Creating and maintaining a beautiful garden doesn’t require endless hours of hard work. With a few simple changes, you can create a minimal upkeep green space that lets you focus on relaxing and enjoying time outside.
If you’re unsure how to reduce your garden labour time, check out our tips on creating an inviting, low-maintenance landscape for your home.
Choose Low-Maintenance Plants
Opt for low-maintenance plants suited to your garden’s soil and weather conditions. Lavenders, for example, are hardy plants that will thrive in a sunny garden filled with dry soil. They’ll provide an aesthetically pleasing purple hue to your landscape with minimal attention.
Evergreen shrubs and ornamental grasses are excellent choices that remain vibrant year-round. They give your garden volume when other plants die down during the season changes. They’ll form the backbone of your garden and come in a wide variety of green and yellow shades.
Incorporate Ground Cover Plants
Utilise low-growing cover plants like deciduous shrubs and herbaceous perennials that provide a dense cover over your ground soil. Plants like creeping thyme and periwinkle spread quickly with densely twiggy growth, providing a natural carpet to minimise bare soil exposure.
Dense ground cover plants suppress germination and the development of weed seeds. They pair well with soil covers to reduce the need for weed control measures and enhance moisture retention, contributing to a low-maintenance landscape.
Implement Hardscaping Elements
Hardscaping features add structure and visual interest to your landscape while reducing plant maintenance requirements. Permeable paving is a good choice because it allows rainwater to drain naturally, reducing the risk of flooding during storms while boosting your landscape biodiversity.
Implementing hardscaping elements allows you to control the areas where plants and weeds grow. A raised bed is easier to access via a patio and lets you control the plants and soil.
Apply Mulch to Plant Beds
Covering your soil with organic mulch offers several key benefits to your landscape. It conserves moisture by reducing evaporation, regulates temperature, and prevents weed growth by depriving it of light.
Mulching also enriches the soil as it decomposes, providing nutrients to promote healthier plant growth. Opt for bark chips, compost, grass clippings, fallen leaves, or other organic mulch that will decompose.
Install an Efficient Irrigation System
Manually watering your plants can be time-consuming, especially if you’ve got a big garden. Set up a drip irrigation system to cut down on water waste and the hose. A good automatic system will spray on set timers, avoiding watering leaves and directly spraying soil to allow water to reach plant roots.
You can also ensure consistent moisture levels with inexpensive DIY irrigation systems. Their parts snap together like toys and can be adjusted to adapt to changing garden conditions.
Opt for Perennials Over Annuals
If you have annuals like Nasturtiums, you’ll need to replant them yearly because they only live for one growing season. Choosing beautiful perennials that return each year will eliminate the need for replanting and reduce your garden’s maintenance.
Daylilies and hostas are among the beautiful perennials you can plant in your garden. They’ll require minimal care and provide your landscape with character every year.
