Low Maintenance Garden Design
How do you design a garden that you have the time to look after?
Life is complicated and we don’t always have enough time to do all the things we want to in life. When you are designing your garden you need to think about how much time you realistically have to tend to your garden once it is complete. Some people will substitute money for time and have someone else maintain their garden. For most of us this isn’t an option, we want to have a chance to connect with our garden but not so much maintenance that we start resenting it.
So, what can we do during the design phase to reduce the maintenance necessary into the future?
Plant selection
Vegetation requires the most regular ongoing maintenance, so good choices at this point can have great benefits later.
Having full coverage of plants means that there is less space for weeds to grow up through. After seeds have germinated they need to get to the light to create their own energy before they use up all of the energy that was in the seed.
Choose plants that need minimal pruning.
Choose slow growing plants. Fast growing plants are fantastic in the beginning as they fill your space quickly. However, many of those fast growing plants will continue growing quickly and then need more regular pruning to keep in good shape.
Long lived plants mean that you do not have to be replanting regularly. Choose long lived perennial plants and avoid annuals except as produce.
Choose plants with an appropriate mature size. To avoid some of the pruning in the future you can choose plants that will reach an appropriate size for your space so that you don’t need to keep them under control in the future.
Formal or Informal? If you choose a simple palette of plants than the maintenance will be repetitive and not scattered throughout the year. However, if you are relying on straight lines and uniformity as in hedges and one or more of the plants don’t perform well or die. You will now have a noticeable gap. If you choose an informal style of planting when something is not looking the best it will be not as obvious as there will be other plants at different stages and no noticeable change to a pattern.
Choose plants with lower watering needs if you do not have an irrigation system.
Deciduous vs Evergreen? If you crave a clean looking garden an evergreen tree like a Eucalyptus sp. is going to drop leaves constantly throughout the year. A deciduous tree will drop it’s leaves over a short period of time where you can do bulk leaf removal and then not worry about it for the rest of the year.
Informal Planting
The plantings in this garden are varied and diverse. When something fails it will not impact on the overall design. However, there are more jobs to do at different times of the year to cater to the differing needs of all of the plants. If it does get out of control it will not be as noticeable.
Mulching
A good covering of mulch helps to suppress weeds. The seeds that germinate will have trouble getting up above ground to the light before they expend all of the energy available in the seed.
Mulch will help reduce evaporation and crusting of the top layer of soil keeping them healthier with less watering.
Which type of mulch? Organic mulches that decompose like chipped barks can be good as they also feed the soil. Though generally they will need to be replaced if they are made up of finer particles.
Lawn
Lawn can be one of the higher maintenance items within a garden. Reducing the lawn area will save you time over a year if you replace it with garden beds. However, there are certain people that love mowing the lawn and don’t see it as a chore (not me).
Which variety? Different varieties of grass will grow at different speeds and have dormant periods at different times of the year.
Edging between your lawn and garden beds to an appropriate depth for your turf variety will stop it spreading underneath and invading your garden beds. Controlling grass can be one of the most soul destroying jobs in the garden.
Material Selection
How durable are the materials?
What is the scratch resistance or hardness of the timber (Janka Rating)?
Do I need to re-coat periodically?
The facade of this house looks great but will need consistent re-coating to look as it does in the future. If the timber was allowed to silver off the coatings could be made less frequent.
Irrigation
If you are spending a lot of money on your garden and you don’t have time then an irrigation system is a must unless you have chosen plants that thrive in the rainfall that your area receives.
If you are relying on rainfall for watering make sure that you do not mulch to deep as you will find in small rain events that not much water actually makes it down to the roots of your plants.