Would like ideas for low maintance front yards...

[Lavndrgrl]

DH and I have a house we are rebuilding in a typical neighbor hood down here on the gulfcoast of MS. We sit on a 75 X 150 size lot with house in the center. The front yard is probably only 50 X 50 with a pear tree and two flowering plum trees and one crab apple tree. I love the way the trees are filling in and there is practicly no maintaince for them. I would like to however get rid of the grass. We want to keep the back yard a grass oasis with the trees back there but want to put in something very low maintance in the front that requires no mowing and that would be a real eye catcher. Any ideas are welcomed.

Thanks,
LG

[Lavndrgrl]

Meant to say that front yard trees are non fruit producing flowering trees except the crab apple.

you could try putting down black plastic or something to prevent grass from coming through, and make a "rock garden" with different colored and different sized rocks and mulch around your trees.

[Lavndrgrl]

That sounds real nice. I am online right now trying to find some pic. ideas.

[insocal]

Look into whatever native groundcovers do well in your area.

[uyk7]

Astro turf?


.

[Lavndrgrl]

Dont get me wrong I love rolling hills of lush grass and the occasional tree but our front yard is a pain other than our beautiful trees. Right about now Astro turf sounds good. One of our neighbors made a joke about wanting to concrete his yard and then spray paint it green lol.

[gone-a-milkin]

I recommend getting some good weed suppression cloth instead of putting down plastic. The better grades of landscape fabric last longer and allow water to penetrate.

I have seen trees die pretty quickly when their roots were all covered with plastic.

[michael.hickman]

WE jst fenced ours in and put a quarterhorse in it.

[knoche]

Don't use plastic. Just wrong in so many ways. Use a quality landscape fabric if you want to eliminate the grass and put rock or bark over it. Seems a shame since here in the west we do this to save water and that doesn't appear to be your problem.
I agree with another poster about checking out native plants that will stay low and perhaps some low growing ground covers. A variety of plants in interesting patterns can be quite stunning to look at and very low maintenance.

[EDDIE BUCK]

How about white clover? Eddie Buck

[blufford]

I saw where an Amish farmer nearby had replaced his front yard and fence line's grass with white stone. I was surprised how neat and orderly it looked and I'm sure he did it to cut back on maintenance in his old age. Here is a link that shows the type of white stone I'm referring.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...%3D80%26um%3D1