Having a beautiful garden that you are proud of doesn’t need to take a huge amount of time and effort to maintain, in fact having the right balance between design, maintenance and effort is the key for creating an outdoor area that you’ll love spending time in.
Garden specialists Oeco Garden Rooms have put together some of their top tips for creating the perfect low maintenance garden.
Planning and Design
One of the first things to consider when planning a low maintenance garden is to decide how much work you actually want to do in the area and what garden features and functions are most important to you. For instance, if growing your own vegetables is high up on your list, you might think about creating a vegetable patch while utilising very low maintenance features throughout the rest of the garden.
Try to position the features that take more work closer to the house or shed to save on carrying or barrowing items up and down the whole garden, and if possible place a water butt near where you are most likely to need it.
Choosing plants
There is a huge range of plants and flowers you can use that require little maintenance throughout the year including hardy evergreens, flowers such as lavender and crocus, and perennials. Climbers such as Ivy and Climbing Hydrangeas take up little space on the ground, but can add interest to walls and fences, and require very little watering to become established.
Herbs are also a great low maintenance addition to the garden and can be easily grown in containers to save space, with the added benefit that you can use them in your cooking too.
Fuchsia, Mexican Orange Blossom and Gaillardia are all great choices for adding pops of colour throughout the garden and require very little looking after once established.
How to deal with lawns
Lawns can be the most labour intensive parts of many gardens, but there are some things you can do to create a low maintenance lawn. If you do not need your whole lawn think about letting some of it grow keeping a small area as a formal area; this will cut down the amount of cutting you have to do, as well as provide habitat for wildlife and insects.
For those who don’t want the hassle of a lawn, then there are alternatives. Artificial grass has come a long way in recent years and now looks and feels like the real thing just with no maintenance needed. Artificial grass is also available in a range of different colours and is permeable meaning that rain drains through and doesn’t pool.
Those who don’t want grass at all can choose to use gravel, paving, decking or even bark to create a fantastic looking garden without the worry of the upkeep.
