Re: Low maintenance gardens for the serious gardener

Pacific Horticulture magazine published an article about a garden that was intended to be low maintenance several years ago. After 3-4 years, iirc, the owners called the designer to ask when it would be low maintenance. So he wrote about what went wrong, and then invited readers to visit the garden.

There's also the book by Valerie Easton, The New Low-Maintenance Garden.

I went on a tour of organic veg gardens over five years ago where one of the most interesting was a very low maintenance veg garden. The owners had an infant, so needed a garden that could more or less
maintain itself. So the front yard was mulched very deeply (12-18") and had perennial kale in the middle and chard as a foundation plant. The backyard had more chard, plus another  plant that, like chard, reseeded liberally (maybe calendula?) and fava beans. It also had a small lawn that wasn't mowed or watered.

I think that's the key -- literally tons of mulch. A good hardscape helps. 

Sent from my iPod

On Jul 28, 2011, at 10:58 PM, Ben Armentrout-Wiswall <b*@gmail.comb*@gmail.comb*@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,
I spent most of today catching up on some garden maintenance at our home in Simi Valley, California.  Our garden is large for a California suburb, about 15000 square feet (one-third of an acre, or 1400 square meters).  It was a pleasant day, though I moved quickly, as for me free time is scarce.  The scents of rosemary and sage, roses and mints are refreshing to work in, and I had a good day of it.

But I found myself asking as I deadheaded a long border of Iceberg Roses, Sea Statice, and Euphorbia wulfenii, maybe I'd prefer plants that didn't need to be deadheaded, that didn't languish if a sprinkler nozzle got clogged, that didn't really need much done to them.

I enjoy gardening, but as a Mr. Mom to three small children, I have little time to garden, especially a garden patterned on the work I'd formerly done as a landscape designer and contractor.

The trouble is, my niche as a landscaper was working for rich (by my lights, very, very rich) clients.  Like most garden professionals, I had a landscape crew working for me, or my clients would have their own gardeners to maintain whatever horticultural creation was envisioned.  In these circumstances no-one cares about reducing garden maintenance.

As a homeowner and stay-at-home parent who no longer had a crew of laborers, I quickly realized how much work it was to maintain a property.  
I figured out that if I were to maintain my property in the same style as my former clients (on a per area basis), I would need to spend an entire day per week, with a laborer, to fuss over the garden.  I'd also need a few hundred dollars a month not for projects, but just to freshen the perennial borders or to try a new waterlily in the pond.

Given that I don't have that much time, let alone a laborer or a few hundred a month to spend on sundries, the garden really looks quite nice.

But it is work.
My question is, are there any serious garden professionals who have considered low maintenance gardens?  When I think of low maintenance gardens, I think of homeowners who really are not interested in plants or gardens, and only want their property to look presentable, and not have to spend time or money achieving that goal.

The result is usually boring, and no serious gardener would give such a garden more than a passing glance (and probably a sneer).

Is it possible to have a plantsman's garden, or an artist's garden, that doesn't need much more than a weekly sweeping and the occasional removal of a crossing limb?  Is it possible to have a low maintenance garden that still looks like a garden?

Just wondering,
-Ben Armentrout-Wiswall
Simi Valley, inland southern California
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