Are you looking for a more affordable upkeep landscape or a landscape that is more sustainable? For decades, conventional yards have been time consuming and costly to maintain. In many places, this type of landscaping is also not the most environmentally friendly option. One of the biggest costs of maintaining a landscape after it’s been created is keeping it watered. Many traditional landscaping plants are not drought resistant and the general design of residential landscapes has been poor for water retention. When it rains, this means there is a lot of runoff into the nearby storm drains. In Seattle and the surrounding area, we often use these and other indigenous plants in modern landscape designs to provide low maintenance and hardiness along with color, beauty, and year-round interest.
Orchid Rockrose
The Orchid Rockrose are low maintenance plants and a splendid evergreen choice for rock gardens. It is drought tolerant, so after it’s planted and settled into its location it requires very little water. The Orchid Rockrose flowers well into the summer with bright, showy pink flowers containing vibrant yellow stamens. During the winter months they stay green and keep interest in the garden despite the flowers no longer blooming. It is capable of handling winter temperatures as cold as 15 degrees Fahrenheit. This combination of drought tolerance and cold hardiness is difficult to beat.
Oregon Grape
The Oregon Grape is a smart choice for tough planting locales. Also on the list of modern low maintenance plants, this species can handle rough conditions and keep on thriving. It is a great plant for attracting interest and adding different colors to the garden year round. In spring to early summer it has a wonderful array of canary yellow flowers. During the autumn months, it produces waxy blue berries and reddish-purple colored leaves. The evergreen shrub survives winters without an iota of concern and some varieties will even flower in winter. They require very little watering and grow well on steep slopes or areas with tough ground.
Heavenly Bamboo Varieties
This is one of our favorite modern low maintenance plants. If you love the autumn colors and wish you could enjoy them almost year-round, then these plants are a good choice. They boast beautiful leaves, ranging in color from reds and purples to yellow, that are excellent at bringing out the colors of neighboring plants, too. They are also evergreen, so they won’t stand bare in the winter months. Amazingly easy to grow, they require minimal care to keep thriving and providing color. Heavenly Bamboo varieties work wonderfully, both as background hedges or as pleasant foreground plants. They also combine well with a wide variety of other plant types.