“Maintain An Even Strain”

During this time of the year many of us will want to be able to just enjoy our ‘outside room’ without having to spend hours working in it. So here are some more hints and tips for a lower maintenance garden.

If you would like to have a hedge as the boundary to your garden, then go for one that needs less attention and which does not need regular clipping. You could opt for a Yew hedge, which is slow growing and will only need clipping about twice a year.

Alternatively you could go for an informal hedge of mixed evergreen shrubs.

A good manicured lawn is always high maintenance but luckily there are various options to reduce the workload.

Naturally, the simplest way is to reduce the area of the lawn so there is less to cut and therefore save time.

How about removing the lawn completely?

You could use different surfaces, such as gravel or hard landscaping and then plant some plants around these surfaces in order to soften the appearance.

Pots too need a lot of looking after, but time spent maintaining them can be reduced if you use larger pots so they don’t dry out so quickly.

Also, I would recommend using water-retaining gel to help conserve moisture in the compost.

Another trick is to line the inside of clay pots with bubble wrap.

This stops the pots soaking up the water and therefore retaining more moisture in the soil. During the winter however, this bubble-wrap could prevent possible cracking of clay pots when frozen as when the ice freezes, the bubble wrap eases the pressure and making clay pots frost hardy.

When opting for a low maintenance garden, be careful not to choose plants, such as rose, which need quite a lot of looking after.

Choose some evergreen shrubs such as the Acuba, Choisya or a Fatsia as they need require relative little attention. For summer colour in your garden, choose a low maintenance bedding plant such as the Busy Lizzie as this plant doesn’t need dead heading.

So, by taking some time to save time in your garden… you can spend more time simply enjoying it!