Cheap and Lazy Landscaping
Once upon a time I used to pull these “weeds” out of the gravel at the side of my driveway, all the while wondering why weeds grew so well, while the flowers I planted needed constant care. Then I decided that when I pulled these “weeds” out of the gravel, I would plant them in my flower beds. They have spread and flourished, filling in the bed, and looking LOVELY! Since it’s MY yard, I get to decide that they are flowers, not weeds. Re-purposing at its finest!
Next up is to tackle the mint that has totally taken over my raised bed for herbs. Yes, I did plant the mint in a buried steel bucket to keep it contained. Well that didn’t work, obviously. But we have a steep slope at the side of our house that I’ve been ignoring for a few years because I don’t know what to do with it. Guess where I’m transplanting the mint to this weekend?
Since my little violet experiment I am all about working with the “problems” in landscaping, rather than continually fighting them. I’d love to hear from you if you’ve done any of this type of cheap and lazy landscaping. This works for me — for more Works for Me ideas visit We Are That Family.
Great ideas! I took some phlox that grew like crazy and overflowed from its area, and transplanted some to a sloped area in our back yard. I’m hoping it will grow like crazy there, and quickly, to cover up the bare spots. You have inspired me to keep thinking about what else I can do.
I just wish I had “weeds” that looked like yours. 
I’ve transplanted daylilies from the alley into our yard in our previous home. We also had flowers coming up in odd places because a house had been torn down and a new one built on a new footprint … so we moved them to our flower beds instead. And there was a little white bulb that came up all over the yard, and we never identified it but every year I moved clumps of it into the flower beds before Steve mowed them down.
Here, we are also needing to do the same thing. We have flowers coming up in odd places from extinct flower beds and we need to move them to where we want them to be.
My hubby sprays my flowers with weed sprays because he thinks they are weeds. My columbine has suffered two years in a row and he mows down my lily of the valley because it has outgrown it’s bed. Our mint is taking over – but it’s a spot that I can’t get anything else to grow so that’s okay!
This is a great idea. One thing that we have done to prevent erosion on a hillside we have is to let the trees grow wild there. We noticed one day that some of the weeds we were tyring to pull up were actually little oak and sweet gum trees. That was three years ago… and now we have a nice wooded area growing up.
Thanks,
Amy Ellen at HealthBeginsWithMom.com
I don’t do landscaping at all. So I admire anyone who can do any of it!! I’ve told my husband more than once that after paying someone to clean my house, my biggest dream budget item is someone to do our landscaping. Or at least give my husband more money to spend at the greenhouse!
But, as it is, I’m thankful when my husband has time to mow the yard. And one of these days, we’re going to dig the leaves out of our bushes in the front yard!
We’re trying to get some mint to take hold on our hillside that is a total BEAR to mow/weedeat.
Mint is very aggressive. It can/will take over an area and then some.
My neighbor taught me how to take geranium clippings and transplant them. So far I have a bunch of different varieties and I keep clipping and adding where I need to fill in an area. With different colors it really looks nice.
Ann,
I’d love to know how to do this. I just got a geranium plant in a pot and I’d love to have flowers in my front yard!
My husband is our gardener! (I love the results, but not the process!) Several years ago he found that our local botanic garden has a ‘trial garden’. He asked permission to harvest seeds from the plants when they were ready. He went several times equipped with small plastic bags and markers. Each plant is identified and he picked the ones he liked and thought would work well in our yard. Not all the seeds grew well, but we have a wonderful variety of plants and were even able to share some with others.
[...] Econobusters Blog Archive Cheap and Lazy Landscaping [...]