighting are very transformative. Well-considered details can make your home look thoughtful and elevated throughout the sessions.
Roofing
Replacing roofing is a huge expense, but deferred repairs can cascade into a series of other even costlier headaches for homeowners. It pays to maintain your roof. If you have metal roofing, it is super durable, commonly warrantied to 40 or 50 years, which is approximately three times the lifespan of asphalt shingles. It is also fire resistant and has high solar reflectivity, which reduces heat absorption and helps to offset home energy use. Aesthetically, metal roofing comes in a variety of appearances- it can look like a metal roof, or you can get versions designed to look like tile or shingles. The roofing’s finish has superior longevity- no more cracks or bald patches where shingles have lost their texture. From the street, your roof will stay looking beautiful for decades without lifting a finger.
Windows
As with the roof, window integrity affects overall home conditions- leaky windows let in moisture and air that can cause different problems. To avoid maintenance and expense, we recommend installing windows that will hold their shape and maintain a weatherproof seal. Because of this, window material is the best thing to consider. Wood Windows are prone to warp more easily, while aluminum and fiberglass windows maintain their shape and the integrity of their seal. Fiberglass in particular is pretty wonderful. It holds paint well, resists rot, has excellent thermal efficiency, and performs well in extreme climates. It’s also competitively priced. If the wood look is important to you, fear not- many windows combine materials, balancing the benefits of an aluminum or fiberglass frame with the appearance of wood. Whatever kind of windows you select, we recommend considering energy-efficient windows are one of the biggest factors affecting home energy expenditure.
Finding Landscaping Services
No matter how low-maintenence your landscaping is, it can still be hard to manage on a busy schedule. Let’s face it, few people want to spend their day off doing yard work when there’s an option to sit back and enjoy their manicured lawn. Instead, trust the professionals! To make the most out of your yard, check out Arbeen Landscaping for one of the best landscaping services in the country! We can help you come up with an awesome low-maintenance landscaping plan for your home. Call us today!
