In my work as a garden designer, many clients request a low-maintenance garden. They want a good-looking and functional outdoor space and would rather spend their time enjoying it rather than working in it.
Good garden design can reduce time spent mowing, caring for plants and weeding.
Less lawn, more plantings One of the biggest outdoor chores is lawn care. Lawns require cutting and edging on a regular schedule during the growing season, and weeding, fertilizing, thatching and aerating to keep them healthy.
Evaluate how much lawn you need for play space, and consider reducing the size of the lawn or eliminating it entirely. To reduce labor, don’t try to keep a lawn in shady areas. Lawns grow best where they get six hours or more of sun a day.
Removing lawn and replacing it with planting beds takes work, but in the long run, if the plants are carefully chosen, planting areas take less care than lawns. Choose plants that won’t need time-consuming pruning, are pest-free and will cover the ground to keep weeds at a minimum.
The No. 1 rule is to choose plants that will not outgrow their allotted room so they won’t need pruning; match the plant to the space. To find out how large a plant will grow, consult a good gardening book, read the plant tag and consult a nursery professional where you buy your plants.
If you fall in love with a plant and you have limited space, look for a smaller form of it. Spiraeas, glorious spring bloomers, are available in sizes that will grow from only 2 feet to as tall as 6 feet, and the same is true for hydrangeas and many other shrubs.
Match plants to site conditions so that the plants will perform at their best. Healthy plants are less susceptible to pests and disease and will take less care.
Consider whether the location has sun or shade, and if the soil is freely draining sand or soggy clay. Rhododendrons hate wet feet, while swamp magnolias (Magnolia virginiana) welcome wet conditions.
Choose plants that have proven reliable in your area. Your neighborhood will provide many examples of plants that have thrived in similar soil conditions. Observing the size of a mature specimen will give you a clue as to a plant’s ultimate space requirements.
Many plants that have a reputation for diseases in the Northwest are available in new types bred for disease resistance. Talk to a nursery professional about new varieties of roses and crabapples that will thrive without chemical sprays.
If you have a disease-prone plant, take it out if you want to reduce plant care.
Easy care When designing plantings for easy care, the goal is to completely cover the soil with plants so weed seeds do not germinate. Accomplish this by layering the plants, with trees or tall shrubs as an over-story, then small shrubs and groundcovers.
Large swaths of bare soil are an invitation to weeds and the labor that it takes to remove them. For new plantings that have not grown in, suppress weeds with mulch, an organic material spread over the ground. Compost, one form of mulch, will break down to feed the soil, as well as keeping weed seeds in the soil from germinating.
When planting for screening, use informal hedges, not plants that need annual shearing. English laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) is the primary culprit: It wants to be a 30-foot tree. As the saying goes, if you like to go to the dump, plant laurel.
Choose natives when you want plants perfectly adapted to Northwest site conditions. Low Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa) does will in dry shade, reaching 2 feet. Use creeping Oregon grape (Mahonia repens) as an evergreen groundcover in full sun. Deer fern (Blechnum spicant) forms an evergreen clump of fronds from 1 to 3 feet high in shade.
Wood decks require maintenance to keep them good looking, and the wood needs replacing every 10 years or so.
Plastic lumber, made from recycled materials, stands up to sun and rain exposure and does not need annual re-coating.
Or instead of a deck, consider a stone or concrete patio on the ground, which will outlast us all.
No garden is totally maintenance-free if you want it to look cared for. With careful design you can reduce the time spent mowing the lawn and keeping the jungle at bay.
Resources Great Plant Picks is an organization that recommends plants that do well in the Northwest. The website, with a list of recommended plants, is www.greatplantpicks.org.
Proper pruning can promote plant health and save labor over time. Find information on good pruning in a book by a Seattle author: Cass Turnbull’s “Guide to Pruning: What, When, and Where and How to Prune for a More Beautiful Garden” (Sasquatch Press, 2005).
PHIL WOOD is the owner of Phil Wood Garden Design in Seattle and is a widely published freelance writer.[[In-content Ad]]
