Low Maintenance Gardens for your Rental Property

An attractive garden will invariably make a large contribution to letting a property.  However, whilst tenants are keen on gardens, the prospect of gardening is usually another matter all together.

“I need a low maintenance garden because my tenants just don’t look after it” is a very common request from clients.  Fortunately it is a request that can be fulfilled. The trick is not to make the area look like a ‘prison yard’ - with some paving and one or two small plants lost in a desert of gravel.

If your rental property already has stunning gardens which you want to have maintained to a high standard, you may want to consider giving your tenants 'added value' by paying for a gardener to maintain them and building this in to the rent.

Here are some tips for your low maintenance garden:

1. Opt for the natural look, since a formal garden requires trimming and pruning. 
2. Rather than digging organic material into clay soil, make raised beds with a combination of topsoil and organic compost. 
3. Make shrubs and small ornamental trees the backbone of your garden, not flowers. 
4. Under plant shrubs with ground covers to keep down weeds. 
5. Don't grow plants that need staking, pruning or deadheading
6. Reduce lawn areas and substitute with evergreen ground covers or hard paving, pebbles or shell.
7. Use succulents, succulents require very little water or maintenance and can look stunning
8. Look at what grows naturally in your area and reproduce it in your garden, drafts of native grasses will regenerate and look natural
9. Eliminate allergy causing plants the last thing you need is tenants moving out due to hay fever striking every time they step into the garden!
10. Use weed mat or mulch around plants to save irrigation and suppress weed growth

If still in doubt or have concerns just give us a call, we will put you onto a reputable landscaper in your area.