How to Reduce Maintenance in Your Landscape

While we all love our plants, having to perform too much maintenance can quickly wear you out and take all the joy out of tending to your garden.

And sometimes, we’re just not in the mood to perform the maintenance tasks. Maybe you’ve had a long day at work, or maybe you’re just feeling under the weather.

Either way, minimizing maintenance is almost always a good idea, especially since a lot of times, lesser maintenance usually also means lower costs.

Hire A Landscaper

Alright fine, this one doesn’t exactly save you any money, quite the opposite, in fact. But even if you were staying somewhere with milder climates like Louisville, KY, which would reduce the amount of watering and monitoring needed, hiring Louisville landscaping services is still going to be the only way for you to do zero maintenance.

However, while some people may prefer a completely hands-off landscape, many do prefer to still participate somewhat, as tending to their plants can be therapeutic and enjoyable.

So if you’re one of those who prefer to get hands-on but don’t want to be overwhelmed by too much maintenance, then read on to find out the various ways to reduce maintenance in your garden!

Irrigation Systems

Irrigation systems save water by both efficient and accurate watering. They can deliver water directly to your plant’s roots so that less water is wasted, and some systems can detect rain levels and adjust watering accordingly.

The downside is that irrigation systems cost more upfront, and frankly, may not be worth it if you don’t have too many plants.

That said, if you have a garden of any respectable size, whatever you spend on an irrigation system will pay for itself through the water bill savings. It may take a few years, but you can be sure it’ll eventually all come back to you, and even sooner if your region is drier and more watering is needed.

Use Native Plants

Native plants are plants that grow naturally in your region. This means they can survive with zero maintenance in the wild, surviving on rainfall alone and resisting pests and diseases.

Some maintenance is still required, such as pruning and trimming, and the occasional watering during extremely dry weather or during the early growth phase. Some weeding will also still be required, though minimal.

Overall though, the maintenance required is much less than a plant that may not be used to the local environment. The non-native plant will need not only more water, but also more pesticides, and is also more prone to diseases. Basically, weaker, needs more attention, and dies more easily. Hmm, a no-brainer decision huh?

Artificial Grass

Real grass needs watering, fake grass doesn’t, simple as that.

Of course, there’s also no cleaning required for real grass, so it’s not like an artificial turf will need zero maintenance.

Nevertheless, fake grass only needs to be cleaned every once in a while, so maintenance is minimal, and much less expensive than real grass.

Fake grass also has the added benefit of being more suitable for recreational use, such as sports or even a play area for kids.

Xeriscaping

Xeriscaping is a landscaping style to minimize water needs, employing plants and other plants that require little water to survive.

Xeriscapes are made to thrive even in dry conditions and don’t need much watering to maintain.

The drawback is that your landscape will somewhat resemble a desert. It’s not ugly per se, but if visual appeal is high on your list, you will want to skip this one.

Minimalist Landscaping

Minimalist landscaping isn’t just about using less of everything. It’s more of filling up your space with more hardscapes and little plants.

Obviously, hardscapes need much less maintenance than plants that need water every day, so minimalist landscaping will greatly reduce maintenance.

Even if you don’t intend on a full-on minimalist landscape, just embracing the concept of more hardscapes and fewer plants will contribute to reducing maintenance.

Remember, a landscape isn’t made beautiful just by the plants. The hardscapes play just as important a role.

On top of adding more structures like sculptures to beautify your outdoor space, adding usable areas like outdoor kitchens and patios also make your outdoor space more usable and functional.

So if you want to spend less time on maintaining your plants, why not make your space more functional?

Encourage Wildlife

Encouraging wildlife may not sound like it has anything to do whatsoever with reducing the load of maintenance tasks, but it can actually go a long way and even enhance plant health.

Not all wildlife will be of aid, but any wildlife that feeds on pests will reduce and even eliminate the need for any pest control.

Some examples of pest predators are ladybugs, birds, and bats.

To encourage wildlife, there are various ways to do so. You can offer food, water, and even shelter. For water, it will of course be water features. For food, you can install bird feeders or grow fruits for bats. And for shelter, you can build birdhouses and bat boxes.

Again, you’ll be spending less on pesticides, so like many of the other tips on this list, you’ll be saving both time and money.

Conclusion

These 7 tips will each contribute quite a fair bit to reducing maintenance, but combining them will give you the best results.

At the end of the day, do what works for you. Some people love a beautiful landscape but want no part of the maintenance. Others may have a senior at home who needs to keep active, or they themselves love tending to their garden.

Maintaining your outdoor area definitely isn’t bad, it’s excessive maintenance that is.

So if you find that you’re dreading the watering, trimming, pruning, and so on, maybe it’s not that you hate those tasks–you just have too much to do.

Test out a few of these tips and who knows, you just might find yourself enjoying gardening again.