Low Maintenance

I have been designing and installing lower maintenance gardens for over 15
years now, primarily in residential situations, but occasionally for larger
areas as well. For the most part, what I am doing is ecological
restoration, but by packaging it as "low maintenance landscapes" I find
better reception for the ideas and the plants used. My clients very
frequently come to me with the idea of a NO-maintenance garden, which
through discussion, quickly modifies to "less-maintenance". The point I
make in explanantion is that the only such thing as no-maintenance is a
total hands-off approach, which simply allows whatever is going to happen
to do so without interference. This requires the gardener to become an
observer more than a participant, a natural historian rather than a
horticulturist. It may be obvious, but bears repeating: the farther a
landscape attempts to deviate from its natural condition, the more
maintenance it will take to....maintain....that state of affairs. And of
course, in nature, nothing is static, so in many locales, that lovely patch
of ground cover in the woodland clearing will some day be shaded out by
returning shrubs and trees.

A half-way measure towards natural landscapes is "editing" the landscape.
Here, without attempting to introduce anything new, the naturally occuring
plant community is selectively thinned, retaining important elements and
inter-plant associations, while opening up or closing view lines, pathways,
etc. Areas you wish to remain open for frequent use can be paved with flat
stone, for instance, pathways laid to prevent erosion, and the native
ground covering allowed to flow back to meet the hard surfaces. Only after
this level of adjustment has been made, does the gardener consider very
cautiously introducing locally ocurring native plants to augment the
design. One thing that this approach to design does for the world, is
preserve and repair critical habitats. Another aspect, is that domestic and
commercial landscapes take on an individuality and a regional
identification which too often are jumbled and lost by mixing of materials
from all over the place.

I am not sure that the avid gardener is a good candidate for low
maintenance landscapes anyway, as half the joy of gardening is continually
fussing about with plants and spaces, but for those wishing to explore the
ideas further, try gaining inspiration for your own ecosystem and plant
communities by taking trips to wild areas within your own habitat range.
Nature calendars and photo books, such as published by Audubon and Sierra
Club are also great sources of inspiration for the "low maintenance"
design. Just make sure that the imagery your imagination is feeding upon is
from a compatable region to your own.

Erik van Lennep-Hyland
Nemeton Design
Ivy, VA
USA
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