Hardscaping & Dry Garden Landscaping Ideas
Hardscaping or dry garden landscaping might just be your solution . . .
. . .if you are the type of person who hates mowing a lawn and everything else that goes with it — yet you want an aesthetically pleasing front yard which is low-maintenance.
If you have rocky areas, high hills, or extra shady spots, in other words, land where grass does not grow well, an option is to convert to dry garden landscaping or hardscaping.
Here are some ideas which may help you. Click on the picture for a better view.
Soft waterfall fountain at base of steps
1.Paving walkways (hardscaping) or — even better — putting in patios and/or gazebos or other dry garden landscaping ideas such as a waterfall at the foot of stone stairs will reduce the amount of grassy area in your lawn, giving you a very low-maintenance yard.
2. You might consider putting wood chips or shade-loving ornamental plants like ivy, hostas, periwinkle or pachysandra at the base of a tree, or even do some hardscaping by using big rocks to create eye pleasing “sculptures”. This type of dry garden landscaping could save time, money, and water resources.
Here is an example of an area where it was hard to get grass to grow.
Simulate a dry river bed with rocks
Using wood chips for pathways between flower beds
The home owner decided to do a bit of dry garden landscaping and give this area a completely different look by
1) using small- to medium-sized rocks to create a dry river bed in one area and
2) alonside this “little dry river,” creating a series of small beds filled with different types of hostas
3)creating wood chip paths to separate the beds. Looks very nice and is easy to maintain.
Replacing grass with a wood chip lawn interspersed with shrubs/plants
Dry Garden Landscaping with Wood Chips
Here’s another version of a lawn where grass has been replaced by wood chips.
Ben Conte, a young home owner here in Oshawa, decided he did not want any grass, so he came up with this delightful layout for his lawn.
By creating this dry garden landscaping idea, his only lawn care will be adding wood chips every so often to keep any grass from growing through the wood chips and providing a feeding place for worms and microorganisms which will provide necessary nutrients for his shrubs/weeping caragana and other interspersed plants.
3. Another option is to cover the area with one of the many excellent ground covering plants available. Three of these many great ground covering plants are:
- The Creeping Juniper, an excellent ground cover for rocky slopes for it grows slowly, grows well in full sun, can tolerate dry rocky soil, and loves good air circulation. There are different cultivars, so you can easily find one for heights from 20 cm to 60 cm.
- Thyme, often used between patio stones, for it thrives in full sun and dry sandy soil. In addition, it has scented leaves and tiny flowers in late spring.
- The ajuga, a fast-spreading groundcover which, in spring, has spikes of deep blue flowers over shiny rosette-looking leaves. It can tolerate sun to light shade and moist soil. It grows to about 10 cm high and multi-colored leaf cultivars are available. Some cultivars can be especially resistant to insect attacks.
See other examples of beautiful ground covering plants .
Using boulders to create levels
If you have a large area where the slope is steep enough, you may want to use huge rocks as a retaining wall to correct it (hardscaping). Several different kinds of retaining walls exist, but they all serve the same purpose. Basically, the idea is to hold back areas of soil so that you can separate your yard into levels of flatter surfaces. Retaining walls also prevent soil erosion.
If you don’t like dealing with grass or growing grass is a problem, you can use some form of dry garden landscaping or hardscaping and still have your beautiful front/back yard!
Marcie
| Bio: A gardener since the 70′s, Marcie Snyder knows the value of growing your own vegetables and plants organically. To help the budding gardener, Marcie offers information on four blogs (each one dealing with different aspects of gardening) plus a FREE ebook “The Complete Guide to Organic Vegetable Gardening” (OVG GUIDE). She also offers a very comprehensive step-by-step ebook detailing 4 methods of composting. Check for more articles at http://organicvegetablegardeningguide.com/blog |
Please note: You can use my articles on your blog as long as you use it as is without changing any of the text and you include my bio with my website link.
Tags:dry garden landscaping,hardscape,Hardscaping/Dry Garden Landscaping Ideas,replacing grass with hardscaping
Tags: 
[...] . . . even if it includes doing something different such as hardscaping the areas where it’s hard to grow grass or you simply don’t want to bother with a grass lawn but you still want something nice in your front or back yard. Why not try hardscaping or dry garden landscaping ideas instead. [...]
Rather interesting. Has few times re-read for this purpose to remember. Thanks for interesting article. Waiting for trackback
Thanks for posting about this, I would like to read more about this topic.
[...]organicvegetablegardeningguide.com is another wonderful website of tips. [...]
Great pics! I just found a great contractor, and was looking for a few specific ideas. Thanks! These are great!
