Renting homes to tenants involves more than providing places to live. A great rental property is designed to be beautiful, enjoyable, and low-maintenance for everyone involved. This applies not only to the home, but also to the surrounding yard. Smart landscaping can allow tenants to enjoy a great yard without constant maintenance or landscaping services needed. Today, we’re covering three low-maintenance and easy rental property landscaping strategies.

 

Flowering Bushes

Bushes are, by far, the best way to create privacy and dynamic landscaping for little-to-know maintenance is flowering bushes. The right bushes will depend on your region. Ideally,  look for fluffy bushes that have soft leaves and non-spiny bark. Flowering bushes are best because they can be decorative, sometimes for most of the year, as well as providing a bit of privacy and greenery.

Flowering bushes may only need to be trimmed once or twice a year, something your tenants can choose to do or you can send someone around for. This type of landscaping doesn’t even require a service, just a property manager with a pair of clippers. Flowering bushes are both attractive and low-maintenance.

 

Xeriscaping

There is a new trend in home landscaping called xeriscaping. This is a method of choosing plants that need very little water and very little maintenance. Depending on your climate, xeriscaping might involve year-round plants that survive well in the local climate or you might create a lovely array of cactus and succulents.

Xeriscaping creates interesting and shapely landscaping designs that are not soft, but they do look good and require minimal care.

 

Decorative Mulch and Gravel

Finally, there’s the landscaping option that involves little to no plants at all. Decorative gravel or colorful mulch can be used to make a rental home’s yard attractive, but in no need of watering or trimming. Woodchips, asphalt shreds, and mulch might be used, for example, in a backyard with an installed playground instead of grass or flowerbeds that need tending. Shapely beds of gravel can create aesthetic patterns in the yard and beautiful curb appeal with no plant-maintenance required. You can also use spacious gravel or mulched flowerbeds between well-spaced low-maintenance plants like trees or bushes.

 

Landscaping your rental homes doesn’t have to require constant mowing or care from your tenants or from property management.