9 Garden Design Ideas to Create an Irresistible Lazy Person's Garden

We've showcased several beautiful gardens transformed from small courtyards. Some gardening enthusiasts have questions, such as "What to do about mosquitoes?", "What to do about rain on the outdoor sofa?", and "The maintenance costs for a beautiful garden are very high, what should I do?" While other questions are easily answered, reducing the maintenance costs of a beautiful garden is a bit more challenging. Creating a "paradise" just for yourself and your family, while also having low maintenance costs and not requiring constant attention, certainly requires some strategies. If you want zero maintenance, that's fine too. No garden, no maintenance!

1. Extend Your Living Space
Turning your own courtyard into a garden is certainly beautiful, but if you want to have a gathering with your family or friends for a barbecue, there's no good place for that. Why not try extending your living space by adding rest areas, dining areas, and children's play areas to your yard? This effectively reduces the planting area, making the garden smaller but extending your living space. A garden isn't everything. This also naturally reduces the need for maintenance.

2. Don't lay lawns

Some gardening enthusiasts have asked me how to lay lawns in their small yards. My advice is to avoid lawns. While lawns seem nice, they are time-consuming to maintain and require certain skills. Even then, they will deteriorate within 2-3 years. Try designing other landscaping elements to reduce the lawn area, or choose suitable ground cover plants instead.

3. Choose suitable plants

When creating a small garden, plant selection is crucial. Choose plants you like and

those suitable for the area, ideally those with strong vitality and adaptability. This reduces cultivation costs and maintenance time. Even if these plants are expensive and require a higher initial investment, be determined to plant them. Otherwise, you'll have to replace the seedlings every year, wasting money and energy.

4. Replace Flowers with Greenery

Most flowering plants are seasonal, with short blooming periods. These plants require a significant amount of time to maintain. If you're just beautifying your yard, you don't necessarily need to fill it with flowers, and the maintenance time is limited. Try creating a garden without flowers. A purely green garden can be incredibly beautiful and inviting, and we don't need to go to such extremes. There are many easy-to-care-for, year-round flowering plants; you just need to choose carefully.

5. Allow for Natural Growth

Many have heard the saying, "Too much of a good thing is bad." The same applies to creating your own garden. You don't need to pursue breathtaking beauty. For example, create a vegetable patch in a corner or area, or simply let it grow naturally. Nature is amazing; it's not all weeds. A strong wind or a bird might bring a seed that brings you a pleasant surprise.

6. Simple Water Features

A beautiful water feature is not only expensive to create, but also has high maintenance costs, including electricity, water, and repairs. So why not choose a simple water feature? Even a simple stone trough filled with water, or perhaps with one or two small fish, constitutes a water feature. While simple, it saves you a significant amount on maintenance.

7. Choose Perennials

When selecting plants for your garden, we often overlook whether they are herbaceous or woody, annuals or perennials. I suggest reducing the number of annuals and intentionally choosing perennials. Many perennials are actually superior to some annuals. This reduces maintenance costs considerably.

8. Use Mulching

You can treat your garden like a large flowerpot, planting various flowers and greenery within it. What we often do is cover the surface of flowerpots with a layer of moss, clay pebbles, charcoal blocks, etc., to retain moisture and prevent weeds, especially weeds. So, in the garden, isn't a layer of shredded bark or wood chips incredibly practical? It not only prevents weeds from growing but also adds beauty and color to your garden.

PS: Many urban green spaces, especially roadside green belts, now feature colorful bark-like paving materials. Using this product in the garden is also excellent. For bare soil areas, covering them with this material can save time weeding, thus reducing maintenance costs.

9. Create a relaxing space

Creating a garden in your yard is about creating a relaxing space for yourself and your family, allowing you to connect with nature and enjoy these beautiful moments. So, you can set up a hammock or place a few chairs in any corner of the garden. These will allow you and your family to completely relax and enjoy the garden. When maintaining it, you won't feel bad about wasting time and money.

In conclusion: If you have your own yard, don't let it go to waste. Creating a beautiful little garden by following the methods above won't require much maintenance time or cost. What do you think? Finally, if you don't have the talent for garden creation, you can hire a professional design and construction team, just like decorating your house. For example, a friend of mine hired a company called Shengdu Home Decoration for their renovation. Surprisingly, they were very skilled in garden design and construction. After learning more about them, I realized they are truly capable and reliable. It's much better than leaving it undeveloped or creating a poorly designed garden.