Low-Maintenance Landscaping Options
The landscape around your office complex doesn't have to be ornate and filled with leaves and blossoms. However, it is nice to have something to break up the concrete monotony and add a little natural color. Green plants and beautiful flowers, not to mention leafy trees, can help reduce stress in those working at the complex. So, the last thing you want is for the plants at the complex to start looking bare. Hiring a great landscaping crew is a start, but the type of greenery you have also plays a big role in how green the landscape looks. Low-maintenance plants are excellent choices.
(Almost) Nothing but Annuals
Annual plants grow for one season and then die. Unlike perennials, which die back but then grow again and bloom again year after year, annuals just need to be planted once, given basic care for a season, and then removed when the blossoms and leaves fall off. While planting and removing plants several times a year may sound like a lot of work, you don't have to worry about preparing the plants for winter or coaxing them to grow again and hoping they bloom in spring. You can re-plant the same types of plants every year or go for color changes as the seasons and your tastes change. Note that having some trees and perennial evergreen shrubs along with the annuals is a good choice, just so there's some consistency in how the landscape looks.
Native Plants Only
Native plants can survive on the rainfall and soil nutrients that are typical for the area, and they have a higher resistance to local pests. That means you need less water, less fertilizer, and less pesticide to keep the plants healthy. These are very low-maintenance because, unless you (or the landscapers) have really bad luck, you're not going to have to do much to keep the plants going. Native plants can be annuals or perennials, so you have a lot of room to play in here when you choose the plants you want.
Xeriscaped Groundcovers
Xeriscaping is a type of landscaping that uses low-water-needs plants. In other words, if you're in a region that deals with droughts, xeriscaping helps you conserve water and also reduces watering maintenance. Groundcovers are low plants that seem to cover the ground, and they are often very easy to care for. The one drawback to groundcovers is that, while many of them hold up well to foot traffic, enough foot traffic can still create unplanned trails through them. You may want to ask the landscaping maintenance crew to purposefully leave pathways through the groundcover areas to prevent plants from being crushed.
Any of these choices make maintenance easy. While your lanscaping crew might be happy to take care of plants that have complicated requirements, it's better to have plants that don't need a lot of maintenance. Speak with professionals who provide landscaping maintenance for more information.