Maintaining a garden, even a small one, can be a lot of work. Unless you happen to be one of the few people that enjoys your time spent in the garden, you would rather not touch your garden any more than you need to. Some people have even opted to eliminate most landscaping from their homes to avoid such garden work, leaving their yards bland and aesthetically unsettling. But aesthetically pleasing landscaping doesn't have to be full of maintenance hassles. These suggestions can help you get some color around your home without sacrificing your Sunday afternoons.
Plant Material
Selecting the right plants can greatly reduce your maintenance needs in your garden. Annuals, plants that only survive only for one season, are very popular for their seasonal color, but they require a great deal of annual maintenance. Most annuals, such as Chrysanthemum and Impatiens, need to be replanted each year. And they don't last very long which either leaves bare spots in your garden, or you need to plant another annual.
Others, like Marigolds, will readily reseed themselves. While this may sound like a benefit, the problem with this type of annual is that they will become a nuisance in your garden, competing with other plants and escaping from the shapes they were planted in. Unless you want to spend time pulling volunteer plants on a regular basis, I would recommend avoiding annuals all-together.
Instead, stick to woody plants, which will maintain its presence year-round, and perennial plants that will reestablish themselves each year without getting out of control. Contrary to popular belief, there are a great number of woody plants that provide some pleasing color.
Azaleas, Rhododendrons, Lilacs, Viburnums are all good options that provide seasonal color. Some are even evergreen varieties (depending on your region), providing green throughout the year. As for perennials, there are a number of bulbs and semi-evergreen plants that are available for your garden. Plant availability and hardiness varies greatly depending on your local climate, so I recommend visiting your local nursery to get ideas.
It is also important to select native plants which are well adapted for your area. Native plants are going to be much less susceptible to disease and insects and will be better suited for any climate conditions in your area. The industry is saturated with non-native plants. While they may grow, or even thrive, in your area, I would still recommend straying from them as much as possible - especially with perennials and other herbaceous materials.
Even if a non-native species is well adapted to your region, it may still have a negative impact on other species that you may be planting in your garden. Your local Cooperative Extension (usually connected with a state school) or your state's Department of Environmental Protection will be able provide literature about native plants in your area. More importantly, they will be able to provide lists of invasive plants. Most of this information can be found online.
Some plants may be available in your area with special traits like drought tolerance. These plants will save you precious time, once established.
If you find yourself watering certain planting beds on a regular basis (especially if you're watering daily), consider replacing these with drought tolerant plants. During a normal summer, it may even be possible that you would never need to water your planting beds. That would easily save you a half hour out of every day.
Some trees are naturally messy. London Planetree and Sycamores have exfoliating bark and incredibly large amounts of leaves that will fill your lawn in the fall. Ash trees are known to regularly drop small branches. Magnolia trees and Dogwoods have been known to have messy flowers and Crabapples other fruiting trees are constantly dropping fruit. These are all messy and can be a pain to clean up after. Avoid them if you can. The good news is that there are seedless (and thus fruitless) varieties available that will help alleviate these maintenance problems.
Planting Bed Preparation
Mulch has a number of purposes, least of most is the aesthetic quality of your garden. The real reason to mulch is to help the overall quality of your planting beds. It helps maintain a consistent soil temperature, helps maintain soil moisture and it helps to keep some weeds down. Controlling all of these things greatly improves the health of your plants. Plant replacement is reduced. You won't need to water nearly as often, and your weeding should be easily maintained. Stone mulch is not appropriate as it does not insulate the soil and it does not help to retain moisture. The dyed mulches, which are unfortunately growing in popularity, also do not help the soil retain its moisture.
In addition, these mulches may not be ideal as they may contain other chemicals. The large pine-bark chunks also have this problem. You will want to avoid all of these types of mulch. I recommend a fresh layer of shredded hardwood bark mulch for your gardens once a year in the early spring. Make sure to spread it thick: Provide about three (3) inches deep around woody plants and about two (2) inches in your perennial areas.
