Simple Garden Tips For Those With Limited Time

Of course we would all like to think that we have an unlimited amount of time to spend making our gardens look absolutely perfect, but sometimes life rudely gets in the way. For example, you may have recently decided to start a business or have other family commitments that drag you away from your garden. If this is the case, you will want to still maintain your garden, but with methods that don’t end up taking a huge amount of time. So, here are a few low maintenance garden tips for if you are a little low on time.

Design and Planning

First and foremost, you will have to make a plan of how much time you can realistically put into your garden. Think about the features that are of most importance to you. As an example, if you are passionate about growing your own vegetables, you will want to make sure that your vegetable patch is well maintained. A landscaping company will be able to help you out with a detailed and structured plan. Try to place the most labour intensive features closer to the home so they are easy to access. Also, think about positioning the water source closest to where you will need it the most.

Plants and Lawn

There is no such thing as a plant that needs no maintenance, but many evergreen plants require minimal care once they are planted. With regards to the lawn, you can consider reducing the amount of cutting that you have to go through. Experiment with different frequencies of cut; some ‘wilder’ areas could be left for a longer period of time. Instead of collecting the clippings, you could allow them to drop back onto the grass, returning the nutrients to the lawn.

Borders and Weed Control

A lot of the regular work in a garden involves weed control in the borders and maintaining herbaceous perennials. For a low maintenance garden, it makes sense to replace these with shrubs. You can also plant them through a weed suppressing membrane to help deal with this common garden issue. Once these beds have been established, they are unlikely to require a great deal of watering during their lives.

Ponds and Water Features

Ponds that are without fish tend to settle into a good natural balance, and end up not suffering from weed and algae problems so much. Alternatively, you could consider converting your pond into a bog garden and reducing arduous tasks like taking out leaves, cleaning out and pulling out blanket weed. Shallow water features should also be avoided as they tend to dry out quickly and require regular topping up.

Avoid Containers

One of the main things to be avoided in a low maintenance garden is a high number of containers. These require a great deal of planting up, repotting, feeding, watering and handling. Instead, try to choose larger plants with a greater volume of compost as these will dry out less quickly.