Re: [SG] Low Maintenance Gardening

Bobbi: In theory shade gardening is lower maintenance than the full-sun sort
because fewer insects thrive in the shade. What is causing you all the work?
If you are getting a lot of weeds, you can cut down on them by planting
intensively with things that leaf out early in the season. (Not, for
instance, hostas or balloon flowers or leadwort.) I really learned my lesson
after I moved a bunch of geraniums (semi-evergreen, and early risers even
when they don't last the winter) out of an area last fall and ended up
spending this entire spring having to pull out weeds from the bare ground.
Also, to state the obvious, mulching is a godsend when it comes to stopping
weeds. Are you planting things that need staking? Then get rid of them. I've
found that most plants that need staking in the shade would really rather be
in the sun anyway. Do you spend a lot of time watering? Your only solution
is to install some kind of irrigation system. Soaker hoses are fairly cheap,
and as someone recently reported here, they really help plants a lot. Do you
put in a lot of hours stalking slugs? This is my personal downfall. However,
I think that getting rid of ivy, if it's in wooded areas, reduces the slug
population.
There is a book called "Easy Care Shade Flowers" by Patricia Taylor that
talks about low-maintenance plants. A lot of the book is based on her
personal experience, and she lives in New Jersey, so you may have to take
some of it with a grain of salt. But it's worth a try.
Nancy S. (NYC)

 >Thanks Nancy. I will take a look at Tracy's book. Meanwhile, does
>everybody have any ideas on HOW to do low-mtce [shade] gardening? I bet
>you do. Let's hear them.
>
>I ask because my husband and I have been working very intensively in our
>yard this spring and summer, and it definitely shows! But the hard labor
>is getting to us, particularly the weeding. Frankly, I don't know if we
>can keep this up year after year. We ain't gettin' any younger. Hiring
>help is one possibility, but I'm sure it would be difficult to find the
>right person, one who could be trusted not to uproot the good stuff. We
>already try to plant as many natives as possible, and minimize the things
>that need a lot of fussing over, like roses. It's still getting to be too
>much. We are even thinking of moving someplace with a smaller yard!
>I would hate to do that. So, any ideas?
>
>Bobbi Diehl
>Bloomington, IN
>zone 5/6
>
>
>On Wed, 7 Jul 1999, Nancy S. Shlaes wrote:
>
>> Bobbi - a landscape architect with whom I worked once told me that "low
>> maintenance" means "on your knees".  I concur.
>>
>> Nonetheless, I recommend Tracy diSabatino-Aust's book The Well-Tended
>> Perennial Garden.  It is very precise and interesting. However, it is
>> neither about shde gardens specifically nor low-maintenence--so I am
>> certainly not being responsive
>
>
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