How to have a low maintenance garden.

In this day and age of hustle and bustle, getting the kids from one activity to another, trying to catch up with family and friends, one thing that suffers is your garden. To make it worse, you feel guilty for not having the time to get out and keep everything looking neat and tidy; the lawn is overgrown, weeds are popping up everywhere and the trees and plants are in desperate need of a good pruning. “Where do I start?” is the thing that keeps repeating itself in your mind. Taking it one small step at a time, breaking your garden into sections, will make the task less daunting and more manageable and enjoyable.

Firstly, your lawn needs to be mowed. Adjust your mower to the highest setting, this will make the grass more drought-tolerant (therefore less watering) and weeds will struggle to grow as there isn’t as much sunlight or water for them to feed on. Incorporate your grass clippings back over your lawn providing essential nutrients back into your lawn – the bonus of this is you do not have to rake and dispose of the grass clippings saving you precious time. Alternatively, you can replace some or all of the lawn with Lilydale Toppings or brick paving to eliminate mowing all together.

The next step, the job we all love to hate – weeding. If you have a small area, pulling the weeds out by hand is the most effective way to get the weeds, roots and all, out. For larger areas, using a product such as Round Up will work well and is generally easy to apply. If you weed regularly, the task will not be as time-consuming as it sounds. Remember to mulch your garden beds once all the weeds have died off, so as not to undo all the good work you have just done. Mulch provides moisture back into the soil and prevents any weeds from growing again.

No matter how therapeutic and relaxing watering your garden can be, in our busy lives we don’t have the time to do it as often and as long as it needs. Installing an automatic drip irrigation system can be the answer, with a timer attached you can set and forget it and your plants will still have all the water they require. The bonus of a system like this, in extremely hot weather, you don’t have to be up very early to beat the heat of the day or out in the garden late at night getting bitten by mosquitos.

Placing the right types of plants in the right spots in the garden can reduce the amount of time you need to tend to them. Plants that need little care, such as natives, can be very forgiving for a ‘lack ‘of attention or water.

With some careful planning and a bit of foresight, your garden can be a stress-free wonderful haven, which you can enjoy rather than feeling guilty about all the work that needs to be done.

The staff at Surrey Hills Garden Supplies are more than willing to help with any questions you may have.