The plants that are enjoyable for a month or two make life harder for the ones you really want to encourage – the ones that hold up the scheme year round. For instance if you plant some great evergreen plants like rosemary or euphorbia next to lots of fast growing perennials or annuals, they will struggle to establish and be competing too much for resources. But remember, you’re working with something that has a multitude of its own forces operating that may not always align with your intentions.īy contrast smaller plants, planted further apart, will fill out into the gaps, taking up the space they need but not at the expense of other slow growing neighbours. It can be tempting, especially if you’ve just renovated a house or moved, to go big on your garden design and tackle everything at once. Be selective - and don’t plant too much at once They get on perfectly well on their own and if planned well will give you a continuous succession of colour throughout the year, with very little input from you. There are a so many to choose from that enjoy all types of gardens and they only require being cut down once a year in late winter.įill your garden with bulbs. It means one less bit of maintenance to do and you’ll be supporting wildlife at the same time by providing habitats and food.Įmbrace ornamental grasses. Small shrubs particularly not only provide year-round interest, but they also need very little maintenance and help support other plants when they get tall and need propping up.Ĭhoose plants that have long flowering periods (like geraniums and salvias for instance), leave seedheads on for winter interest and if possible, leave your perennials standing over winter. When starting a new border or designing a garden, always think about which plants are evergreen. Plants have a mind of their own and if you allow yours to move around your garden, purely editing rather than controlling the space, you’ll have a much easier life. Leaves will fall, stone will weather and age, timber will warp – this is all part of the magic.Įmbrace self-seeders and make that part of your garden philosophy.
Dealing with nature and the elements means you will always have less control over your outdoor space, so better to save yourself some trouble and learn to enjoy that.
And remember, lots of lawn space that requires constant mowing and watering is not necessarily lower maintenance than a well thought-out plant bed! Every garden needs some maintenanceįirst things first, don’t look at your garden as just another room of your house. Here’s some advice if you’re looking to design a new garden or want to better understand an existing established garden you’ve inherited from a previous owner.
There are many ways to make these tasks seem less overwhelming, however. It’s a way of aligning yourself with nature, which in itself can be a wonderful act of self care. It is a blessing to own and care for a bit of land, whether it’s a small city garden or a larger rural space. In a time when people regard leaf blowing their artificial grass on a Saturday morning as a type of ‘gardening’, I think we could all ask ourselves if we had a bit more time to nurture our gardens. Very few of us have the time to cope with anything else, but how do you actually achieve one? And is any outdoor space ever truly low maintenance? No matter how big or small, most of my clients want their gardens to be low maintenance.
0 kommentar(er)
