Low maintenance garden: take it easy

There’s no escaping the fact that gardens are a labour of love. After all, they are full of living, breathing organisms that cannot survive without a little TLC. But with all the demands that the modern world places on our time, it can be difficult to find enough hours in the day to devote to them.

If you want to reduce the labour whilst keeping the love, low maintenance gardens are the ideal solution. With the following tips, you can find out how to spend less time taking care of your backyard, so that you can enjoy more time relaxing in it.

The more outdoor living space you create in your garden and the less work you have to put into it, the more time you can spend entertaining and enjoying life there. Installing a patio, a paved area or decking is a way of achieving low maintenance gardening, because you’ll have less lawn to take care of. It will also enable you to extend your home living area outdoors by adding tables, chairs, benches, barbeques, heaters and fire pits.

If you do plump for a patio or paved area, be sure to lay a six to eight-inch layer of compacted gravel or stones underneath first, to make it low maintenance for years to come. This will help to prevent weeds from growing, eliminating the need to do weeding or having to pull up stones to re-level them further down the line.

Similarly, non-biodegradable mulch, such as slate, gravel or pebbles, can be used around the garden for added decoration and a textured look, with the added bonus of needing virtually no work once it’s in place.

While annuals (plants that only live for a year) can bring a splash of colour, they also die and need pulling up, adding to your workload. For a truly low maintenance garden, pick perennials.

You’ll only need to plant them once, and these live-forever heroes will keep on blooming year after year. And with lilies, lavender and tulips all on the perennials list, you don’t have to compromise on colour either.

Suitable for lawns of up to 1,000 square metres, you can put your feet up, pour yourself a drink and relax as this smart gardening solution does the work for you. The mowing times can be adjusted via GARDENA’s free smart App for Android and iPhone, and thanks to its powerful rear-wheel drive, it’s even able to cope with uneven ground and inclines of up to 35 degrees.

By incorporating pots or planters (boxes of various sizes and dimensions), you’ll not only have a low maintenance garden, but a versatile one too. They are easy to move around, so if you are having a party on your patio or deck, you can reposition them to suit your needs.

Pots and planters also allow you more freedom to personalise your garden. From the shabby chic of wooden crate planters and weathered terracotta pots to the minimalist elegance of concrete pots and planters, you’re sure to find the look you want.

While gardening will never be an entirely work-free endeavour, following these tips can certainly make it a lot easier. If you’ve got an outdoor space in need of a little enhancement, there really is no excuse not to make it a priority this summer.