Lawns and gardens take a lot of work to maintain. You must plant the plants you want, trim them, water them, rake leaves, and remove them if they die in the bitter winter.
It doesn’t have to be hard when looking for low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota. If you can plan a little and put some thought into the design of your lawn, you can have a beautiful landscape without lifting a finger.
What Is “Low Maintenance”?
Low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota means you’ll never have to water your plants, weed as much, or just put as much effort into gardening as you would with high-maintenance plants and features. With the world growing busier by the minute and an ever-growing list of chores, it can be a great way to reduce your workload to make more time for yourself.
Because while some people enjoy weeding and caring for plants, to others, it’s just another checkmark on a tiring list to keep your house in shape. When learning about low maintenance landscaping ideas in Minnesota, you should do less for both your plants and landscape but keep it looking good, even with not as much effort.
Ideas for Low Maintenance Landscaping in Minnesota
From getting the most out of your plants to reducing the lawn you have to mow regularly, you can start reducing your gardening workload today by simply deciding what plants are worth your time and which you need to replace with plants that can care for themselves.
Hardscaping
You can consider hardscaping regarding Minnesota landscaping ideas, which is landscaping but with hard surfaces. It entails creating fun outdoor spaces covered with stone or other hard materials that don’t require nearly as much work as living plants.
A patio, pool, picnic area, or anywhere you replace the grass with concrete is a place you don’t have to mow, fertilize, or water. You can still keep the space green with potted plants that are much easier to care for than garden beds.
Check Your Plants
When looking for low maintenance landscaping ideas in Minnesota, you should learn what plants work in your climate and the best places for them in your yard. Also, investing a little time into learning what plants need sun and shade will keep you from digging up dead plants later.
Specifically for low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota, you should also know what plants can handle cold temperatures and frost and cannot plan your planting accordingly.
Native Plants
When considering low maintenance landscaping ideas in Minnesota, native plants are nearly always superior to foreign plants. They’re designed to survive and care for themselves in the cold Minnesotan climate. Plants like red maples, American cranberry bushes, and wild geranium thrive in Minnesota, so you’ll hardly ever have to care for them.
And not only are the plants easy to care for, but they’re also good for the environment! Planting native plants help local ecosystems and animals survive and thrive.
Evergreen Trees
When looking for Minnesota landscaping ideas, consider deciduous trees because they are beautiful in the fall. Then you must rake nine or ten bags of leaves until the last leaf falls. Evergreen trees don’t have that problem.
Not only do evergreen trees look and smell great, but they are also perfect for low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota. They make a great pop of color and will stay nice and green, even in the winter.
Perennials
There are two types of plants – perennials and annuals. Annuals are the flowers you plant. They wither up, go to seed, and die. Perennials do the same things, except they come back year after year.
If you plant the right flowers, you can have flowering plants all year long without a single trip to the gardening store just by taking advantage of perennials that come back to life every spring.
You can pull a similar trick with annuals. Pick annuals that go to seed and grow many flowers in the same place next year. You have to let them go to seed and drop them onto the ground, where they’ll grow again next year.
Rock Gardens, Beds, and More
For more low maintenance landscaping ideas in Minnesota, you should consider using rock. Rocks last forever, generate fewer weeds, and are much more low maintenance than any plant.
Rocks are becoming a standard feature of low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota, as they provide exciting areas and ground cover with virtually none of the work plants require.
You can also plant some easygoing, rock-loving plants that are low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota just to spruce things up a little while keeping your yard work to a minimum. If you want to show your MN pride, use some Lake Superior agate to add color and interest to your yard.
Water Features: But No Fish
For Minnesota landscaping ideas, Water features can be a great addition to any yard, but you’ll want to skip the fish. Fish require tons of work unless you’re looking to create an entire ecosystem (which is astronomically expensive and will still take regular maintenance).
While fish are beautiful, they’re expensive to maintain, take a lot of time and energy, and are frequently eaten by the local wildlife. So for your low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota, go with a tasteful rock waterfall instead.
Let Nature Do the Work For You
Considering low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota, the best lawns use the natural environment to maintain order and life. Native plants are just one aspect of this philosophy. When designing your yard, you should always try to bend with nature rather than against it.
If deer frequently come to your lawn and eat your plants, rather than installing a fence or deer scare, consider growing some plants they like to eat and make them a part of your view. Likewise, if you have a problem with birds eating seeds, install a bird feeder away from the area they like to eat.
For your low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota, consider how your lawn’s unique natural features can work to your benefit to turn an area where water likes to pool into a natural pond area that all the birds frequent in your neighborhood.
Work With Your Landscape: Not Against It
For Minnesota landscaping ideas, there are some things you simply can’t change about your yard. How hills slope, Stumps that are too ingrained to remove, and old structures that have seen better days. But you can always turn them into something positive.
Put rocks on the hills to create an exciting scene, make stumps into fairy gardens complete with tiny structures, and attract owls, woodpeckers, and other exciting birds with an old barn or shed.
No-Effort Ground Cover
An easy way to cut down on yard work is to replace your rapid-growing grass with a ground cover that stays low and requires no maintenance, like moss, low-spreading flowers, or even fake grass.
Take It Easy: Ideas for Low Maintenance Landscaping in Minnesota With Minimal Effort
When looking for low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota, a beautiful yard doesn’t have to take every spare moment you have. It just takes a little planning and a splash of ingenuity to turn a negative into a positive and make an effort to work with nature rather than attempting something that definitely won’t fly in this hardiness zone.
Minnesota is a beautiful state, but it’s cold in the winter and hot in the summer, so take your time to figure out what plants and features will work and which won’t. Contact us today if you need more ideas for your low maintenance landscaping in Minnesota.