Re: [SG] Low Maintenance Gardening

Bobbi, thanks for presenting a problem that many of us are experiencing as
the summers come and go - you work so hard, the garden looks wonderful, and
you shrink at the thought that it's all to do again next year!

I have a few spots in my garden that are happy to be left alone.  And I have
a couple of concepts that, if I could just restrain myself and stop thinking
I have to collect everything, would simplify my life in the summer.

I use lots of groundcover - pachysandra, sweet woodruff, epimedium - and lots
of mulch.
I think grass paths are so attractive but a few years ago they disappeared
from my garden - I used permeable cloth topped with a few inches of mulch -
so I no longer have to do all that edging that makes the garden look
well-cared-for.  Geraniums and
calimentha, veronica Georgia Blue - all those low things can spill over the
edges and it's
easy and attractive.

With mulch, it's easy to use a hula hoe - no pain, no strain - you can just
reach into the beds and the little weeds that don't reach up to your hand are
gone.  I try not to weed much around plants like lobelia syphilitica because
they seed and fill in the spaces where weeds would like to grow.

I have found that large areas not only look good but are easiest to take care
of if planted with just one species - the white astilbes along my old red
shed  have a large white edged hosta at one end and a white clematis (Henri)
at the other.  Simple, and no work - you don't even have to deadhead the
astilbe unless you feel like it.

I won't detail the labor-intense areas - small parts of it are easy, such as
the "hosta paths" but then there are the daylilies (easy) with their charming
companion plants
(anything but!)

Pots of bright annuals and trailing plants such as solanum and bacopa - lots
of the many shades of green in shrubs and evergreens - I'm eager to follow
this thread and know we will get lots of good advice.  I'll add that when the
lawnmower refused to start without a good rassle I found a person who comes
once a week (mostly) to give it a haircut and I discovered that my local
garden supply shop will happily deliver fertilizer, mulch, Pro-mix and all
that good stuff AND put it in the shed or wherever I want it - a good tip
beats a delivery charge any day!

My best advice - wish I could take it - take very good care of a live-in
gardener, and stay out of nurseries!

Betty Barrows
Kinderhook, NY - Zone 5

We'll get a lot  good advice and I'm working on of
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index