Designs for Gardens: What you need to know when designing low-maintenance gardens.

No matter how big or small, a lot of homeowners are looking for low-maintenance design solutions for their gardens. Whilst there’s a level of upkeep to keeping your plants alive and your grass looking green, there are alternative options available when designing your garden, to keep maintenance at an all-time low. From planting to paved areas, there are low-maintenance garden ideas to make your life that little bit easier, with practical benefits you may not even know existed (but will be glad you did!).

Forget Flower Beds, go for shrubs instead.

Although flower beds are considered a go-to choice to add pops of colour and interest to your garden, these can be rather high-maintenance to take care of, requiring frequent watering, feeding, and regular de-budding to enable new blooms to shine through. A great alternative is to plant shrubs and hedges, creating borders and adding textures to your garden with beautiful shades of yellow and green. Shrubs like lavender, ferns, and Juniper are also great ways to add height and aromas to your garden design, attracting bees to the nectar on the sprigs of purple lavender, and bringing wildlife to your garden.

Paving’s not just for patios.

Garden paving is an extremely low-maintenance option when designing a garden. It’s commonly used to create patio spaces, however, consider using it to landscape the borders of your garden also, replacing planted areas with paving can keep your garden looking neat and tidy all year round.

Porcelain is the most low-maintenance paving choice.

Whilst there are budget paving options available, porcelain paving offers longevity to your garden, providing a timeless solution to paved areas. As well as stunning aesthetics, Brett porcelain paving offers practical qualities such as stain resistance, scratch resistance, frost resistance, slip resistance, and easy to clean, making it suitable for all weather conditions (and little explorers with messy hands!). For more information on the benefits of porcelain paving, you can read our helpful guide to our porcelain paving collection.

Take mowing the lawn off the to-do list, consider Artificial Grass.

Taking care of real grass can require a lot of upkeep, consisting of mowing, watering, seeding, and fertilising, and if you’ve got green fingers, it’s a great eco-friendly option for your garden, providing an enriched soil for insects to live. However, if you don’t have enough time on your hands to carry out regular maintenance, the grass can begin to look a little discoloured and form an uneven surface. That’s where artificial grass can be an attractive option. Artificial grass looks just like real grass and will stay green all year round meaning you can spend more time in the garden relaxing, instead of maintaining your space.

Like things neat and tidy? Pot your plants

When designing your garden, it’s always good to consider how you will feel about the same space in a few years’ time. Your preference for plants and colours that you adore now might change over time and therefore, you might want to give your outside space a refresh. Using pots to hold your plants in place, not only keeps them growing in one designated area, but allows you to move them around your garden and recreate your garden spaces. With so many types of pots available, they can bring a real sense of charm to your garden, and the plants will thrive without requiring regular pruning.

When it comes to designing low-maintenance gardens, whether you live a busy life, or you’d simply rather not have the hassle of regular maintenance, give these low-maintenance garden ideas a try and spend more time enjoying your outside space.

For further inspiration, visit our garden design ideas which feature real-life gardens installed by our network of accredited Brett Approved Installers, and if you’re in need of a contractor to carry out your new garden installation, let us help you find an installer.