I also like to read a blog about solar powered garden lights here —> Solar Powered Garden Lights, has some good solar powered garden lights for sale and good info.
Wood chips looks good, and come in a variety of colors, but as you said the issue is that they have to be refreshed regularly.
My husband and I found your page and thought it was to be informative. I aprrecitated the blog and I look forward to reading more from your page again sometime. Can you tell me how to be notified of more news that are published here on your blogsite?
We came across your website and thought it was to be news worthy. My family appreciated your news and I look forward to seeing more from you soon. How can I be notified of more articles that are written here on your web site?
[...] full post on Organic Vegetable Gardening Blog Share and [...]
Hi. I love your blog! Keep posting more please.
Thanks for the post ureful info i found on your article.
thanks for the useful post, useful info i found on your article.
Really interesting post thank you for sharing I just added your web site to my bookmarks and will be back now and then. By the way this is off topic but I actually like your blogs layout.
Super text, I will add this blog to my favorites.
Hi!. Thanks for the article. I¡¯ve been digging around for information, but I think I¡¯m getting lost!. Yahoo lead me here ¨C good for you I suppose! Keep up the good work. I will be returning over here in a few days to see if there is any additional info.
Great text and nice site.
Great text and nice blog.
Do you think blogging just has to be about writing? Reason I ask is I want to start a photography blog, but I feel I am better at expressing myself with photos rather than write. Should I even start it? With your experience could it work, more pictures, less words?
This is a really good read for me. Must admit that you are one of the coolest bloggers I ever saw. Thanks for posting this informative article.
Thanks for taking the time to share this, I feel strongly about it and love reading more on this topic. If possible, as you gain knowledge, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.
Cool post! How much stuff did you have to look up in order to write this one? I can tell you put some work in.
I thought it was going to be some boring old post, but it really compensated for my time. I will post a link to this page on my blog. I am sure my visitors will find that very useful.
Hey – nice blog, just looking around some blogs, seems a pretty nice platform you are using. I’m currently using WordPress for a few of my sites but looking to change one of them over to a platform similar to yours as a trial run. Anything in particular you would recommend about it?
I am really thankful to the author of this post for making this lovely and informative article live here for us. We really appreciate ur effort. Keep up the good work. . . .
Aw, this was a really quality post. In theory I’d like to write like this too – taking time and real effort to make a good article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and never seem to get something done.
Thanks for putting up this very helpful information; I happened to come to your blog just looking around the web. Please keep up the good work!
Organicvegetablegardeningguide…
[...] something about organicvegetablegardeningguide[...]…
I have some trouble to subscribe the rss feed, anyway I’ve bookmarked this site, is very useful and full of informations.
hey all, Keep up the good work. very informative, and love all the information provided. I love everything i have read so far
…
Hi there may perhaps I reference some from the insight below in this web site if I reference you with a link back for a internet site?…
Hey – nice blog, just looking around some blogs, seems a pretty nice platform you are using. I’m currently using WordPress for a few of my sites but looking to change one of them over to a platform similar to yours as a trial run. Anything in particular you would recommend about it?
Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained!
You really make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and very broad for me. I am looking forward for your next post.
I admire what you might have completed here. I like the portion exactly where you say you’re performing this to give back again but I would presume by every one of the comments that this can be operating to suit your needs at the same time.
Amazing, I found your site on google poking around for something completely unrelated- now I’m gonna need to go the old posts. Good bye free time today, but this was a really spectacular find.
I often read your blog and always find it very interesting. Thought it was about time i let you know…Keep up the great work
Its very informative and interesting article.all the points are very useful. Simple but very effective writing. Thanks for sharing such a nice post.
That is some inspirational stuff. Never knew that opinions could be this varied. Thanks for all the enthusiasm to offer such helpful information here.
Hey, maybe this is a bit offf topic but in any case, I have been surfing about your blog and it looks really neat. impassioned about your writing. I am creating a new blog and hard-pressed to make it appear great, and supply excellent articles. I have discovered a lot on your site and I look forward to additional updates and will be back.
Thank you for a great post
Awesome article! thanks for the good read!
That is quite insightful. It gave me a few ideas and I’ll be writing them on my blog soon. I’m bookmarking your blog and I’ll be back again. Thank you again!
I just found this amazing blog post ,and I should say to you thank you so much for giving this post to us.
Amazing, truly excellent information. Your blog is really awesome. I bookmarked this and will come back once again. . . .
I really like your site and i really appreciate the excellent quality content you are posting here for free for your online readers.
thanks for this great post wow… it’s very
wonderful
Hi I found your site by mistake when i was searching yahoo for this acne issue, I must say your site is really helpful I also love the design, its amazing!. thanks for a great site.
you are professional.