Low maintenance, chemical free landscaping ideas

[raeoflyte]

I need my front yard to not look like crap. I'm not going to devote time to it every week. More like 3 times total for the summer. We also won't use round up, or commercial fertilizers.

About a 3rd of the yard is mulch, that we got for free from the city christmas tree recycling. It dried to a pretty orange-ish color, so I don't think I'll replace it. I also like it that its easy to pick weeds through (and we don't get too many of those with the mulch). Mulch is a pain in the fall though with leaves.

I'm thinking of putting in some rock over the rest of the yard since that will be easy to blow the leaves clean, but how tough is it to get weeds out of?

We will also be renting out this house in the next year, so we want it easy for tenants to keep up on.

Did I mention we need cheap and easy enough to do ourselves?

[Shooby]

  I think rock is a good solution.  Or even remove a good portion of the land scaping and just plant grass depending on how you think that would look.

[Spellbound454]

We dug up MILs front garden...lined it and tipped a load of decorative gravel on... into a geometric pattern
Its got raised beds to put her perennials in...  crazy paving areas.....and a decorative circle in the middle with slow growing dwarf conifer.

Just drew it out on a piece of graph paper....scaled it up and marked it out with spray.

Looks really smart and she does very little to keep it that way.


There is quite a lot you can do for low maintenance....just do a bit of research.

[midjd]

What does the rest of the yard look like now? Shade/sun?

My boss has a very shaded lot and almost no grass - his yard is almost all large hostas and ornamental grasses. It looks pretty nice and is very low-maintenance. But I don't think they do as well in full sun...

If you put down rock, I'd suggest some landscape fabric - once the weeds take root they are a devil to get rid of. We have about a 2' border of pea gravel around the house (I'm assuming it serves some drainage function) and have to use Round-Up every summer.

Paver stones are also nice, and pretty easy to DIY, but make sure you have plenty of gravel underneath or they'll start leveling at different speeds and look like crap after a few years. We have about a 6'x6' area out back where I believe the previous owners just set the pavers directly on top of the grass, and you can tell.

Something like this might work, you could make it large enough so that you just have to edge with a weedeater once a month or so (vs mowing): www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20588294,00.html

[raeoflyte]

I like grass, but haven't figured out how to make it look good without either a ton of time (hand weeding-which I spend my time doing in back) or chemical fertilizers... We are pretty terrible environmentalists these days, but that is one thing we haven't given up.

Spell-that sounds gorgeous. How long did it take you?

Mid-we have pretty full sun for most of the day. Part of the yard gets shade because we are years overdue to trim trees. :/ I do like pavers and did a sidewalk with some when we had to extend our gutters past the walkway in front. I will definitely take more time to do them next time. Redoing the sidewalk for sinking 3 times has cured me of a quick fix.

[Deleted]

We have a rock walkway & weeds grow between the rocks. They are hard to get out because a hoe tends to glance off the rocks & I'm not one to get down on my hands & knees to get them out (I do use roundup). Those weed pullers also won't work. Even if you put down the mesh & then the rocks dirt will get between the cracks & weeds grow. A couple of my neighbors have the all rock yards & I really have no idea how they deal with the weeds (I assume roundup but don't know). Also a couple of my neighbors have that fake grass (astro turf, I guess). That looks OK but it doesn't look real.

[Spellbound454]

Spell-that sounds gorgeous. How long did it take you?

It looked a bit like this (not the actual photo)......and took us 3 days with other relatives chipping in...
MIL is quite elderly so it suits her fine.

[Tennesseer]

Use up some of the front yard by creating a patio using colored concrete or gravel.  Design small islands of annuals and perennials, ornamental grasses, and/or potted plants for color and texture.  Weeds are inevitable.  You will have to deal with weeds one way or another.

