Designing a Low-Maintenance Landscape in Minneapolis

As we get older, our lives get busier: with work, with families, and with hobbies. For some people, gardening and landscaping is a good stress-reliever, getting rid of the stress of the day. For others, it creates just one more headache. Or maybe we’ve hit an age where we’re simply not as mobile as we once were. Or maybe you simply don’t have much of a green thumb, but still want to have a beautiful yard. Whatever the case, KG Landscape is here to help create low-maintenance landscape designs that fit your life.

Hardscaping

One option to create less work for yourself in the long run is to look into designing a patio for your yard. A well designed paver patio space will reduce the amount of lawn that needs to be mowed and maintained, and has the benefit of adding outdoor entertaining space.

A modern outdoor patio with seating, water feature, and stone pathway surrounded by lush greenery and dark gray wooden walls.

Pro-tip: Add potted plants to your patio space! If you contain your planting to pots, you don’t need to worry about maintaining flower beds and weeds through Minnesota’s changing seasons. Potted plants have the additional benefit of being mobile. If you’re entertaining or simply want to change things up, you can rearrange plants and flowers to your heart’s content. You can also design and adjust the planting to the changing seasons; use evergreen trunks and pieces during winter or mums and colorful leaves in the fall.

Use Easy Low Maintenance Plants

Select tough d rought-resistant perennials if you don’t want to water your gardens every day or replace plants every spring. In Minnesota, some good options are:

ornamental grasses like "Karl forester' grass
daylilies
sedum
catmint
allium
hostas
ferns

A cluster of pink flowering sedum plants with green foliage.

Purple-flowered catmint bush in a garden bed with mulch and green foliage.

Of course, you can’t go wrong with evergreens. Not only are they low-maintenance, but they’ll give your yard a splash of color in the deepest winter. Generally speaking, evergreen shrubs are slow growing, which means less trimming. Our favorites are:

Yews
Arborvitaes
Barberry
Boxwoods
Junipers
Spruce
Pine

Rock Gardens

Creating a rock garden is another great way to create a low-maintenance space. Rock gardens have the benefit of not needing to be redone every couple years like mulch. Once rock is installed, it doesn't require top dressing. You’ll need to keep on top of the weeds initially, but after your plants become established, that will become less of an issue. Perennials can fill in the areas covered by soil instead of rocks, and will require little upkeep. Ground cover plants are especially good for rock gardens, as they’ll grow to fill the space. Easy ground cover plants include:

Taller perennials, including some of the easy-to-care-for ones above, are lovely additions to rock gardens, giving them a pop of color.

Other Tips

Love the ideas for a low-maintenance yard but aren’t sure where to get started? We would be happy to help create the yard of your dreams. Give us a call today at (763) 568-7251 or send us a message through our quote system.

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How We Restored a Backyard Swale in Shoreview, MN

By Daniel . • July 9, 2026

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By Kent Gliadon • July 9, 2026

On the shores of Lake Minnetonka, perhaps the most famous of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes, an Orono, Minnesota homeowner was struggling with a back yard that was becoming more marsh than yard. The yard was a scenic one. The back porch opened up to the top of a small hill, which rolled down toward the lakefront and the boathouse. This flat space between the hill and the water would be ideal for backyard barbecues, some low-stakes games of bocce and badminton, or simply a spot to lay down a towel and get some summer reading done. Instead, this area was too waterlogged to enjoy. The runoff from the hilltop combined with unfavorable soil composition were limiting the use of the yard, closing off space while even diminishing the quality of the turf. How would this homeowner be able to reclaim this unusable land without disrupting the Lake Minnetonka shoreline that made the property so attractive? To find a solution, they turned to KG Landscape.