Designing A Low Maintenance Landscape
by Dr. Robert Black, Consumer Horticultural Specialist

One of the most important aspects to consider in landscape design is maintenance. Advanced planning can result in an attractive, functional landscape that requires minimum maintenance.

The first rule to remember is to keep the design simple. Useless curves, odd-shaped flower beds and hedges only add to confusion and to maintenance work. Avoid a scattered arrangement of beds, shrubs, trees and garden features. Every object if the garden should have some reason for being there.

Group plants with similar water requirements in the same bed. In this way beds containing plants with high water requirements can be watered without having to water the entire landscape. It is also advisable to have an irrigation system with separate zones for beds and grass. The grass areas, which have a high water requirement, can be watered separately from the shrub and tree beds.

The choice of plant material will definitely affect the maintenance work. Plants should be selected that are suited to the environmental conditions on the site. Conduct a site analysis to determine light characteristics of the planting site. Light characteristics of a planting site can vary from direct sun all day to dense shade. Ornamental plants can be selected which will grow in almost any sun or shade level around the home. Other planting site characteristics that should be considered before selecting plants are salt spray, exposure, water drainage, and soil type and pH.

Try to choose some of the slow growing and dwarf type shrubs, particularly for small properties because shrub pruning can become quite a job. Dwarf yaupon, Indian hawthorn and azaleas are some shrubs, which require a minimum of pruning.
A walkway that is flush with the ground with no edging material is much easier to maintain than one that has a flower border or some other low-edging material.

More maintenance is required for flowers on a square foot basis than for any other plant in the garden. However, flowers are usually the most desired plant in the landscape because of their color. Select flowering plants such as daylilies that have minimum maintenance requirements.

Flower beds can be edged with bricks or flat stones that are sunk into the ground to allow a tract for the lawn mower wheels. Grass in a flower bed is a nuisance, especially the running grasses such as Bermuda andSt. Augustine.

Mulch will help keep down weed growth, conserve moisture and save work. Mulch also prevents soil packing and crusting, moderates soil temperatures and improves the appearance of the landscape. Mulches can be organic materials such pine bark, compost, and woodchips, or inorganic materials, such as lava rock, gravel, limestone, or woven plastic.

It is very easy to take in too much lawn area, especially for home gardeners in rural areas. Never overextend your capabilities. A small, well-kept lawn is much better than acres of weeds. A large portion of a large front yard could be planted in trees.

Design and plant your yard to be enjoyed, and not to be a continuous job of pruning, watering, spraying, mowing and weed pulling.