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! 🪴✨
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34 Comments
I am so pleased that you mentioned native plants!
Hi Eve, thanks for a video packed with good advice! I'm looking for suggestions how to accomplish the following without machinery, if possible. I have a back third of an acre on a fairly steep slope, lots of trees, lawn throughout with a creek at the bottom of the property but not on my property. I would like to make my property more accessible in all seasons by mitigating the slope. I'm in a small town in Ontario, Canada, so winter means snow, ice. I was thinking of terracing but there are lots of wildflowers and wildlife I wouldn't want to disturb by getting a bobcat in..nor do I want to meddle with the runoff. I have areas near the house which already provide a seating area and a couple of sheds. I'd like some kind of younger-kid friendly area nearer the house and that outdoor seating area. One level down, there is a flatter area which I'm thinking could be a propane fire pit site. I'd like a path throughout the length of the yard, leading to/through these areas, perhaps looping back a different route but still leading to the areas mentioned. Near the bottom of the property, off the paths, I might want an area for my grandson's archery practice. I'm open to replacing lawn with plants as my grandson mows the slope for me but he's fast growing up and away to university.
I'm 65, in okay shape, but have no real gardening experience or expertise, especially re: building paths on a slope. I feel like I could do some of the grunt work if I had a plan and guidance. [Are there people who'll come in and lay paths, etc., by hand, working alongside a client?]
Maybe I'd need to buy some new tools. Tool suggestions? I have some basic ones. All in all, I'd like to be able to walk the 'back forty', safely, in all seasons and be able to sit and draw and paint throughout the yard as many months of the year as possible. Less lawn, as low maintenance as possible, some colour. Oh..and I'd put veggies throughout the beds. Any idea how much a project like this might cost? Thanks for reading.☺
Hi😊 i just wanted to say that I really liked this video. I’m so inspired now and I feel less overwhelmed 😊👍
Never knew Zooey Deschanel was so into plants
I hate digging and weeding. Hello no dig permaculture. Cardboard and straw are my best friends.
Thank you! Really interesting and thought-provoking!
I hope to have all my grass gone by this fall. I am looking for some helpful info on placing some of the trees and shrubs and also the varieties (zone 5 Ontario Canada). Do you recommend putting down cardboard or newspaper under the mulch?
This was a fantastic video! Loved your tips about using more shrubs in the landscape and remembering to consider edges 🙂 What do you think is the lowest maintenance pathway material?
This is the best landscaping video with excellent tips & reminders ! Low Maintenance, yet enjoyable & lower cost is what most people with lawns that I know are looking for. Thank you! I'm so glad I came across this !
I personally hate lawns and avoid them as much as possible.
What is the gorgeous purple/orange shrub at 2:51?! Looks a bit like a smokebush or a nine bark? I need to know!
Geez! Great video. You just earned a new sub!
Amazing video. Loved your tips
Sorry but any hedge. evergreen or not needs to be trimmed. thats a load of garbage. They never just "stop growing"
Great ideas! Thank-you!
Keep in mind that most plants can be transplanted. So if areas become crowded just form another bed and fill it up with your free plants.
Do you have a own garden? Will you show us some photos from your garden or clients? I mean design photos. Or photos from flower beds.
I don't get the shrub advice. Under shrubs grow weeds, too. The soil is hard under shrubs, so it's hard to dig out the weeds.
And to have no lawn works only in small gardens. In big gardens you need some gras areas. You can not cover it all with flowers.
And you always talk about covering everything with mulch, but some flowers don't grow in mulch. They rot in mulch or they can not selfe seed.
The edigng of lawn by diging trenches is one of the most unnacessary maintenance things you can do. I don't know anybody who does that. It must be a cultural thing. Only used in England and America.
I let the wild stuff grow. Pluck what I don't like. No lawns. No weed sprays ..I like it for the most part !
I layed down some pallets too . Painted them black. Put a few flowers in the slats. Good weed control.
A few more things to consider: Pets need a place to do their business without trampling on flowers or climbing through bushes. Also, excessive rain occurs sometimes and vegetation absorbs this whereas rocks and concrete do not. If you might be moving, then resale value is another consideration. Fences definitely create extra work although they are helpful. Finally, I'd like to stress that gardening is EXPENSIVE, not just time consuming.
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.
Thanks for your great information info! You are a natural presenter and teacher! Your videos are so informative and interesting to watch. Thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge with us.
When there is a good mulch, the weeds can be removed with 2 fingers. Sometime the weeds do not even germinate. Mulch and wood chips is the best option for any part : no mud, no cut grass, no weeds, helps keeping soil moist longer, helps cooling the ground. I can imagine an exterior of a house where all ground is mulch and wood chips, then when you need a plant or a tree, just dig and add the plant. The feet will not bring the stuff inside the house, wether it rains or not, etc. You will save on irrigation, worms will be happy, etc. It's the best option in the long run, better than any artificial or natural covering.
This is actually kinda brilliant. Thank you. Every point is solid and valid, as I learned the hard way. I recently sold that garden that came with the house, and now have a new blank canvas of new to me house- yard/weed to plan. I said I would not repeat my mistakes, and bam, you hit all of them! I just might get it right this time. My take aways from the last dream tropical garden (Florida): Do not be a slave to weeds, or constant maintenance especially in rain/summer season. Reduce the need to be out there at all in 95 degrees at 6am! And be there for pleasure, not for drudgery.
Nice video! Amazing how many subs you have for the amount of videos. We’ll done!👍🏼
including wild space can be dangerous in places that poison plants grow heavily
Excellent tips!!!!
Thank u
Nice!
nice
The previous owners did a ton of landscaping to our yard before we bought it. However, no one designed it with growth in mind! A beautiful magnolia was planted 5 get away from the house, tucked in a corner inches from a driveway and sidewalk and too close to the front yard tree. We will have to pull out this year because it's dying with the drought in Texas and not enough places to grow with the other tree encroaching.
They planned crape Myrtle a foot from the house (near both of these trees) so sweet have to keep lopping it off.
I love shade here, but since we sissy have power lines along our back fence, the huge oak trees have to be cut back and are running out of space. We had to take one out years ago because it had been pruned to grow into our 2nd story.
I want to more native xeriscaping with drought tolerant plants, but I'm worried about long term maintenance as Texas is the land of "all or nothing" where you either get all the rain all at once or no rain. I also have cedar (juniper) trees that I hate because of the needles it drops but they block the west sun, so trying to replace them would be painful during the growing process, expensive, and we might but be living her to enjoy the work. There's an area under them where grass won't grow because of the west sun frying it, but I'm afraid any rock bed or mulch would immediately look bad because of the needles. Rock in theory is better because you can vacuum up the needles, but I don't want more areas to absorb the heat, I'd rather have mulch and plants. Help?
It doesn't help that landscape companies in the Austin area that specialize in native xeriscaping now have huge minimums requirements to even talk to you.
The backyard has mostly gone natural over the last decade where a lot died due to drought or freeze from the freak winter storm. But I can't just let it go, as trees love to take seed right next to the house, the middle of the yard, or right by the fence. One nandina shrub has taken over the yard thanks to birds surfing it around and it's a little much but we will definitely nice and keep a lot of it as it is hardy and doesn't require ridiculous maintenance.
Fantastic video, this advice was so helpful. Subscribed immediately.