Washington State – Low-Maintenance & Drought-Tolerant Garden Design

This is my design for the garden of a rental property on a former lake-bed in the municipality of Moses Lake, in Grant County, Washington. The priority for the client was creating a low-maintenance garden for current tenants to enjoy without making too large an investment.

At present, the yard is near-barren silty sand with just a few native ‘weeds’ and a small existing patio. My recommendations show how using a range of drought-tolerant native plants can create a simple but relaxing space that will not take a lot of effort to maintain.

My concept plan shows a broad layout plan for the site, showing strategies for low-water use and low-maintenance schemes. This project shows why it is so important to remember that creating a low-maintenance garden does not involve creating a garden that is devoid of plants.

In fact, the right plants in the right places can allow you to expend far less time, money and effort, and be far less time-consuming and problematic to maintain than more ‘conventional’ low-maintenance options like landscape fabric, paving, gravel or – the worst of the worst, astroturf.

For this particular garden, for example, I suggested drought tolerant native shrubs, including sagebrush, gray rabbitbrush, shrubby cinquefoil, and antelope bitterbrush, alongside buckwheats, yarrows, blanketflowers, penstemons, sages and many more plants that can become part of a wildlife-friendly, low-water-use planting scheme for this semi-arid region.

Create an environmental desert in your yard, in the name of convenience, and I assure you that a range of headaches will arise in the medium to long term.

Things will go far more smoothly if you consider environmental harmony from the outset, and create healthy, functioning ecosystems in your garden that really will enrich your life and stand the test of time.

If you are interested in discussing how a permaculture approach with careful planning and planting can help you create a beautiful and abundant yard that will be much lower maintenance and eco-friendly too, please get in touch.