Transitioning to a Lower Maintenance Garden

A garden walk and talk with Sue L’Hommedieu

  • Grow larger groupings of fewer plants instead of lots of different plants
  • Don’t mulch since it has to be reapplied every year or so. Have dense plantings to suppress weeds. Use composted leaves in temporary open spots
  • Keep fewer daffodil bulbs and more smallerbulbs for less cutting back of foliage.ie snowdrops, scilla, chionodoxa, grape hyacinth
  • Use large hosta, large leafed perennials, or sweeps of smaller ones to take up space. Leave foliage all winter and rake off in early spring.
  • Divide successful plants to make bigger groupings as you work toward your goal. Eliminate troublemakersas you go.
  • Allow plants to blend into one another or grow beneath each other to give two looks to the area (early spring and summer) ex: European ginger, primrose, snowdrops or lamium growing under hosta, shrubs and vase-shaped perennial clumps
  • Rely on foliage, not blossoms. Use big colorful foliage—yellow, variegated, maroon. Vary plant form using strappy, upright, mounded, fine-textured
  • Don’t fight Mother Nature—change to plants that grow happily in your garden situation—do you have shady, wet, heavy soil or hot, dry, sunny?
  • Loosen standards about the lawn and the lawn edging.
  • Plant very few staked plants or things that need to be tied back. Honestly evaluate whether plants that need extra attention are worth it.
  • Incorporate shrubs and small trees—big impact, little work, permanent ex: spirea, hydrangea, beautyberry, Serviceberry, evergreen shrubs
  • Fewer grasses so less cutting back and dividing. Bind with duct tape, then cut
  • Don’t divide clumps to keep plants the same size. Decide on the best ones, Remove neighbors instead or cut back some outer leaves if they crowd desireables
  • Encourage birds—keeps movement in the garden, eat pests, feeder can be a focal point
  • Take a photo of sentimental plants and then remove if they are too time-consuming
  • Use garden art as focal points. Move it around or rotate pieces from storage to new places to give a fresh look. A few large pieces, not lots of small ones.
  • Eliminate things you have to bring in for winter—canna, dahlia, clay pots,
  • Only keep knickknacks and garden art you can leave outside yearround—windchimes, plastic or styro pots, metal garden art, concrete birdbaths
  • Use perennials or shrubs in big plastic pots and leave them out yearround instead of planting annuals
  • Cut back on annual pots to decrease watering time. Have a couple big ones, not a lot of little ones. Use water gel in the soil and time release fertilizer.
  • New plants in pots in the driveway take a lot of care.Don’t overbuy at nurseries in the spring!Plant as you buy, then return for more.
  • To have a larger garden, use groundcover type plants amid valued perennials—hellebore, fern, lamium, ajuga, barren strawberry, hardy geraniums—they are nearly carefree.
  • Make watering easy as possible—long hoses, sprinklers, large diameter hoses and nozzle (or remove it). Install a hose bib close to the garden
  • Use a garden cart and tool caddy to work efficiently. Have a compost pile/bin to eliminate bagging.
  • Take photo of problem area to get an objective view of it to decide if a redo is needed
  • Use serrated knife, not pruners, for cutting back.
  • Buy good boots so you can work when the ground is wet. Start spring chores as early as possible so all the work doesn’t come at once
  • Place stepping stones in the beds as space holders, weed blockers and to help avoid walking on wet soil. Make your own from concrete.
  • Have many pairs of 99cent gloves—using nitrilecoated ones for better grip on tools and weeds is less tiring
  • Use duct tape to bundle shrub pruningsor keep a brush pile if you have space.
  • Pathways should not cause work—no gravel, no bricks with sand, no mulch that keeps needing to be reapplied. Large stone pathways or brick/stone with mortar work well.
  • Cut flowers from your perennial garden instead of maintaining a separate cutting bed
  • Grow favorite herbs in a few pots close to the house and give up the herb garden
  • Put wide-leafed perennials at the edge where lawn meets the bed to keep grass out and hide a less-than-perfect edging job
  • Minimize changes to the design. Be content with what is. Don’t make extra work by continually fiddling with it
  • Beware gift plants that are spreaders “I have lots of this, want some?”
  • Eliminate thugs such as gooseneck loosestrife, meadow rue, wild asters, lamiastrum, ostrich fern, autumn clematis (choose ones that don’t seed)
  • Last resorts: Remove beds you can’t see from indoors. Make existing beds smaller.Hire help to do what you don’t like to do or can’t do

Suggested Low-Maintenance Perennials

Amsonia

Eupatorium

Alium

Astilbe

Daylily

Solomon’s Seal

Hardy Geranium

Hosta

Aster

Hydrangea

BlackeyedSusans

Hellebore

Lamium

Ferns

Baptisia

Epimedium

Primrose

European Ginger