<p style="text-align: justify">Once you’ve been a homeowner for a while you begin to realize that the chores and maintenance costs begin to add up. One of the main areas of your home that needs continued maintenance and care is your yard. Tending to your yard yourself is often time consuming and often homeowners decide to hire out.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">However, these yard maintenance costs can begin to build. Luckily there are ways that you can either decrease your yard maintenance costs or eliminate them completely be reducing the yardwork to a point where you can manage it yourself. Here are some tips to help reduce the maintenance and cost of yard upkeep.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify"><strong>Shrubs</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify">One of the most common ways to reduce overall yard maintenance, particularly with the lawn, is to plant deciduous shrubs. Planting shrubs helps to reduce the overall size of the lawn. By using local, perennial shrubs, you not only decrease the overall lawn size but you also are adding in a low maintenance plant.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Local species grow the easiest because they are already acclimated to your area’s climate. Deciduous shrubs also provide benefits of adding seasonal color and focal points to your landscape. Most shrubs encounter very little if any insect or problems with diseases.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">These low maintenance shrubs will be able to tolerate the climate and grow rapidly. The only maintenance that may be required of you is yearly pruning and trimming. This is opposed to weekly mowing of the lawn.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify"><strong>Mulch</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify">Mulch is another common alternative to lawn. The reason mulch is popular is due to its relatively maintenance free properties. Permanent mulches such as wood chips and gravel can be used around the base of trees. This removes the hassle of having to mow around trees, often missing a ring of grass right around the stump.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">These mulches, wood chips and gravel, require a landscaping cloth to be placed over the bare soil. The mulch is then layered on over the cloth. The cloth is used to prevent the growth of any remaining grass seeds.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">The only maintenance required may be some weeding. Weeds have the potential to poke through the landscaping cloth. In this case, water down the weed before pulling it out. Watering the weed prior to pulling it makes it easier to pull and reduces the damage to the landscaping cloth.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify"><strong>Paving Stones</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify">A lot of people also use pavers as a way to reduce the amount of yard maintenance. Once set, pavers only need limited maintenance. Paving stones are an easy way to create patios, decks, walkways, driveways, and any other level surfaces you want.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Paving stones require less maintenance than concrete. It is much easier to replace one cracked paving stone than replacing a large cracked chunk of solid piece of concrete. Concrete can also be affected by factors such as temperature, soil settling, and movement. The ground movement is especially prevalent in areas such as Southern California. Concrete slabs can easily crack, whereas pavers may just move around in which case you would just need to move them back.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify"><strong>Use Artificial Grass</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify">Rising in popularity is the use artificial grass. Artificial grass replaces natural grass lawns. As you know, your natural grass lawn requires a lot of upkeep and maintenance. You need to mow the lawn on a regular basis. You also need to water, fertilize, weed, edge, and maintain your lawn on a regular maintenance or else it will get out of control.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Artificial grass provides the deep green grass without all the fuss. There is no need to mow, weed, or water your artificial lawn. It will need an occasional hosing down for things like dirt but this is at much more sporadic intervals than actual watering of your natural lawn.</p>
<h2 style="text-align: justify"><strong>Ground Covers</strong></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify">Finally, ground covers are another popular choice to keep down yard maintenance costs. Ground covers are plants that typically spread across the ground but never grow very tall. The ground covers are chosen due to their low maintenance properties along with their texture and density.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Ground covers actually help with your yard maintenance as they choke out weeds and enhance the soil. Perennial ground covers are a good choice for those who want as a little maintenance as possible while annual ground covers will require some maintenance in the spring.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">Andrew Fujii is a marketing professional with expertise in digital/web and content marketing. He is also a copywriter for multiple agencies producing copy for blogs, articles, websites, product packaging, mobile apps, and more.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">https://plus.google.com/u/0/+AndrewFujii2/posts</p>
<p style="text-align: justify">http://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewfujii/</p>

5 Ways To Lower Your Yard Maintenance Costs
