Tips for creating a low maintenance garden

Many of us simply may not have the time to maintain our own gardens, especially over the winter months. But despite this, we do still want to benefit from a carefully maintained garden and make the most of it when we do get time to relax. Here’s Haybrook’s advice on how to best create a low maintenance garden area.

Edging the lawn

Lawn edging isn’t a very exciting or fast task, but it does have its benefits. It’s commonly believed that implementing a plastic or even metal edging will destroy the look of a natural looking garden, which is in fact false, especially if you mow your lawn on a regular basis, helping maintain the edge’s structure.

Easy to maintain plants

You don’t have to sacrifice beauty when planting low maintenance, slow growing plants. A lot are chosen primarily for how they look or the smells they emit. Examples include Convolvus ‘Cneorum’, a low growing shrub with beautiful white flowers, Buxus, a slow growing evergreen shrub and Viburnum tinus, evergreen foliage with trumpet like flowers.

Reduce the lawn

Do you find cutting the lawn hard to keep up with, or just want a different look? There are alternative elements you can introduce to your garden which add character and don’t require as much maintenance, such as:

Raised garden – A raised sleeper garden means keeping the level the same, but instead build it up with garden beds in quadrants or alongside one another, each side of the boundary. Walkways can also be created with the beds, which can be surrounded by gravel. This adds a simpler and cleaner look to your garden space.

Patio – Hard landscaping brings a different look through the natural stone; its selection of textures and its ability to heat up and change colour when exposed to the sun makes it a great addition to any garden. Patio is a very practical element, but should match its surroundings, so think about what kind of patio design you want to introduce

Decking

Decking is a welcome addition to any low maintenance garden; it lets you get closer to nature and relax, and can be built to any height and size without the need to mow and weed. You can opt for softwood or hardwood decking; the former experiences build-up of moss and water, meaning it requires more regular cleaning, but is cheaper than hardwood. It really depends on your budget and your time.