We all love a beautiful garden, but how do you maintain a garden when you have limited time and gardening skills? The answer is an Easy Care Garden. We asked guest blogger Catherine Guard from Branch Out Landscape Designs for some time-saving tips for an easy care garden (aka low maintenance).
What makes an easy care garden??
Making time to care for your garden like anything else will reward those who make the effort, with a beautiful space to enjoy. But in today’s society, we are all time poor so here are a few tips to keeping the maintenance down to a minimum
Preparation – your garden is only as good as the soil your plants are growing in. Always use plenty of organic matter to replenish your soils nutrients and improve drainage before planting. Healthy plants are easy care plants.
Water – choosing native and water-wise plants will keep watering to a minimum.
Microclimate – Careful consideration of the microclimate will ensure good plant selection for different areas of your garden. Plants will be happy in their position and require less looking after. Knowledge about the mature size of your plants will help you to calculate the number of plants you need in a particular spot and prevent your garden from becoming an overgrown mess in a year or two.
Hedges – Maintaining a hedge can be very time-consuming, as a hedge is a long-term investment. Regular formative pruning in the early stages will ensure your hedge looks amazing as it matures; without regular pruning, your hedge will become leggy and sparse. Constant water is also needed to ensure steady growth. Consider planting spreading shrubs for less structured screening. Some bamboos and palms will also provide low maintenance alternatives. You can also use some decorative panels as a side screen.
Lawns – Lawns can be high maintenance areas of your garden if you want them to look amazing all year round. Fertilizing, weeding, mowing and watering can be minimized with a good balance of hard and soft surfaces to achieve your needs. Gravels, pebbles, groundcovers and paving require less work to maintain. Below is a great example of using other pebbles, gravel and pavers for an easy care garden.
Garden Ornaments – If you want to add a bit of pizazz to your garden, try some garden ornaments or a light box. They bring a wow factor and you don’t have to water or weed them.
Catherine Gard is the director of Branch Out Landscape Design. With a Diploma in Landscape Design, she can help you achieve an inspiring, integrated outdoor space. Her interest in gardening began at an early age and developed through the years to culminate in a career change from Optometry to Landscape Design. As a designer, she is passionate about creating beautiful spaces that meet the needs of the client while responding to the local environment in a sustainable way. She has an in-depth understanding of families and how they interact together in the outdoors.
As part of the global community and the responsibility that comes with it, each of us has the right to make informed choices about the way that we affect change on our environment. She can help you make educated choices that impact positively on the future of the planet when it comes to designing your new garden and the choice of materials available.
Maintenance of the finished product is also a factor in the design process. Many people have limited time to devote to caring for their garden. Plant selection is crucial in finding the right balance when it comes to the future care of their outdoor space.
Her preferred style of design does not come under an individual heading but aims to respond to each individual site to create a garden that sits well in the environment and responds o the microclimate while achieving the client’s wishes for their personal space.
She has been a member of The Australian Institute of Landscape Designers and Managers (AILDM) since 2013.
Thank you, Catherine, for your guest blog on easy care gardens.
Do you have a local issue you would like help with? ITC is here to help just email us at [email protected]
You can subscribe to our newsletter by filling out the form at the bottom of our homepage. Our newsletter is sent out every Wednesday Night at 7.30pm and includes details of Lane Cove Events for the next seven days or so, and articles you may have missed during the previous week.
Have you liked our Facebook page or Instagram Page – what are you waiting for?!
