For many, building and maintaining a picturesque backyard is a fun hobby that helps them unwind after a long day. Others simply pay someone to take care of their outdoor spaces. However, if you don’t enjoy maintaining a backyard and you don’t want to hire someone, there are still options available.
Here are some “set it and forget it” tips that can help your backyard look nice and welcoming without giving you a lot of homework. The goal with these is to give you ideas that will only require a couple of hours of maintenance a month or require no maintenance at all.
1. Install solar lights
Decorative lighting can help your backyard look nicer during the day while turning it into an actual living space at night. And you may not have realized it, but the market for solar yard lights has exploded over the last couple of years. There are tons of cute options available, and a lot of them are fairly affordable.
One of the many benefits of solar lights is that they require no wiring and practically no maintenance. You just pick a spot out of the shade to put them down and then clean the dust off the solar surface on top twice a year. They’re also easy to move and replace whenever you feel like changing the layout of the backyard.
2. Get some covered areas
A patio cover does more than just provide a respite from the sun and the rain. If you want to be able to chill in your backyard, you’ll need some furniture out there. And while outdoor furniture is built to be sturdy, they last a lot longer with less maintenance if they are set beneath a covered area.
The classic solution here is to install a patio cover, but that is not the only option available. As this website shows, modern pergolas often provide just as much shade while being easier to install and requiring less maintenance. Look for materials that are known to age well when set outside with no maintenance, such as vinyl.
3. Consider a vinyl fence
Speaking of vinyl, if keeping your wooden fence clean has been a headache for you, consider replacing it with a vinyl fence. Vinyl is waterproof, it won’t rot, and it tends to handle temperature variations fairly well. It’s also fairly easy to keep clean, especially if you choose a darker color for the fence.
If you don’t have a fence but would like more privacy in your backyard, installing a vinyl fence is also a good idea.
4. Choose the right plants
Plants don’t have to be a hassle. There are plenty of gorgeous flowers, trees, and types of grass out there that aren’t fussy or needy or prone to dying out of nowhere. You just need to know what to look for.
For example, ghost plant is known for requiring practically no maintenance. You’ll only need to water them once a month, and only if it hasn’t rained for a full month. Petunias are also easy to grow and maintain, as are Rose of Sharon and many other plants.
You can put together a beautiful and low-maintenance garden by choosing plants that can resist plenty of abuse. Then all you’ll need to do is find an app that can notify you whenever it has been over three weeks since the last time it rained.
