A No-Mow Backyard

This backyard garden is designed with two key features in mind: eliminate the lawn and add year-round beauty. The designer incorporated tough, reliable plants that look good even when the weather turns harsh. For details about each section of the garden, see the pages that follow.

A well-designed landscape has good "bones" -- elements that remain visible and attractive all year. In this case, the bones include a multicolor brick patio, a flagstone path, and an ornamental latticetop fence for background and privacy. A line of evergreen arborvitaes and a Washington hawthorn tree also look good in all four seasons.