Easy Maintenance
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For the ultimate in easy maintenance gardening,
this design removes all the turf grass and replaces it with native and drought
tolerant plants. A flagstone walk to the front door (top of the drawing) has an
enlarged area for a bistro-sized table and chairs. Tall grasses surround the
patio and blend down into a dry gravel 'stream bed' winding through the front
yard.
A narrow gravel path takes visitors around the
house to the back patio, also flagstone, and then into a looped path in the
back yard. Specimen granite and basalt boulders, covered in lichen dominate the
backyard landscape. A variety of perennials, grasses, evergreen
shrubs, and groundcovers wrap around another dry streambed winding through
the yard.
At first glance, this yard may seem like a
maintenance intensive place. Closer inspection would show that many of
these plants need very little attention after the first two to three years of growth.
Most maintenance would consist of one or two weekends of work in the spring
(two to three days) for pruning, shearing, spreading compost, and mulching, and
a day or so in the fall for clean up. The landscape can then be literally
left to its own devices for the rest of the year. Compare that to mowing
a lawn two to three times a week for 6 or 7 months, fertilizing twice a year,
aerating, pulling dandelions, and dethatching every spring.
Plant List:
1. Bar Harbor Juniper
2. Blue Oat Grass (Helictotichon)
3. Morning Light Miscanthus
4. Yarrow
5. Adagio Miscanthus
6. Pfitz Juniper (multiple varieties)
7. Pink Phlox or Rosy Pussytoes
8. Purple Penestemon
9. Kinnickinick
10. Juniper or Mugo Pine
11. Sage or Lavender
12. Oregon Grape
13. Viburnum
14. Elijah Blue Fescue
15. Daylilly
16. Karl Forester Feather Reed Grass
17. Savin Juniper
18. Purple Iris
19. Ajuga reptans
20. Pampas Grass
21. Purple Coneflower
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