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Saving Time in the Garden

Saving Time in the Garden

 

TIME SAVING GARDEN STRATEGIES

  • Want a good garden, but don’t have the time to look after it?
  • The garden does not have to be a chore
  • Here are some ideas that will make life a lot easier for you.

 

How much time do I actually have to look after the garden?

This is where it all begins.  If you have half-an-hour each week, then grass and trees will be best.  Buy a lawn mower that suits the size of your lawn.  Do not plant the same area with herbaceous perennials that will need much more attention.

 

Keep it simple.

Some plants need attention just once a year.  For example, a sunny border against a house or wall with a lavender hedge will need pruning hard once a year on the first weekend in August (in the UK).  The same border, if filled with summer annuals, will take far more work with sowing, potting up, planting out, deadheading, supporting, removing, and digging.

 

Choose the right plants

Watering is time consuming, expensive, and has to be done in only a few some circumstances.  Choose plants that like the conditions in your garden.  Never plan to water the garden as regular normal maintenance.  There are good garden plants growing naturally in the conditions found in your garden.  In the wild plants receive no watering, feeding, pesticiding, and pruning, and yet they flower beautifully.  You DO NOT HAVE TO water your garden and use pesticides every year.

 

Prepare the soil once and for all time

Get rid of the weeds first when you move into a new garden.  Ideally dig everything out and remove every root.  Leave the plot fallow for 12-months, spraying off any weed that has the cheek to grow back.  This should keep the majority of weeds at bay for decades.  Annual mulching with sterile material such as spent mushroom compost, well-rotted manure, or good homemade garden compost will supress annual weeds and make any that do grow easier to pull up.

 

Avoid containers

Growing plants in containers will involve regular maintenance.  There will be watering perhaps every other day in the summer.  There will be annual potting on until the plant is too big to lift.  Hanging baskets need changing seasonally.  And when you go on holiday someone has to be persuaded to water them.

 

Dining out

If you enjoy dining al fresco build a paved area that can be easily power-washed once a year.  Paving is less work than both wooden decking and gravel.  Make the area big enough for the table, chairs, barbeque, with a generous space around the table when people are seated.

 

Water gardens do not have to take a lot of looking after

It is a myth that all ponds are high maintenance.  For example, a pond in full sunshine will not suffer with algae.  Weeds are just lifted out.  There is no digging required.  You will not have to water the plants (though the pond could need topping up occasionally in a drought year).  Pesticides cannot be used near water.  Wildlife will love you.

[29/03/2024 21:03:04]