Every year it feels like Calgarians get busier and busier. With life, work, family, and more on your plate, it can be difficult to make the time to ensure your lawn looks pristine. Part of the trouble is that the typical Calgary lawn requires significant maintenance to keep lush and green. Here are a few landscaping ideas for low-maintenance alternatives to the lawn.

Choose Local Plants & Mulch

Instead of grass, have an experienced Calgary landscaper create individual beds filled with hearty, local plants and a thick layer of mulch to control weeds. Mulch is one of our favourite landscaping tools because it breaks down into fertilizer for your plants while simultaneously preventing weeds. Mulch also helps stop the hot, dry days from parching your soil, so if you choose local flowers and shrubs, you shouldn’t have to water more than once or twice over the summer. You will have to top up your mulch beds every spring or two, but mulch is generally inexpensive.

For the ultimate low-maintenance experience, we recommend choosing a variety of local perennials. Work with your landscaper to pick your favourite flowers. We’ll plant them in your flower beds, and they’ll come back year after year.

If you’re not ready to give up grass completely, you may want to replace your current lawn with grasses that grow naturally in the Calgary area. Calgary is in the heart of the prairies, and there are many fantastic grass varieties that thrive here; tall grasses, like ‘Karl Foerster’ Feather Reed Grass and ‘Elijah Blue’ Blue Fescue, make great backdrops for bright flowers and also work as an elegant, low-maintenance accents beside rock and water landscaping features.

Finally, evergreens are an excellent option for the Calgary area. Evergreens are well adapted for our cold winters, don’t require a ton of water, and they keep their vivid green all year round, so they’re perfect for adding colour to your yard in winter. There are more options than just giant, coniferous trees as well. You can choose dwarf conifers, evergreen shrubs, or tall, columnar trees to add privacy.

Outdoor Living Space

The perfect complement to a garden and flower beds is outdoor living space. Outdoor living spaces let you make the most of Calgary’s short warm season by providing a space for you to entertain and enjoy your yard to its fullest extent. Outdoor living spaces also tend to be low-maintenance as they replace sprawling grassy areas with stone, patio cement blocks, or a deck.

Some favourite outdoor living spaces with Calgarians are outdoor kitchens (complete with grilling area, fire pit, and a dining table) and lounging, living spaces — perfect for enjoying the sun and a cold drink. Working with a professional Calgary landscaper will ensure your outdoor living spaces (including your fire pit) follow all municipal bylaws.

To establish a solid foundation for your stone floors and avoid repairs later, it’s a good idea to work with a landscaper. They’ll know all the tricks for crafting a beautiful, durable stone patio— like laying 6-8 inches of compact pea stone first, so it remains level and weed-free for decades to come.

The sun is shining, and the sky is its stunningly beautiful deep, Alberta blue. If you aren’t spending enough time in your backyard, have the expert Calgary landscapers at Five Star help you reimagine your outdoor space into the perfect retreat from bustling city life. You deserve your very own backyard oasis, and our team can build it. Call us today.