Landscaping Mistakes that Lead to More Maintenance ~ Low Maintenance Landscape Design Tips

Learn some common landscaping mistakes that lead to more maintenance, and how to avoid them.
Are you starting a landscaping project? Did you know that through proper landscape design, you can reduce the amount of maintenance your yard or garden will require? You can even design your yard around the types of maintenance activities you enjoy. In this video, I share 8 types of mistakes that can be lead to more maintenance, and how they can be corrected with thoughtful design and planning.
I hope this video helps you to be more successful when starting a DIY landscaping project!

Hello! My name is Eve Hanlin, I’m a horticulturist from the Pacific Northwest corner of the United States. I've offered in-person landscape design services for years and now I am taking landscape design online by offering digital courses and resources for DIY-ers.

Do you have any landscape design questions? Please let me know in the comments below! 🪴✨

FREE MINI COURSE: How to Choose the Perfect Plant

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS!
🪴 Design-Your-Own Landscape Layout ONLINE COURSE
...is now OPEN for enrollment!
For do-it-yourselfers who want to create their own landscape design, but just need a little extra guidance.I’ll walk you through the design process, step by step, so you can create a practical, hand-drawn "layout plan"(a landscape design plan that shows the layout of the finished design).
Learn more and sign up, here!

Follow my newsletter, here:

[gardenprojectacademy]

I HAVE EXCITING NEWS!
🪴Design-Your-Own Landscape Layout ONLINE COURSE 🪴is now OPEN for enrollment!
For do-it-yourselfers who want to create their own landscape design, but just need a little extra guidance.

I’ll walk you through the design process, step by step, so you can create a practical, hand-drawn "layout plan" (a landscape design plan that shows the layout of the finished design).

Learn more and sign up, here!

[l.]

Growing up, we had lots of fruit trees in our back yard...apple, plum, cherry, pear. They gave pretty blossom in spring and nourishing food for a family. Then people wanted' low maintenance ' yards. Blossoms were "messy". The fruit needed picking and would fall to the ground. You needed to rake the leaves. So people stopped planting fruit trees. Now they import their fruit, it is tasteless, and they pay a huge price. Go back to planting fruit trees and stop fretting about the mess. Invite people over to glean what you don't want. And remember birds like the fruit if it is too much for you to eat.

[jamesmcinnis]

I've been landscaping for over 30 years and I agree wholeheartedly with these excellent tips. My only additional comment is I would steer completely away from gravel or stone mulch. It may look good the first week after installation but after that it's a maintenance nightmare.

[aie_aie_]

For 15 years I "fought" against my garden, which required enormous maintenance efforts just to keep it somewhat passable.
For the last two years, I've only maintained the hedges, and even then only a minimum, just so that the neighbours don't complain.
...And I watch how the garden evolves on its own if we let it. A small forest of plum trees has planted itself. Different areas of wild flowers have emerged. Two cherry trees have grown under the walnut tree. It is beautiful. I use what my garden gives me, sometimes I move something, or multiply it. I only mow a few paths. Everything else is wild. All the non-human beings love it! Me too!

[oliviaglass]

Love that the you focus on the subject, stay on the subject and give us solid info in around 10 min. No long winded and personal stories included. Thank you for respecting other people’s time :)

[ilyxr]

Holy cow this video is kind of amazing. First off, you shut down any notion of a no-maintenance landscape in the first minute, you clearly define the level of work and offer the long term challenges of certain materials. Really freaking good video!!

[lisatutler-jones]

This should be a required homeowner/gardener's first video. I would have saved TONS of time, money, disappointment, backaches, etc. Thank you!

