It would be great to plant a garden with plants that will look after
themselves, always look neat and tidy and need very little effort to maintain
them. There are plants which need little attention and by using the right ground
cover and mulching materials you can reduce the time it takes to look after the
garden.
That said such plants are usually slow growing or compact, often
are less interesting in many respects or can be let to grow rampant only needing
attention once in 4 or 5 years. Many of these would have to be plants that
will withstand drought or would only need watering to establish them. The design
of such a garden containing plants which need little care and attention will be
of great importance, as will the choice of mulching and surfacing materials.
Short lived plants would not be considered suitable as they will require
replanting, deciduous trees and shrubs could only be used in limited numbers as
they will drop their leaves which will require cleaning up, particularly those
with larger leaves. Grass would not be welcome as it requires regular cutting.
The following is the criteria I would use in making a maintenance free as
possible garden. In some instances I have suggested suitable plants and materials
you could use along with an idea of what the
maintenance requirements would be.
 | Let a large part of the garden go wild, introduce a large variety of
bulbs that will naturalize, plant shrubs that will attract wild life. In
such a garden you would get away with giving the area a thorough tidy up in
August after the wild flowers and bulbs have died down and again in Jan /
Feb before they start into growth. By the careful selection of a wide range
of suitable bulbs, plants, trees and shrubs you can have something in flower
or creating interest all year round. Such an garden can be as decretive as
any type of plantings and you won't have to spend to much time looking after
it. |
| Planting the garden (or part of the garden) with specimen trees and
shrubs through a water permeable membrane like mypex and then covering the
mypex with bark, gravel, slate or some other decretive material will look
tidy, keep all the weed growth out and reduce the time you have to spend
maintaining your garden. |
| Lay most of the garden out with hard surfaces that will not let weeds
grow through, create pockets in the surfacing for growing plants. In
addition or as well as you could introduce containers or raised beds which
will add interest and variety. The containers could be planted with low
maintenance plants like Lavender, Rosemary or Rockroses, you could plant
them with trees and other shrubs if you are prepared to water them. |
| If its living ground cover you want then there is a wide range of low
growing shrubs you can use that will suppress weeds when developed or for
very low growing plantings try alpines and other low growing spreading
plants. For the very dry area lay a lawn of mixed sediums or a camomile
lawn. |
