3 Low-Maintenance Landscaping Tips for Busy Homeowners

A lush garden full of various different types of bright, vibrant flowers is nice to have for sure, but they’re also a lot of work to maintain–or so most people think.

If you’re a working professional or even just a stay-at-home parent who needs to juggle taking care of kids and managing the house, it can get quite overwhelming, and the last thing you need is a care-intensive landscape.

Well, the good news is that with the right strategies, you can actually drastically reduce the amount of maintenance needed for any garden, no matter how water-intensive it is.

Ready to find out how? Let’s begin.

1. Irrigation Systems

Watering your plants is going to be your most frequent maintenance task, which means it’s probably also going to be the most time-consuming task.

So by taking this task off your hands, or at least lightening the burden, you’ll find maintaining your garden much easier.

And all it takes is an irrigation system.

There are many kinds of irrigation systems you can get, from basic manually operated systems to highly advanced systems that can factor in rain levels and adjust their watering accordingly.

But even a simple basic irrigation system can significantly lighten your burden. You don’t need to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

Basic irrigation systems, like soaker hoses, can still cut down the amount of time and effort you need for watering by quite a bit, as all you have to do is turn the faucet on.

If you want to fully automate the process, as mentioned earlier, there are highly sophisticated systems that can completely take watering off your hands.

There are systems that allow you to control everything with your smartphone, and even split your garden into watering zones and adjust watering schedules accordingly.

These systems can even factor in local weather data to adjust their watering amounts and schedules as needed.

Of course they're going to cost more too, but if you're not prepared to go that far, fret not.

There are still affordable additional components you can add in to further reduce the amount of effort and time you spend on watering.

For example, you can install a timer that turns the faucet on and off at specific times so that you don't have to manually turn the faucet on and off.

2. Artificial Grass

Another task that needs to be performed often is lawn mowing.

Obviously, you can't automate lawn mowing and maintenance unless you pay someone to do it, but you can make smarter choices for minimal maintenance.

A lush, green lawn is often a staple in many people’s landscapes, so lawn mowing is a task that most people are going to have to perform regularly, not to mention the fertilizing and watering.

You can cut down on the frequency of lawn mowing by opting for slower-growing grasses, but even then, you'd still have to mow your lawn at least once every few months.

Mowing and watering are simply tasks you just can't run away from if you want a lush, green lawn–that is, unless you have an artificial turf.

An artificial turf requires very minimal maintenance besides the occasional rinse to clean off dirt and requires zero mowing and watering.

And you're not sacrificing much on aesthetics either. You could make the argument that there's value in real grass as that looks more natural, and it would be valid.

However, the difference in aesthetic value really isn't much. Artificial grass really can't be differentiated from actual grass unless you're looking up close, and even then, from an overall style and design perspective, there's barely any impact.

And considering how much maintenance you're cutting down on, many would agree that it's well worth the tradeoff.

So if you're looking to cut down on maintenance, artificial grass is going to be one of the best choices you can make.

3. Mulch

Finally, mulching reduces the amount of weeding and watering you need to do and even reduces the amount of plant disease occurrences.

A layer of mulch suppresses weeds by blocking the sunlight that weeds need to grow, thereby slowing the growth of weeds and leaving you less weeding to do.

The layer of mulch also helps keep moisture inside your soil, reducing the amount of watering required.

Over time, mulch breaks down, enriching your soil with organic material and helping produce stronger plants.

As a result, your plants will be more resilient and less vulnerable to diseases, which means you'll have fewer occurrences of plant diseases to deal with.

In short, mulching reduces the amount of weeding, watering, and diseases you have to deal with.

Stronger plants are also better able to withstand harsh conditions like heavy rain, dry weather, and even resist pests better.

This means by mulching and creating stronger plants, you also reduce the need for pesticides and your plants are less likely to deteriorate or even die during harsh weather.

This further reduces maintenance efforts on your end as you won't need to replace your plants as often, which can be a very tedious task, as it involves digging up dead plants, replanting, and then taking care of the new plants until they're fully grown.

Conclusion: Do You Need A Landscaper?

Just because you're busy and have lots of commitments doesn't mean you can't enjoy a luscious, beautiful garden.

With the right strategies, you’ll be able to considerably cut down on the time and effort required for your maintenance tasks, or even skip them completely.

Still, there are tasks like trimming, pruning, pest control, and so on that just can’t be automated with any kind of machine.

So if you’re really finding it hard-pressed to find time and energy to maintain your outdoor space, but you still want a beautiful, well-maintained garden year-round, landscaping companies like Boise Landscaping Company can take the load off your hands and free up your time and energy for your other commitments.

Obviously, it’s going to be additional costs, but if you really can’t find the time or energy to perform the maintenance itself, and don’t want to compromise on your landscape, engaging professionals is your only solution.