If you wanted to convert your back yard to maintenance free, any suggestions on planning it?
- Thread starter Craig234
- Start date
herm0016
Diamond Member
- Feb 26, 2005
- 8,393
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deep thought. hiring someone...
do you want to give us any more information?
our current house is an acre and was a total mess when we bought it. we now have 100s of low water use pereneals, a desert garden and 3200 sqfeet of vegetable garden with a 10x20 greenhouse. i have put down about 50 yards of mulch. getting rid of about half of our total grass area.
do you want to give us any more information?
our current house is an acre and was a total mess when we bought it. we now have 100s of low water use pereneals, a desert garden and 3200 sqfeet of vegetable garden with a 10x20 greenhouse. i have put down about 50 yards of mulch. getting rid of about half of our total grass area.
Gardener
Senior member
- Nov 22, 1999
- 758
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While there are lower maintenance forms of landscaping, the phrase is often used as marketing hype. One example is watching people in Seattle tear out their lawns and plant perennial gardens, a concept pushed by the nursery industry since the 1990's. Then follows a honeymoon period of 1-2 years, while the area is taken over by weeds, looks like hell, and either slowly reverts to lawn or they spend more money to get it completely renovated, followed by another, shorter honeymoon, rinse, repeat.
Or they go mulch crazy, which is its own form of a kicking the can down the road. Mulch piled up against the base of plants, burying the root balls, spilling onto the walks, piled up against the siding of the house.
For me, low maintenance is letting my grass go dormant during the summer. On a large property it would be using natives, and creating a multi-tiered canopy of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that keep out weeds. Shade is your friend against weeds. Lawns are relatively easy to maintain, if you cut them high. Weed your beds 1-2x per month.
Or they go mulch crazy, which is its own form of a kicking the can down the road. Mulch piled up against the base of plants, burying the root balls, spilling onto the walks, piled up against the siding of the house.
For me, low maintenance is letting my grass go dormant during the summer. On a large property it would be using natives, and creating a multi-tiered canopy of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers that keep out weeds. Shade is your friend against weeds. Lawns are relatively easy to maintain, if you cut them high. Weed your beds 1-2x per month.
deadlyapp
Diamond Member
- Apr 25, 2004
- 6,587
- 702
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If you want to do it yourself, or at least give a stab at planning it - the first thing to do is to map out your current space. Go out with a tape measure and a piece of paper - draw everything out, lay out your irrigation and plumbing fixtures, if there are any, lay out your walkways, your entrances, etc.
From there, I'd look at concepts. There are tons of concepts out there in home and garden magazines, pinterest, other home and garden websites. Come up with a few that you like, see if they'd work in your space, what type of changes you'd need to make.
Once you have it laid out - which is the fun part - you can start pricing it up. You can use home depot or lowes pricing for a high estimate, but usually can save a ton if you go to actual landscape companies - especially for buying mulch, landscape rock, and plants. If you plan on doing irrigation, either get a reputable quote from several companies, or price it out from home depot - you probably won't be buying enough to save a lot through an actual irrigation company.
Finally - the hardest part - actually implementing it. If the job is very large, look at hiring a company to do it, or breaking it into bite sized pieces to implement over time. Don't try to start on the entire project at once - you'll never finish.
I'm basically going through this same process right now. I had a concept, bought some material, and have been laying it out and working on it slowly. I'm getting rid of about half my grass in my backyard by extending my patio, adding a walkway and a little sitting area, and then adding a small raised bed garden. My project has become a lot more significant since I've discovered some irrigation piping that needed to be removed, my yard is totally ruined by roots, and it's like 100 degrees every weekend I work on it.
To tie into what @Gardener said - when people say "low effort" landscaping, you generally have to assume it's mostly just less "watering". Even if you lay down a ton of landscape fabric / weed stop, you're still going to get weeds, you'll still need to re-mulch every 6-12 mo, you'll still need to put down insect control, weed control, etc, you'll still need to add filler rock every so often as things break down. Just recognize that.
From there, I'd look at concepts. There are tons of concepts out there in home and garden magazines, pinterest, other home and garden websites. Come up with a few that you like, see if they'd work in your space, what type of changes you'd need to make.
