Low maintenance landscaping for Calgary
For homeowners brooding over what to do with your front and back yard can raise a dilemma making one dimly piecing together one idea after another and consequently crafting a landscape that is demanding in terms of watering, mowing, raking, pruning and fertilizing after few seasons. Hence, making what was earlier anticipated as affordable and time costly ending up requiring high maintenance. To avoid such situation, homeowners are advised to plan low maintenance landscaping ahead of time and of course seek professional opinions from landscape designers in Calgary with the idea of minimizing maintenance.
There are also tips and trick to ease your yard chores and save you some time from making a lot of changes to a once beautiful landscape. Here are some of them:
When planning your yardsmart yard, Choose water wise drought tolerant plants. There are a number of native annual and perennial plants and flowersto choose from that grow well in Calgary. They are hardy to Calgary’s harsh winter climate and they typically require much less water than plants that aren’t native to Calgary.
Ornamental grasses like Karl Foerster grass is a great species to plant. Many ornamental grasses are very drought resistant so therefore they require far less watering. Pruning your Karl Foerster feather reed grass is very simple and the beautiful winter stalks look great.
Plant shrubs instead of perennials
Perennials require a lot of maintenance. They need to be cut back annually to allow for the new growth. Perennials are often spreading and a simple small plant can overtake your gardens in no time. This leaves you with an overgrown garden that does not look good. You will end up fighting to keep your beds trim and tidy if you plant many perennials. Shrubs are a better option for those who want a low maintenance landscape. Low maintenance landscaping for Calgary means plant more shrubs and less perennials. Shrubs will eventually require pruning but they won’t require this on an annual basis. They are like trees in the sense that their branches are still alive during winter and in spring they well sprout new leaves and growth. Shrubs are often not as colourful as perennials but there are still many great looking shrubs that have beautiful spring, summer and fall colour. As well, many shrubs have great looking flowers.
More hardscaping equals less maintenance
Hardscaping like patios and walkways made with paving stones or concrete can greatly reduce the maintenance required around your front and back yard. Some of our customers choose to have larger patios and less green space because they don’t want the hassle of maintaining garden beds. In fact we have done several projects where the entire back yard was paving stones or poured concrete. You can still add colour and soften the look by placing planters with annual plants on your patio. Hardscaping is often the most costly party of landscaping so if you are landscaping on a budget then you may want to consider other options. One option is to used crushed decorative rock instead of hard patio surfaces.
Add a weed barrier and topping to your garden beds
If you don’t want to spend your summer weeding and you have garden beds then you will want to add a weed barrier and topping around your shrubs and trees. A weed barrier will greatly reduce the amount of weeds you have. This will not totally eliminate the weeds but you will be weeding a lot less than if you did not have the weed barrier installed. On top of the weed barrier you can add a decorative topping like wood or bark mulch. Mulch will help retain moisture and it will also aid in reducing your weed problem. You can choose from many great options when it comes to wood mulch. Including cedar mulch, black mulch, alpine mulch or bark nuggets. Decorative stone is another great option for your garden beds. Decorative rock will not requiring topping up like mulch will. It will also not fade in colour. It is more expensive than mulch but in the longer term it will save you money. Crushed 20mm rundle rock is our most popular decorative rock but there are many other options such as Montana rainbow rock, tan rock, lava rock and many others.
Mowing pavers mean no trimming
Installing mowing pavers around your garden beds is a great way to eliminate trimming grass up against garden walls or vinyl edging. Mowing pavers define your garden borders very well and they really add curb appeal to your yard. If you choose to have a raised garden wall installed you should install mowing pavers in front of the garden wall to assisting in mowing and reduce trimming grass up against the wall. There is a wide variety of great looking mowing pavers you can choose from. The style and colour options are endless.
Prune your shrubs
Just like shaggy hair that may start looking likable but in real sense they are pathetically shaggy, with time old shrubs in your compound would grow to become overgrown and disheveled leaving an unattractive scene on your yard.
To best handle this, while still minimizing your maintenance, try pruning them. Don’t be afraid to trim them as much as you can. This will eventually rejuvenate their growth to look very new with fresh leaves. In Calgary, many homeowners prune their shrubs in fall or spring and there are many options for planting trees and shrubs you can grow at your own backyard that would need little to no clipping.
Try water irrigation systems
This may seem exorbitant at first and time costly when you consider installation but in real sense it’s not. In fact, it is as cheap as purchasing PVC pipes and piercing small holes along their lengths. An inventive DIY you can try! And once you figure out where to place them in your garden, you are just turning-your-faucet away from watering your compound without lifting an inch.
When temperatures rise in Calgary, you won’t need to worry about lawn or garden looking dry because your nifty water irrigation system will have you covered.
Following these tips will make you enjoy working outdoors especially when you pick the plant and materials you like. Embrace nature even with the few time you have on your hands employing these low maintenance landscaping ideas in Calgary.