Landscapes that need minimum money and time to maintain need thoughtful preparation and installation. Choose structures, plants, ground-coverings and systems that will assist to decrease watering, weeding, cutting, painting and mowing.
Consider Your Available Time
Figure out how much time you invest preserving your yard at various times of the year. Consider mowing, planting, pruning, weeding, watering, raking, snow shoveling and other seasonal tasks. What do you want to alter?
List Your Needs
How do you plan to utilize your yard-- for grilling, vegetable or flower gardening, kids' play activities or simply seeing from the windows? Various activities need different ground surface areas, structures, or plantings.
Pro Tip
Reduce or remove your lawn. If you have kids or enjoy yard games, about 600 square feet of grass is usually enough.
Assess Your Landscape
Make a rough map and list of existing functions, such as fences, trees and shrubs, buildings and paved surface areas. Keep in mind problem locations, such as poor views, sound, lack of personal privacy, steep slopes or locations where plants grow poorly or water builds up.
Choose Time-Saving Systems & Surfaces
Think about lower-maintenance options to resolve landscape issues, such as an automatic watering system for watering the yard and garden; a deck, paved outdoor patio, or ground-covering plants instead of a mowed yard; and a fence or vine-covered trellis instead of a clipped hedge. Choose brick or stone instead of wood surface areas to eliminate painting chores. Group shrubs and trees into mulched beds to lower mowing, cutting and watering. Mulch gardens to prevent weeds.
Select Low-Maintenance Plants
Pick just plants that fit the space offered. To minimize planting time, plant blooming shrubs or perennial plants that grow back each year instead of annuals that only last one season.
Pro Tip
Plant perennials that die to the ground in autumn, instead of shrubs, in places where snow accumulates or slides off the roofing system.
Select plants with features that look great in more than one season, such as flowers in spring, handsome leaf color in fall and attractive bark in winter.
Low-Maintenance Plants for Easy Landscaping
Consider these easy-to-grow shrubs, trees, and perennials to produce a stress-free foundation in your landscape. For each, we've included planting, watering, fertilizing, and pruning suggestions for each gardening zone.
Shrub: Barberry
Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) is deer-resistant and deciduous, with thorny stems that make it a good foundation plant for increasing home security. Once established, this compact, thick shrub is dry spell tolerant. We like the range Sunjoy Tangelo for its intense orange brand-new growth that turns chartreuse on the look at this leaf margins as the season progresses.
Some barberries are invasive and may not be grown in some states. Check with your regional extension service workplace prior to you plant.
Plant barberry in spring in part sun, or complete sun for the very best foliage color, and in damp but well-drained soil. Sunjoy Tangelo grows to 3-4 feet high and wide and is hardy in USDA Zones 4-8. Prune to form in summer season, if wanted, and fertilize in spring after the last frost and when brand-new growth appears. In all zones, mulch in fall; in Zones 4-5, mulch heavily after the first frost and draw back the mulch in spring.
About Austin Tree Services
Austin Tree Services is a family-owned tree service with over 25-years of experience caring for the natural landscape of communities in Austin. Our goal is to provide exceptional tree service to all residential and commercial clients looking to maintain or improve the natural surroundings of their homes and businesses. We always use the SAFEST tree removal methods for your property's safety, to ensure efficiency, and to promote safety! We strive to save every tree we can, but sometimes tree removal is necessary.
For more information contact:
Austin Tree Services
5555 N Lamar Blvd #111
Austin TX 78751
512-982-4843
http://www.treeexpertsaustin.com/