Every season that I’ve worked in a garden center someone invariably seeks help to create a no maintenance garden. Well, sorry, that’s only going to happen if you let your property go derelict. Then your neighbours will complain to the city, the municipality or the HOA and you’ll be served orders, you’ll be fined…it will be a mess!

If you really want no maintenance you must have the budget for hiring professionals to do your gardening or move into a condo or townhouse where things are taken care of as part of your fee structure. Even if you paved your entire yard sooner or later some dirt will blow into the joints, some seeds of tough, survivor weeds will blow in, a little rain and…Mother Nature will supply some greenery for you.

Now, a rock is low maintenance. Brush it off in Spring, sweep it late fall and you’re done. Boulders and rocks can be very attractive in the landscape. The point of landscape design, once issues like privacy, shade, windbreak are taken care of, is to entertain and amuse the eye. Rocks can add interest, relieving endless greenery. They can provide structure as in a raised bed, seating or a platform for summer annual containers. They can come in all shapes and sizes, they come in colours that can co-ordinate or contrast with the building.

The photo at the left shows a charming scenario. Here on the Canadian Prairies wagon wheels are a decorative ‘thing’. This installation is on a corner lot keeping people from tramping over the grass and compacting the roots of the mature tree. It’s different, it’s interesting and the ornamental grass (undoubtedly Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’) is very hardy. My only objection, as a landscape designer, is that we like things in odd numbers, and this has too many pairs. But that’s a whole other blog post. The boulder is nicely matched with a mulch of small rocks.

The logistics of incorporating large boulders is that machinery is required to place them. Many landscape installation companies or landscape supply stores will sell rocks. The bigger the boulder, the more likely machinery will be required to move and place it. That could be two workers, a skid-steer loader and a couple of hours. That can get expensive. Smaller rocks can be loaded onto a truck or trailer at the supply store and can be moved by a wheelbarrow or even a tarp.

Did you know there are faux rocks? Made of polymer/resin they can be quite attractive. There are large ones specifically meant to hide septic tank covers. They are easily moved, quite often coming with stakes to secure them to the ground. Take a peek at some on the website Wayfair here. As well, YouTube has instructions on making your own, just one example is here. If you really want low maintenance and have run-off issues, consider creating a dry stream bed. You can run one from your downspouts out to where your garden needs water, re-directing from your basement. Here’s some great instructions from Garden Therapy here.

Rock on, people!