Once you have it laid out - which is the fun part - you can start pricing it up. You can use home depot or lowes pricing for a high estimate, but usually can save a ton if you go to actual landscape companies - especially for buying mulch, landscape rock, and plants. If you plan on doing irrigation, either get a reputable quote from several companies, or price it out from home depot - you probably won't be buying enough to save a lot through an actual irrigation company.
Finally - the hardest part - actually implementing it. If the job is very large, look at hiring a company to do it, or breaking it into bite sized pieces to implement over time. Don't try to start on the entire project at once - you'll never finish.
I'm basically going through this same process right now. I had a concept, bought some material, and have been laying it out and working on it slowly. I'm getting rid of about half my grass in my backyard by extending my patio, adding a walkway and a little sitting area, and then adding a small raised bed garden. My project has become a lot more significant since I've discovered some irrigation piping that needed to be removed, my yard is totally ruined by roots, and it's like 100 degrees every weekend I work on it.
To tie into what @Gardener said - when people say "low effort" landscaping, you generally have to assume it's mostly just less "watering". Even if you lay down a ton of landscape fabric / weed stop, you're still going to get weeds, you'll still need to re-mulch every 6-12 mo, you'll still need to put down insect control, weed control, etc, you'll still need to add filler rock every so often as things break down. Just recognize that.
Murloc
Diamond Member
- Jun 24, 2008
- 5,382
- 65
- 91
I don't know about your climate, but where I live maintenance free would mean not having to pull weeds or mow grass. That would mean having a forest on it. Not really a solution.
A larger hard patio area helps because it doesn't matter as much if the lawn is not perfect or is kept tall as you don't actually have to use it, and it reduces lawn area.
In my family's garden there is a huge evergreen tree and the shade below it is self-mulched through continuous leaf replacement, not much grows there and it's all very slow because of the shade. Along the edge of its shadow, shurbs like azaleas, blueberries and hydrangeas that like the shadow cover a lot of ground (so no weed and very limited watering needs) and are nice to look at.
A pond also further reduces lawn and it's self-managing, it has green water so it's not like a youtube koi pond, but it doesn't smell despite the turtle shit and the koi somehow manage to thrive in it. There is iris all around it, I think that helps with the aeration.
Gardens with plants surrounded by mulch or pebbles just look fake to me and it's just a matter of time before pioneer plants push through.
Flower beds or raised vegetable beds fill with weeds so they make sense if you want to actively work them imho. A dangerous option if you're not 100% positive you can seal it from the surrounding earth, is bamboo. That just covers everything.
These guys seem to know how to control it: http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier installation.htm
These are my unprofessional 2 cents.
A larger hard patio area helps because it doesn't matter as much if the lawn is not perfect or is kept tall as you don't actually have to use it, and it reduces lawn area.
In my family's garden there is a huge evergreen tree and the shade below it is self-mulched through continuous leaf replacement, not much grows there and it's all very slow because of the shade. Along the edge of its shadow, shurbs like azaleas, blueberries and hydrangeas that like the shadow cover a lot of ground (so no weed and very limited watering needs) and are nice to look at.
A pond also further reduces lawn and it's self-managing, it has green water so it's not like a youtube koi pond, but it doesn't smell despite the turtle shit and the koi somehow manage to thrive in it. There is iris all around it, I think that helps with the aeration.
Gardens with plants surrounded by mulch or pebbles just look fake to me and it's just a matter of time before pioneer plants push through.
Flower beds or raised vegetable beds fill with weeds so they make sense if you want to actively work them imho. A dangerous option if you're not 100% positive you can seal it from the surrounding earth, is bamboo. That just covers everything.
These guys seem to know how to control it: http://www.bamboogarden.com/barrier installation.htm
These are my unprofessional 2 cents.
Last edited:
mindless1
Diamond Member
- Aug 11, 2001
- 8,058
- 1,445
- 126
Scarpozzi
Lifer
- Jun 13, 2000
- 26,389
- 1,778
- 126
My wife started hitting up Lowe's and the local garden shops towards the end of the season to buy everything at 75% off. She did that last season and got a ton of perennials for a few thousand dollars. We've got 3/4 of an acre and live on a corner of a side street and a cul-de-sac, so we have lots of road frontage.
