- Draw a plan of your proposed front yard layout before you start. Include a paved walkway to your front door and irregular or oval features on either side. Keep the remaining area open.
- Weeding is one of the least loved chores. Lay black plastic sheeting perforated with small holes for drainage over the area, except where you plan your walkway. This prevents weeds from growing. Alternatively, landscaping or weed cloth can be used, although it may initially not stop every weed, but eventually they won't regrow.
- Make your walkway out of decorative brick pavers. They don't require any maintenance and come in many colors and designs. Set in a bed of sand and atop of a firm base. Because they're not permanently affixed, it makes it easy to replace damaged pavers. Concrete eventually becomes stained and has to be cleaned. It also cracks with excessive ground movement, meaning it has to be patched or replaced.
- Landscaping yards use decorative stones or different colored gravels. Arrange different sized stones together in an attractive and artistic display on each side of your walkway. Cover the plastic or cloth completely with gravel instead of grass. Use flexible rubber borders to contain the gravel.
- Plant cacti if you live in an area where they can survive the winter. They require very minimal maintenance, if any at all, and can survive on rainfall alone in most climates. Other plants that hardly ever require attention are decorative conifers and cypress trees and shrubs. Many are frost hardy. Shrubs of any other type need to be trimmed every once in a while and the petals of flowering plants have to be removed once the flowers have died.
- Use potted plants in attractive planters instead of planting them in the ground. This way you can have flowers in summer. If you're serious about having no maintenance whatsoever, replace them instead of trimming or pruning them in winter.