How To Have A Thriving Yard With Minimal Effort

By ​Sian Thompson

It’s great to have a lush, green yard, but not everyone has the time to maintain it, let alone the patience, and that can be a problem. After all, if you want something that looks perfect, you’ve surely got to spend a lot of time making it happen and taking care of it, haven’t you? 
 
Well, in some cases, yes, and if that’s what you enjoy, go ahead. But if you don’t have the time or the green thumbs needed, you can still have a thriving yard with minimal effort - keep reading if you want to learn how. ​

Woman gardening (Jane Thomson) pexels

Choose Low-Maintenance Plants 

If your yard is full of plants that need constant attention, you’re just setting yourself up for the stress of taking care of it, and soon enough, if you run out of time or lose motivation, what could have been a nice-looking yard will look awful. So instead of all that, it’s better to opt for hardy, low-maintenance options that can manage quite well if they’re left alone for a while. You’ll still need to do some work, just not as much as with other, more needy plants. 

Native plants are a great choice because they’re already adapted to your local climate, meaning they need less watering, less fertilizing, and that’s less work for you in the long run. You could go for things like drought-resistant perennials like lavender, sedum, and ornamental grasses for example - they can keep going even if they’ve been ignored for days or weeks in some cases. And if you want some effortless greenery, you can plant some evergreen shrubs which are so easy to take care of and which also keep your yard looking green and lush all year round.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

A gorgeous lawn is the centerpiece of any yard, and the great news is that you don’t have to constantly look after yours to make it look fantastic. The trick is to treat your grass in the right way, and for the most part, it’ll just take care of itself (although you’ll still need to mow it, of course - that’s one job that’s got to be on your to-do list). 

One of the biggest mistakes people make when it comes to their lawn is to overwater it, thinking that’s going to keep it alive and looking good. However, you really don’t need to water your grass every day - in fact, it’s far better to do it once or twice a week, but to make sure you’re giving it a deep water at that time because that’ll get down to the roots and your lawn will look a lot healthier. 

Something else to invest in to make your lawn look amazing is a lawn dethatcher. Over time, grass clippings, dead roots, and various other bits and pieces of general debris build up at the base of your lawn, and that means water gets blocked, so your grass doesn’t get the nutrients it needs. If you use a lawn dethatcher, you can clear all that out and let your grass breathe and get stronger, with hardly any effort involved at all. 

Finally, we’ve got to talk about mowing. As we’ve said, it’s essential, but how you do it can make a big difference. You should always keep your mower blades nice and high because cutting the grass too short makes it weak. So even if your lawn is a little longer than you’re used to, it’ll be healthier and look better, so it’s definitely worth it.

Use Mulch

Weeding is another job that takes ages but must be done to keep your garden looking good, and it can be a bit of a pain, to say the least. But what if you could make it so fewer weeds grew in the first place? Then weeding wouldn’t take so long and wouldn’t be so arduous. Well, that’s exactly what you can do with mulch. Lay a layer of mulch around flower beds, trees, shrubs, and so on, and that’s going to smother weeds before they even start, saving you time and effort. 
 
On top of that, mulch helps to lock in moisture, which means less water is needed - another job that takes time and effort. Plus, as it all breaks down, it improves the health of your soil, so your plants get all the nutrients they need without you having to do anything extra to make it happen. Mulch can also last months before you need to add any more, so it’s as close to a do it and forget it kind of job as you can get.