[Gardening Grandma]

If you like the look of a lawn, you might consider wooly thyme as a ground cover.  I have it in my front yard (no lawn). Needs no chemicals, little water and never needs mowing.   Once established it forms a dense gray-green mat that few weeds get through.  Some do in early spring, but once I've pulled them, it is pretty much maintenance free the rest of the summer.  It becomes a bit more gray in the winter, but is still quite pretty.

Weeds will grow up through rock (even with landscape fabric) and it is really hard to pull them.  I have gravelled paths and even though we put down landscape fabric, weeds do come up and have to be pulled.  I wear knee pads and old overalls when doing that.

[kittensaver]

Where I live, one of the chain gardening centers offers landscaping and design services for $325. That's a three hour consultation with a professional designer that includes a home visit and consultation with the homeowner, a completely spec'd out landscape blueprint, and a $100 gift card to the Center. Purchasing plants/supplies and installation is of course more, but that's a tough price to beat for a professional design plan. Once you got some design help, you could always "run" with the plan yourself. Could you poke around your part of the world and see if one of your gardening centers offers something like this?

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2013 18:42:35 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

Where I live, one of the chain gardening centers offers landscaping and design services for $325. That's a three hour consultation with a professional designer that includes a home visit and consultation with the homeowner, a completely spec'd out landscape blueprint, and a $100 gift card to the Center. Purchasing plants/supplies and installation is of course more, but that's a tough price to beat for a professional design plan. Once you got some design help, you could always "run" with the plan yourself. Could you poke around your part of the world and see if one of your gardening centers offers something like this?

Kittensaver I would love something like that for me too. I probably will check into it before we are ready to spend money on our back yard. Great suggestion!!!

[chiver78]

Aug 4, 2013 14:15:58 GMT -5 midjd said:

What does the rest of the yard look like now? Shade/sun?

My boss has a very shaded lot and almost no grass - his yard is almost all large hostas and ornamental grasses. It looks pretty nice and is very low-maintenance. But I don't think they do as well in full sun...

If you put down rock, I'd suggest some landscape fabric - once the weeds take root they are a devil to get rid of. We have about a 2' border of pea gravel around the house (I'm assuming it serves some drainage function) and have to use Round-Up every summer.

Paver stones are also nice, and pretty easy to DIY, but make sure you have plenty of gravel underneath or they'll start leveling at different speeds and look like crap after a few years. We have about a 6'x6' area out back where I believe the previous owners just set the pavers directly on top of the grass, and you can tell.

Something like this might work, you could make it large enough so that you just have to edge with a weedeater once a month or so (vs mowing): www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/how-to/intro/0,,20588294,00.html

yes to the landscape fabric, if what you're talking about is the plastic you lay down underneath the rock. it's got small holes to allow water to seep down, but manages to keep the weeds and other growth to a minimum. best idea ever!

and for Mid's FYI - hostas can thrive pretty much anywhere....except my sandy back patio, it seems. I relocated a row of my dad's hostas to my back patio a few years ago, dad used to run them over with his lawn mower almost weekly and they were still doing okay. I've got a thin stretch of space between my foundation and cement patio pad, the ones that are planted toward the outside edge of the pad are doing fine. the ones that seem to be surrounded by cement, not so much.

[happyhoix]

Check with your local nursery for some fast growing, low form evergreens that do good in your area. Maybe some hollies. Around here, the city uses grey owl junipers that they plant along freeway embankments in mass plantings, if you plant them close enough they very quickly fill in and block out light to the weeds.

I've planted one of my embankments with them but I didn't plant them all that close, so I've still got weeds between them, darn it. Hopefully in a few years they'll fill in.

[formerroomate99]

What you need to do is find someone who knows what grows well in your area and find an 'attractive weed' that will take over and choke out everything else. 

I second those who say that the fabric with rocks over it isn't as great as you think.  Between the fabric breaking down and dust blowing over the top of the rocks, those type of setups all eventually end up being taken over by weeds.  I suppose you could pay to periodically replace the rocks and fabric, but that will be a big expensive job. 