[texm]

I add hardscape in the empty areas like a rock, statue or potted plant. Once the area ground plants or bushes grow, you can easily remove hardscape. Hope that tip helps someone. 😊

[TSD]

I wish I had watched your video before I embarked on my Gardening journey. I have, not so proudly, made every mistake you listed here and then some. My garden is in its 6th year, I’m still moving plants around the garden and I have lost close to 90% of everything I bought 6 years ago when I went nuts and wanted to have a three season English Cottage garden in Toronto of all places. I can write a 1000 page book of what not to do when designing a garden. But failure is a great teacher, and I learned so much from all my mistakes and shortcomings. I’m still proud of my efforts and won’t give up until I create my dream garden.

[cardwellron]

It took me less than 60 seconds to like this video. Very nice. You don't waste words or time. Thank you.

[joanschutter]

Best tip: limit or eliminate rocks!! We inherited a back yard that was half river rock. What a maintenance chore. I've carried out some and covered the rest with mulch. Rocks still surface in places. I won't use Roundup so it would never stay looking nice. I groan when I see people putting rocks in their yards. It looks really nice the first year. After that, it's a mess!

[Really]

Amen to that ! It never fails to amaze me when I see people plant White Pines or Leyland Cypress as screening evergreens or worse yet, foundation plants. They need 6' or 8' of screening and they are planting trees that will get upwards of 100'... and all the bottom branches die off so they wind up with little or no screening and just a big headache.

[sarachristman]

This is VERY valuable content for anyone creating a landscape. I’ve made all these mistakes. Let me add: Don’t install a paver patio that you end up having to weed!

[floranova]

I like most of your tips, but I don't really agree with your statement that perennials require too much maintenance: that depends on the perennial. I'm a professional nursery plant researcher in the Netherlands, and over here in the past 15 years low-maintenance perennials have been making a come-back even in urban amenity landscaping. Their main advantage over shrubs is, that they can fill their bed completely by the end of their first summer, suppressing weeds. Shrubs usually take one year longer, but they are useful too, for their height and robustness. Urban perennials are maintained by mowing them back once a year, at the end of winter, and that's all it takes. Some examples of low-maintenance perennials are Alchemilla, Aster, Brunnera, Eupatorium, Geranium, Hemerocallis, Lamium, Miscanthus, Nepeta, Pachysandra, Rudbeckia fulgida, Sedum spectabile, Symphytum.

[Janeite]

This is great! I was focusing on shrubs and I felt a little silly with my small bushes, but I will resist the urge to fill in the gaps!

[latetotheparty]

I live in Hawaii and the number of mistakes the city and county make in choosing and maintaining plants for roundabouts, and road sides is amazing. In one case they put in a large planting of shade loving tree ferns that all died as they were in full sun, and then after they pulled that out, put in some large grasses and plants that all put out leaves that grow fast and ended up in the roadway. Now they are tearing that out. I wonder what is next.

[dragonsbreathraku]

This is great!!! I love shrubs too..they are the " bones" of good design.. and so beautiful in their natural shape..i only prune to regenerate, not to shape, which I feel is unnatural & destroys the plants inherent beauty. Your explanations are very right on !

[liz]

Love this! One HUGE mistake that builders make with new homes is installing plants way too close together. We built a townhouse a few years ago, an end unit. The builder’s landscape design included 6 trees planted around the end of our unit, all less than 10 feet from the foundation, all trees that would be over 30 FEET in diameter when mature (without intensive pruning), all pines. They even planted an oak tree between our driveways, on grassy space less than 4’ wide. Did I mention our decks extended over the 10’-long driveways? We were able to get the HOA to remove the oaks, as they would have destroyed the driveways and decks within a few years, but they wouldn’t let us take down the pines, even though those are going to destroy the siding and foundations within 10 years.

We sold that townhouse 3 years after moving in, now live in an older home with more practical landscaping!

[kidstubehd]

Great recommendations!! I subscribed immediately..this video is 2 years old and I can’t believe the algorithm didn’t show you earlier! You are a great gem to YouTube!🙏🏻🥰

[jodytaggart]

Excellent advice. I would also add that for those open mulched spaces where you are waiting for plants to fill in, you can use cardboard under the mulch and a pre emergent weed preventer to help with weeds.