A Low Maintenance Garden

To many people, a low maintenance garden is a concrete garden. However, it is possible to have a low maintenance garden full of colour. Here are a few tips:

Buying / Planting

- Buy slow growing plants - they will need less pruning.
- Evergreens are typically slow growing although the cheapest conifers are usually fast growing and will need a lot of trimming if they don't have space to reach their full potential.
- Evergreen plants don't drop their leaves - meaning less tidying up in the winter.
- Evergreens include Hebe, Camellia, Conifers(so many varieties!), Skimmia, Cordeline, Hydrangea, Pieris, Choisya, Rhododendrons, Heathers, ornamental grasses and Phormiums.
- Ensure that you only buy plants that will fit in the space planned for them. If, when fully grown, they are not causing a nuisance then they might never need pruning.
- Don't give your neighbours more work by planting fast growing hedges near fences as they will quickly encroach on your neighbours garden. It will also be difficult for you to get to the fence to paint it.
- Flowering shrubs and evergreens with interesting shaped/coloured leaves will flower at different times of the year and give you year-round colour - but you only had to plant them once!
- Bulbs are another source of easy colour - plat them once ad they come back each year.
- Perennials are easy - every year they grow, flower and die back - and then do the same again next year.
- Buy the right plants for your garden i.e. clay soil, dry soil, shade. Happy plants are healthy plants. If they die you will have to go and buy more and plant them again.
- Don't let plants ruin each other - think about how plants will interact - grass wont grow well near conifers and shrubs over hanging the lawn will block the light and kill the grass.
- Don't buy plants that will get ravished by slugs and look messy - typically they like low growing, broad leafed plants - if they go squishy when they die back then slugs will like eating them.
- Keep seasonal bedding plants in pots where they can be easily accessed.

Weeding

- It is better to have one well stocked flower border than lots of weedy ones.
- Avoid 'ground cover' plants that could spread out of control - ivy for example.
- Keep invasive plants in pots.
- Any plant that stops sun light getting to the soil will stop/slow weed growth. A well stocked border will have the same effect.
- Place a thick layer of mulch on your borders in early spring to stop weeds growing. Weeds make weeds - kill them early and you wont have to weed so often later in the year.

Pruning

- Remember, some plants look best when allowed to grow to their natural shape rather than be pruned or trimmed.
- As a general rule, you prune to shape a plant, encourage new growth, remove dead/diseased branches or if it is causing an obstruction - does your plant really need pruning?
- Some plants should keep their faded flowers during the winter - sometimes brown is interesting! Hydrangea and ornamental grass flower heads are two examples.
- Prune at the right time of the year. Get to know your plants and what needs to be done and you will learn that different plants need attention at different times of the year - you may be over doing it and a little-and-often approach may give you better results!
- Keep shrubs and hedges at a manageable height. Anything higher than you can reach with a step ladder and an easy to trim hedge becomes a big job.
- Likewise, don't let hedges get too thick or when you get to the top you wont be able to reach the middle.

Grass

- It may be cheaper to pay a gardener to cut your grass twice a month for 9 months of the year than it is to turn it into a patio.
- A big lawn can be easier to cut than a small one because it is more straight forward and less fiddly!
- Don't think that making your lawn smaller will necessarily make it less time consuming to cut.
- Arguably, the cheapest and easiest garden to build/maintain is one that is all lawn!
- Maintain a 3 in gutter between the lawn edge and your flower border - this will stop grass growing in the border that will be very hard to remove.
- Many people delay doing the first lawn cut of the year until it really gets long - this creates work! It is easier to cut when it is short and cutting it in early spring will kill off seasonal weeds before they can grow meaning that your lawn will have less weeds in the summer. Less weeds on your lawn = less weeds spreading to borders and less work!

Recycle!

- Installing a water butt will give you easy access to water and is better for your plants.
- A compost bin makes it easy to deal with cuttings and is a ready made source of mulch for the spring. Mulch not only keeps weeds down but helps the soil retain moisture - meaning less watering!
- Have a wild corner of the garden where beneficial insects can live - they will help keep down nasty garden pests.

Talk to your gardener to see what can be done to make your garden low maintenance.

Keep your car boot clean and order these plants online for home delivery at gardencentre.co.uk...