Create a maintenance free garden to relax in
This year, why not create a garden that requires far less work and spend more time enjoying your garden. Having a low maintenance garden doesn’t mean you have to make big compromises, you can still create a visually stunning garden, that doesn’t require you to get on your hands and knees.
To help you create a garden you can keep on top of and still have time to enjoy, we’ve put together a list of 10 of the easiest ways to create a low maintenance garden.
1 SWITCH OUT SOLID DECKING AND GO FOR COMPOSITE DECKING
Solid wooden decking is most commonly used in gardens, however, it takes up time and effort to make sure that the wood is stained to the desired hue, that it’s treated against the harsh weather and will often need replacing as the boards rot down. Assured Composite® decking is a synthetic product made from recycled materials and is, therefore, longer-lasting than solid wood.
2 PICK YOUR MAIN FEATURE
Decide what specific feature you would love to have in your garden and design the rest of your garden around that. If your main feature requires maintenance, design the rest of your garden to be maintenance-free so that you can spend your time where it matters.
3 CREATE A WILD AND FREE SECTION
Allow a small area of your garden to grow wild, you can also manufacture it by planting local wildflowers and spreading plants that you find most appealing.
4 PLANT WEED DESTROYING SHRUBS
A large portion of shrubs suppresses several different weeds, which is why it’s a good idea to plant small flowering shrubs in garden beds instead of flowers or other seasonal plants. This will hugely cut down the time spent weeding out your flower beds.
5 GET RID OF YOUR LAWN
Fresh, green lawns take up time, they require mowing, watering and pruning to keep it looking in good condition. Instead, use artificial grass which comes in a range of different lengths, to help give you a luscious lawn all year round.
6 AVOID HEDGES
Fast-growing hedges may look appealing, but they require regular trimming, either to create nice clean shapes or to keep them at a manageable height.
7 STEER CLEAR OF SEASONAL PLANTS
A lot of the brightly coloured flowers we pick up in our local garden centres will have specific requirements, life spans and times of the year when they should be planted. Avoiding these seasonal plants will cut down on both time and cost, as you will not need to replace them in your flower beds as soon as they die off.
8 CREATE A MINIMALIST GARDEN DESIGN
If you prefer a more contemporary garden design, limit the amount of greenery you have and create a patio, rather than a lush green garden. Replacing turf with stones and flags, creating seating areas and keeping plants in pots and containers will limit your need for watering, planting and weeding.
9 USE DECORATIVE POTS FOR ALL YOUR PLANTS AND TREES
Similar to the above point, solely planting plants, trees and flowers in pots will not only give you the freedom to move them around your garden when you please but will also help keep them controlled and easy to manage.
10 CREATE YOUR OWN, SMALL VEGETABLE GARDEN, OR EVEN A FISH FREE POND
Create a small vegetable patch, as long as you make sure they are protected from pests, some soft fruit plants will practically look after themselves. Also, If you like to have a pond in your garden, make sure it is fish-free so that it settles into a natural balance and doesn’t have to be filtered or cleaned out regularly.