Low Maintenance Front Yard Landscaping

Hinda
by Hinda
4 Materials
$200
2 Days
Easy

My front yard is located up on a hill. I have a kind of beautiful landscape of mostly mulch, greenery, and flowers. The problem with mulch is that it's very high-maintenance. Every year, we have to refill the bald spots. Between buying, transporting, and lifting the mulch bags, it's just becoming overwhelming. Don't even get me started on the back pain or the wind blowing the mulch dust inside and outside the house...


Another issue was that the mulch was all around the base of the house and it caused a humidity problem inside the house, as it seems to have been letting the rain and snow penetrate throughout.


As you can see, I had many reasons to want to find an alternative, so I discovered river rocks. One scoop of the rocks solved the problem! It's beautiful, durable, and useful. It's a good way to prevent rain from seeping into the house. So, I removed all the mulch surrounding the house and replaced it with rocks.

This is the front before with the beds intact.


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I removed the mulch from all of the garden areas. It was very close to the walls and was creating lots of water, humidity, and dust.

I started by leveling the ground and removing the excess soil, then I laid down the landscaping fabric. Finally, I dumped the rocks and spread them evenly.


I then finished off the look by laying down 4 well-spaced concrete tiles and adding these...

...I added four planters over the tiles and planted evergreen plants to keep the green view all year-round.

I love the final look and it's so easy to maintain! Now my beds are clean and crisp, and I can keep them looking good without a lot of work or effort!

Suggested materials:
  • Rocks   (landscape shop)
  • Fabric   (home depot)
  • Planters   (big lots)
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 16 questions
  • Deanna Maidwell Deanna Maidwell on Apr 20, 2024

    I put down landscape fabric and rocks around my house, but keep getting creeping Charlie on one side, any ideas for this..? I’m super tired and was trying to get as maintenance-free as I could get…

  • Joan Joan on May 03, 2024

    How do you get keep or get the leaves out.


  • Jenny Jenny on May 04, 2024

    This is what I’ve called my “no gardening garden” because I got rid of all the flowerbeds and replaced everything with weed suppressant and gravel. It looks lovely and tidy, only the very tenacious weed dare to break through my defences and I can change the pots positioning and flowering whenever the mood takes me. I think yours looks lovely, could you put river rocks on the lower section in the plant gaps to match the top part?

Comments
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3 of 118 comments
  • Lonnie Lonnie on Jun 10, 2024

    Kudos to you. It looks sleek, clean & something i can do by myself. There are many artificial but realistic looking plants meant for outside with UV protection.

  • Dle101962021 Dle101962021 on Aug 10, 2024

    We will be basically doing the same thing to our front beds. However, we will use the white rock with some red stepping stones. Also, we will plant some low maintenance plants in some spaces. The photos are what we will be copying to a small degree.

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