6 Tips for Designing a Low-Maintenance Backyard Tropical Oasis
How much work do you want your backyard tropical oasis to be?
Hint: probably not much. It’s a tropical oasis, for Pete’s sake. You’re supposed to be lounging, not sweating.
Well, it all starts with the design. If you don’t think about low-maintenance landscape design from the beginning, you could end up with lots of plants that are pretty, but need a ton of work. Or acres of high-maintenance lawn. Oops.
How to get a low-maintenance landscape design?
Check out these tips:
1. Pick the Right Palms
Some palm trees are self-cleaning. Others make you work for that tropical vibe.
A self-cleaning palm means that the older, dead palm fronds will fall away from the trunk on their own — no need for pruning.
When the frond dies, it falls down and you pick it up.
Palms that aren’t self-cleaning require occasional pruning to remove the brown fronds after they die.
When your neighbor texts you that there’s one spot open on his fun deep-sea fishing trip, do you really want to text back, “Sorry, can’t. I have to prune my palms.” Those are eight sad words, man.
How are you supposed to know which palms are which so they don’t harsh your backyard tropical oasis vibe?
Here are four of our self-cleaning faves:
Foxtail Palm
It has fluffy fronds that look like the bushy tail of a fox. Sold!
Christmas Palm
A nice smaller palm, this festive-sounding variety doesn’t get quite as tall as other palms, so it can make a cool statement without overwhelming your space.
Royal Palm
This palm lives up to its name, towering regally at heights of up to 80 feet. They have a smooth, light gray trunk and long, lush fronds. Salt spray? Drought? Strong winds? No problem. They’re great for larger landscapes that can accommodate their height.
Montgomery Palm
This beauty is known for its compact size and arching fronds that hang like a canopy. Its slim trunk means it can fit in places other palms can’t. Try them lining your driveway or as a standalone specimen.
2. Consider Artificial Turf
This is the ultimate in low-maintenance landscape design.
It’s a green expanse of beautiful lawn that never needs mowing, fertilizing, or watering.
No pests or lawn disease. No chemical fertilizers. No worrisome watering and maintenance.
Today’s artificial turf is fuller, softer to the touch and more closely resembles real grass than the AstroTurf you might remember from years ago.
And artificial turf isn’t an all or nothing deal. Low maintenance landscape design can incorporate it into just portions of your backyard tropical oasis, to cut down on maintenance while adding a cool landscape element.
3. Low-Maintenance Outdoor Tropical Plants
Absolutely incorporate easy-care plants into your low-maintenance landscape design. It’ll make a big difference.
While some plants are fussy and needy, others have a no-sweat vibe you’ll love.
They don’t need much water. They’re sturdy. They look great without a ton of tending.
Think about these easy-care beauties in your backyard tropical oasis:
Blue Daze
Brilliant blue flowers that open in the morning and close up in the evening cover this easy-care ground cover that loves the heat and sun.
Use it for a prettier, low-maintenance alternative to a strip of lawn, or it makes a stunning mass planting ground cover to replace grass.
Beach Sunflowers
These bright blooms are tougher than they look. Native to Florida, they love our sandy soil and they’re fine with dry conditions.
They flower on and off year round, but unlike traditional towering sunflowers, they stay nice and tidy at about 18 inches.
And, get this — they even reseed and spread on their own. Talk about low maintenance. All you have to do is enjoy them.
African Iris
It’s hard to believe this spectacular flower should be part of a low- maintenance landscape design. It’s like a precious jewel in your landscaping, a six-petal white flower with a smaller four-petal blue-purple flower that emerges in its center. It’ll wow you.
But it’s not fussy at all. Just sit back and enjoy the blooms.
Sago Palm
This palm lookalike with long green fronds is actually a cycad, in a group of ancient tropical and subtropical plants.
They’re extremely slow-growing, gaining only a few inches each year. After several years, they may reach 2 to 3 feet.
Give it bright light and occasional fertilizer, and that’s about it. It even naturally sheds its lower leaves as it grows. It’s like it knows you don’t want any hassle.
Ixora
This sun-loving shrub offers clusters of tubular flowers in bright red, orange, yellow, pink, or white.
Ixora flowers throughout the year, and each flower cluster can last between six and eight weeks, giving your landscape long-lasting color. And it doesn’t even need pruning — perfect for your low-maintenance landscape design.
4. Add More Hardscape
Expertly designed hardscape can cut down on yard maintenance while magically creating outdoor spaces in your backyard tropical oasis that you’ll use and love.
Think pretty paver walkways and pathways. Areas of artificial turf can be incorporated to add a lush green counterpart for softness.
5. Make Room for Mulch
Hardwood mulch does all the cool stuff that mulch does — keeps weeds from sprouting and helps plants hold on to the moisture they need to thrive — but it kind of takes care of itself, perfect for low-maintenance landscape design.
It decomposes over time, giving your soil a great nutrient boost, then you just have to add a new load once a year.
6. Plan to Leave the Maintenance to the Pros
When you’re done with your low-maintenance landscape design, let’s face it — it’s still going to need SOME maintenance.
Beds need weeding. Plants need trimming. Everything needs fertilizing.
How to cut down even more on maintenance? Hire skilled pros to handle it all.
Tropical Gardens provides tailored, full-service residential landscaping for Sarasota homeowners that ensures that your backyard tropical oasis gets the care it needs, from pros with horticultural training and perfectionist tendencies.
The best low-maintenance landscaping is the kind you enjoy from your patio lounge chair.
Ready for Low-Maintenance Landscape Design? Talk to Us
A great-looking yard takes a lot of work. If you do it all, you won’t have time to enjoy it. Makes no sense, right?
Partner with landscape design in Sarasota, FL that can start out with low maintenance in mind.
Our landscape design and build teams can create the backyard tropical paradise you crave. Then, our residential maintenance team can keep it healthy and thriving.
Let’s get started. We’ll help you figure it all out.
