Perhaps you don’t want to use lots of water and time to maintain a lush lawn, or your yard soil is poor or too shaded. Whatever is the cause for your landscaping troubles, be assured that your yard can look beautiful without grass. You only need a little creativity and some great landscaping ideas.
How to Landscape a Shaded Yard
Grass usually needs lots of sunshine to grow and thrive. If your yard is mostly shaded, consider sticking with shade-loving plants to achieve the best results. It’d be best not to pick flowers but instead use plants with attractive foliage. Here are a few of them.
Groundcover
These grasses spread low, and the height is usually around 12 to 18 inches. Consider growing them between taller patches or alone to cover up spots in your lawn.
Taller Plants
European ginger, Japanese painted fern, and astilbe are a few tall plants that can complement the groundcover in your shaded lawn.
Native Plants
Visit your local nursery and find the best forest-dwelling plants. These plants grow well in shaded areas and don’t frequently require maintenance, such as fertilizing.
Paths and Sitting Areas
You can create an outdoor haven for relaxation using brick pathways or stone pavers, furniture, hammocks, or benches. Consider adding trellises, garden art, or bird fountains for additional beautification.
How to Landscape a Yard With Poor Soil
If your lawn finds it challenging to grow or has a nutrient-poor or heavy soil, you might have been planting the wrong things. The following are some ideas for using perennials that thrive in poor soils to landscape your front yard without grass.
Periwinkle
This one-foot tall groundcover plant produces star-shaped blossoms. It suppresses weed growth in areas it spreads to and prefers part shade.
Lenten Roses
These plants are very tough and can withstand heat, humidity, poor soil, and drought. They’re usually two feet tall and thrive in full shade areas.
Bleeding Heart
This plant has heart-shaped blossoms that add a cottage-garden look to your landscape. It prefers part shade.
How to Landscape a Drought-Tolerant Yard
Landscaping without grass is recommended for people living in drought-prone areas to enable them to save on water. Consider implementing xeriscaping techniques. The following are low-maintenance plants known for thriving in drought conditions.
Ornamental grasses
There are different varieties of ornamental grass. You can get the splayed or upright ones or the short or tall plants and use it to create a focal point on your lawn.
Cacti
Plants with spikes or thorns like cacti usually work well in drought-prone areas.
Inorganic Mulch
Fill your lawn with stones and pebbles which doesn’t require watering.
Get Help Landscaping Your Yard
Conditions like poor lawn soil, heavy clay soil, or living in drought areas might necessitate the need to landscape your yard without grass. The ideas we mentioned here will help you have that beautiful yard even without green lawn grass. If you’re eager to start implementing it, contact Eden, a professional landscape design service, so our experts can bring your idea to life.