She put rough-cut pavestones around beds and established clean lines to trim and mow....then layered the landscaping. I got out my Willie Nelson CD, a cold can of Coors, and a logging chain....attached it to my F150 and ripped out the existing shrubs/bushes. She went back through and planted a bunch of cheap(due to discount), low-maintenance bulbs/shrubs.
This is not particularly low-maintenance because the initial investment requires multiple weekends to set up, but what it's done is increased the value of our home, substantially. I don't know how to emphasize that in a way others can understand, but it's night and day when you look at overgrown bushes and replace them with a flower garden and a variety of healthy trees.
I agree with Gardener. Even if your yard is ONLY grass, you're going to have invasive species of crab grass and weeds infiltrate your lawn. It will take biweekly maintenance to keep that in-check or it will eventually look worse and worse. I don't live in a neighborhood with HOA, but that's why people often deal with that nonsense....so they can guarantee they don't get stuck with a neighbor that doesn't do upkeep on the visible portions of their property.
She put rough-cut pavestones around beds and established clean lines to trim and mow....then layered the landscaping. I got out my Willie Nelson CD, a cold can of Coors, and a logging chain....attached it to my F150 and ripped out the existing shrubs/bushes. She went back through and planted a bunch of cheap(due to discount), low-maintenance bulbs/shrubs.
This is not particularly low-maintenance because the initial investment requires multiple weekends to set up, but what it's done is increased the value of our home, substantially. I don't know how to emphasize that in a way others can understand, but it's night and day when you look at overgrown bushes and replace them with a flower garden and a variety of healthy trees.
I agree with Gardener. Even if your yard is ONLY grass, you're going to have invasive species of crab grass and weeds infiltrate your lawn. It will take biweekly maintenance to keep that in-check or it will eventually look worse and worse. I don't live in a neighborhood with HOA, but that's why people often deal with that nonsense....so they can guarantee they don't get stuck with a neighbor that doesn't do upkeep on the visible portions of their property.
Concrete really is the only zero maintenance yard. Low maintenance is achievable at reasonable cost. I did my yard with drought resistant plants, commercial grade weed guard, drip watering and mulch. It looks great, requires a day of yard work every few months. The only issue I had was that I went a little nuts on soil amendments, and the first couple of years everything grew at an alarming rate.
Scarpozzi
Lifer
- Jun 13, 2000
- 26,389
- 1,778
- 126
WRONG! You still need to spray concrete with round up!
Edit: Gotta post this so you understand my tone a little better..
Scarpozzi
Lifer
- Jun 13, 2000
- 26,389
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I heard someone say that these are easily stolen. Just something to consider if you schedule it for times when you're not home.
Scarpozzi
Lifer
- Jun 13, 2000
- 26,389
- 1,778
- 126
then why are you worried about someone stealing the robot lawn mower in your back yard? i have a very large fence / locks / trellis ontop the fence to see if anyone has attempted to jump over. Plus cameras / alarms but no robot lawn mower yet
Scarpozzi
Lifer
- Jun 13, 2000
- 26,389
- 1,778
- 126
I have too many zones and obstructions in my yard with all of the gardens. With a fast 42" yard tractor, it takes over 30 mins for my main yard. My other properties have varying terrain and a lake to deal with. I wouldn't trust anything electric with either of those jobs.then why are you worried about someone stealing the robot lawn mower in your back yard? i have a very large fence / locks / trellis ontop the fence to see if anyone has attempted to jump over. Plus cameras / alarms but no robot lawn mower yet
What about people with front yards?then why are you worried about someone stealing the robot lawn mower in your back yard? i have a very large fence / locks / trellis ontop the fence to see if anyone has attempted to jump over. Plus cameras / alarms but no robot lawn mower yet
people with front yards should make their own thread since this is a backyard zero maintenance thread right?
Scarpozzi
Lifer
- Jun 13, 2000
- 26,389
- 1,778
- 126
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
- 95,020
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lol no. I am just going for least maintenance. paving over the whole yard with concrete will cause issue with drainage.
sdifox
No Lifer
- Sep 30, 2005
- 95,020
- 15,134
- 126
My bad. I often forget that some people (for some unknown reason) live in frozen waste lands.
Around here, we get a half inch of snow every two or three decades. Everyone jumps in their cars so they can go crash into each other, or run over pedestrians that are so bundled up they can barley move.
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