[Pants]

rae - consider some decorative grasses native to CO. if you can create a sort of native landscape it will be very low maintenance.

[greenstone]

Just a word of caution about using gravel.  Double check with your city/county if it's allowed.

Where I am, it is against city ordinance to have gravel yards.  The landscape fabric/plastic slows down water absorption leading to runoff and exacerbates flooding issues during heavy rains.

[raeoflyte]

Aug 4, 2013 18:27:10 GMT -5 Gardening Grandma said:

If you like the look of a lawn, you might consider wooly thyme as a ground cover.  I have it in my front yard (no lawn). Needs no chemicals, little water and never needs mowing.   Once established it forms a dense gray-green mat that few weeds get through.  Some do in early spring, but once I've pulled them, it is pretty much maintenance free the rest of the summer.  It becomes a bit more gray in the winter, but is still quite pretty.

Weeds will grow up through rock (even with landscape fabric) and it is really hard to pull them.  I have gravelled paths and even though we put down landscape fabric, weeds do come up and have to be pulled.  I wear knee pads and old overalls when doing that.

I really like the look of that, and it says its good in dry climates....  I think I'll have to look into that more.  I've tried clover a couple times now, but it needs quite a bit of water in this climate.  

Thanks for the idea!  

[raeoflyte]

Aug 5, 2013 11:14:03 GMT -5 Pants said:

rae - consider some decorative grasses native to CO. if you can create a sort of native landscape it will be very low maintenance.

This would be ideal, I just haven't found it yet.  My parents planted 'Gramma Grass' but if it doesn't get regular water it is the ugliest straw looking stuff around.  They've done some hydro-seeding though on the rentals for hard to mow areas.  I should see if any of those survived the tenants.  If they did, surely I wouldn't kill them.  

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2013 15:28:14 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

We have a rock walkway & weeds grow between the rocks. They are hard to get out because a hoe tends to glance off the rocks & I'm not one to get down on my hands & knees to get them out (I do use roundup). Those weed pullers also won't work. Even if you put down the mesh & then the rocks dirt will get between the cracks & weeds grow.

We have a lot of flower beds mulched with gravel and I hate the stuff. Our place is 30 years old so we're dealing with the weeds coming up and they're impossible to pull because there's enough rock left to make it hard to get at the roots. Of course you can pile in more of them but that's just postponing the problems again.

DH and I are thinking of a stamped cement walkway up to the front, which would cover a major portion of the problem area, and then flower beds on either side. Gotta talk to the HOA, though.

[Deleted]

Aug 4, 2013 13:47:25 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I need my front yard to not look like crap. I'm not going to devote time to it every week. More like 3 times total for the summer. We also won't use round up, or commercial fertilizers.

About a 3rd of the yard is mulch, that we got for free from the city christmas tree recycling. It dried to a pretty orange-ish color, so I don't think I'll replace it. I also like it that its easy to pick weeds through (and we don't get too many of those with the mulch). Mulch is a pain in the fall though with leaves.

I'm thinking of putting in some rock over the rest of the yard since that will be easy to blow the leaves clean, but how tough is it to get weeds out of?

We will also be renting out this house in the next year, so we want it easy for tenants to keep up on.

Did I mention we need cheap and easy enough to do ourselves?

Sadly Raeoflyte I think the bold statement kind of cancel out each other. I think that if there was an easy, cheap, non chemical, fix for weeds we would all know about it because that's all that everyone would use.

I would also point out that there's cheap & there's cheap. Of course pulling weeds is the cheapest way if you value your time as free. On the other hand bending down pulling weeds just might screw up your back & that could cost a lot more than something like round up. It's all the way you look at it.

[Tennesseer]

As long as you don't have a lot of weeds mixed in with lawn grass or flower beds, vinegar is a good natural weed killer.  It may take several applications to get rid of the weeds, it will do the trick.  Vinegar will damage grass and plants if you don' apply it carefully.  It's the acid in the vinegar that does the trick.

