LOW-MAINTENANCE GARDEN IDEAS

Low-maintenance G ARDEN IDE A S

Spend more time relaxing and less time working in your outdoor space with these clever design solutions

re you just too busy

Afor lengthy gardening jobs? These lowmaintenance garden ideas are the answer. They’ll allow you to do more of the things you enjoy in your plot and less of those that you don’t. So that means more relaxing, and far less time weeding – hooray!

If you’re starting from scratch, a low-maintenance garden is a fairly easy goal to achieve. But, if you’re struggling to keep on top of what you’ve already got, there’s a simple solution. All you need to do is work out which gardening tasks currently take up a lot of your time and effort, and which you least enjoy doing. Then, find ways to either ditch those jobs altogether, or at least to minimise the time you need to spend on them. It can be done.

There are bound to be some garden tasks you find really rewarding but that are nevertheless quite timeconsuming, so start by making a ‘priorities list’ of jobs you’re happy to continue with. Do you love growing your own veg, for example? To give you more time for that, other garden tasks need to be streamlined or simplified. Take a look at these ideas for inspiration.

Deck it out

Decking makes an attractive, hard-wearing surface for seating areas and it’s also a good replacement for labour-intensive patches of lawn. But if it’s wooden, it’s by no means maintenancefree. Wood lookalikes are the perfect solution.

Composite decking is manufactured from recycled material, and resists fading, staining, scratching and mould. It won’t rot, warp, crack or splinter and just a simple soap and water cleaning every now and again is all that’s needed to keep it looking like new for years.

Go simple with paving

Lawns are great, but when it comes to mowing – not so much. So, for a lowmaintenance ground to your plot, why not try paving? From porcelain pavers to natural stone slabs, paving adds a stylish surface to any garden, and is fuss-free to look after. You will just need to give it a quick clean now and then to prevent it becoming slippery over time.

Raise your beds

Make your life easier by swapping your ground-level beds to raised beds as it will instantly make everyday gardening tasks such as planting and weeding far less arduous. If you’re building your raised beds from scratch, you can choose the best height and width that works for you. There are also plenty of DIY kits available too. For a more rustic look, leave them as natural wood as the timber will soften in colour over time. Alternatively, you may prefer to paint them in a coloured wood stain to suit your garden style – this can also have the added benefit of protecting the wood to ensure it lasts for longer.

Use self- watering pots

Love plants, but don’t always have time to water? Don’t worry, there’s an easy-peasy solution – self-watering pots!

Complete with in-built reservoirs, these sustainable containers will allow you to enjoy your plants without reaching for the watering can so often, for fear of them drying out. There’s no need to worry about overwatering either, due to their nifty design.

Narrow enough to fit on the smallest of windowsills or shelves, they’re perfect for a miniature herb garden.

Pick drought tolerant plants

Even the keenest of gardeners will admit that having to water once, and sometimes twice, a day at the height of summer can become very tedious. However, if your garden soil tends to bake dry, as often happens with clay, see it as a plus point rather than a negative. Instead of trying to keep it moist, fill it with drought-tolerant plants that will thrive without additional watering instead – try eryngiums and lavender, for example.

Keep lawns low maintenance

Keeping a lawn looking good is arguably the most timeconsuming of all garden jobs. But, you could consider having just a small area of short grass in the most formal area of garden and leaving the rest to become wilder and more natural. All you then need to do is mow it just once a year at the end of summer.

If you do want to keep your whole lawn area regularly mown and you don’t mind splashing out a little, robot lawn mowers will do all the work for you. It can be programmed to head out at pre-set times, before taking itself back to its charging station when it’s finished – and you don’t even need to be at home at the time.

Include easycare shrubs

Of all the plants that you could have in your garden, shrubs are the ones you are more likely to be able to put in and more or less forget about.

Once they’re established, shrubs will usually only need watering in the very driest of summers, if at all. Other than that, an occasional light pruning will be all that’s required.

For amazing summer scent in a sunny part of the garden, you can’t beat Philadelphus ‘Belle Etoile’, while hydrangeas (now very fashionable again) are perfect for shady spots.

Add a mix of containers

One of the best ways to add colour and interest to your garden is to go for a mix of pots and containers. Choose easy-to-care-for plants and all you’ll need to do is occasionally water and prune them. This idea works particularly well in small spaces too, and you could even try growing a few varieties of veg and fruit in pots on your patio.

To keep the look interesting, go for a pots in a range of colours and sizes, then mix it up further by choosing plants in varying heights to quickly transform your outdoor space.

Suppress weeds

Weeding can be one of the most soul-destroying of garden tasks, but there are two key ways to keep them at bay. One is mulching – laying a thick layer of well-rotted manure, garden compost, leaf mould or composted bark around your plants. As well as locking in moisture, a mulch also blocks the light, meaning that weeds won’t come to the surface.

The other key to a weed-free garden is dense planting – where there’s a plant, there won’t be a weed. So, pack every border and you will notice a big reduction in the time you need to spend your hands and knees, pulling out that pesky chickweed.

Try adding gravel

If you decide to replace your lawn with hard landscaping, be sure you choose a permeable surface that allows rainwater to drain away safely. This is especially important in front gardens, where there are now laws that restrict how much of the space can be changed to hard landscaping (this is to ensure less surface water drains onto roads, potentially causing flooding).

Gravel is a good, lowmaintenance option for attractive, permeable hard landscaping and can look wonderful with sun-loving plants in or around it. But be sure to use a weedsuppressing membrane underneath it to ensure upkeep is minimal.