[raeoflyte]

Aug 6, 2013 9:40:52 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

As long as you don't have a lot of weeds mixed in with lawn grass or flower beds, vinegar is a good natural weed killer.  It may take several applications to get rid of the weeds, it will do the trick.  Vinegar will damage grass and plants if you don' apply it carefully.  It's the acid in the vinegar that does the trick.

Do you just pour vinegar straight?  I tried that a few years ago without a lot of luck, but I only tried it once. 

I have friends that actually salted their front corner lawn.  That stayed weed free, but... I'm not sure I want to got that far either.  

[Chocolate Lover]

Easy cheap non chemical fix for weeds: vinegar


You have to not care about surrounding vegetation because it'll take out everything nearby. I killed a couple of huge dandelions, and the grass around them, with it.  So it's a great solution for weeds in rocks and cracks of sidewalks  



ETA: I should have read the last 3 posts  But yes, straight vinegar right to the weed. I only had to do it once for the dandelions....

[raeoflyte]

Aug 6, 2013 8:22:02 GMT -5 @oldtex said:

Aug 4, 2013 13:47:25 GMT -5 raeoflyte said:

I need my front yard to not look like crap. I'm not going to devote time to it every week. More like 3 times total for the summer. We also won't use round up, or commercial fertilizers.

About a 3rd of the yard is mulch, that we got for free from the city christmas tree recycling. It dried to a pretty orange-ish color, so I don't think I'll replace it. I also like it that its easy to pick weeds through (and we don't get too many of those with the mulch). Mulch is a pain in the fall though with leaves.

I'm thinking of putting in some rock over the rest of the yard since that will be easy to blow the leaves clean, but how tough is it to get weeds out of?

We will also be renting out this house in the next year, so we want it easy for tenants to keep up on.

Did I mention we need cheap and easy enough to do ourselves?

Sadly Raeoflyte I think the bold statement kind of cancel out each other. I think that if there was an easy, cheap, non chemical, fix for weeds we would all know about it because that's all that everyone would use.

I would also point out that there's cheap & there's cheap. Of course pulling weeds is the cheapest way if you value your time as free. On the other hand bending down pulling weeds just might screw up your back & that could cost a lot more than something like round up. It's all the way you look at it.

Yep, I think you all have convinced me to stay away from rock. I'm sure it would look nice to start, but there are a lot of weedy looking rock gardens around and I don't want that either.


What I'm kind of thinking now is to expand my sidewalk into a patio type area over one quarter of the yard with the cheap paving stones and plant the woolly thyme that GG posted about in between them. Our driveway is just barely big enough for 2 cars so loading and unloading puts us on the yard and that would keep everything cleaner if we weren't walking on the mulch then.

Still trying to decide about the rest of the yard. I'm going to see if my parents have had any luck with the hydro-seeding of supposedly natural Colorado grasses at the rentals. If they do, then I'll do that and add in my own clover, yarrow, and maybe more woolly thyme seeds so that we can hopefully have a pretty thick varied turf that can choke out weeds without a ton of water.

[raeoflyte]

Aug 6, 2013 10:13:50 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Easy cheap non chemical fix for weeds: vinegar


You have to not care about surrounding vegetation because it'll take out everything nearby. I killed a couple of huge dandelions, and the grass around them, with it.  So it's a great solution for weeds in rocks and cracks of sidewalks  



ETA: I should have read the last 3 posts  But yes, straight vinegar right to the weed. I only had to do it once for the dandelions....

Awesome--thanks!

[Tennesseer]

As opposed to spraying the weeds with vinegar, use a small paint brush to 'paint' the vinegar onto the weeds.


I wouldn't salt/rock salt anything.  Not only would it kill the weeds but probably stop most things from growing there.

[Tennesseer]

raeoflyte-there are salt tolerant plants if you decide to go that route.  Research plants that grow along the sea shore and exposed to salt spray during ocean storms.