Plant for a low-maintenance garden

Photo: Susan Harris Hardy perennials such as viburnum, azaleas, and bulbs can make your garden a springtime showcase without a lot of upkeep.

The single most important thing you can do to create a low-maintenance garden is to choose the right plants, and here are some general guidelines.

•           Know the site and choose appropriate plants for it. That means how much sun or shade, if the "soil" is mostly clay, is soggy or dry, and how much space there is for the plants when they grow up.

•           Choose sustainable plants that are drought- and pest-tolerant. If you see plants doing well in your neighborhood, ask the gardener if they’re easy.

•           Ask of every plant before buying it: Am I willing to do the work to take care of it?

High maintenance plants

Annuals not only have to be bought and planted every year but most are thirsty and need frequent fertilizing. This is especially true in pots, where they dry out quickly and can require daily watering and weekly feeding.

•           Seeds—starting anything from seed is labor-intensive.

•           Vegetables are generally a lot of work, though I’m told that using the principles of permaculture, they’re not. Try it and let me know if it works.

•           Fruit trees typically require lots of pruning and spraying. Certain varieties of pawpaw, persimmon, and cherry may perform better but do the research before buying! Look for information about fruit or pod droppings that may require cleaning up after.

•           Vines are the most work of all, in my experience. My three hardy kiwi vines require a time-consuming hacking back every month to keep them from eating my house, and ivy requires similar vigilance. Just training vines to go where you want them to go is slow, detailed work.

•           Hybrid tea roses? Avoid them like the plague. See my December 2006 column about easy-care roses.

Lawns and perennials

Lawn is usually cited as high-maintenance, but I beg to differ. As I pointed out in my April 2006 column, it’s easy to grow a lawn if you do it organically and let it be taller and somewhat weedy. Grown this way, lawn is certainly less work than borders of annuals and perennials and it does a good job of retaining rainwater and preventing erosion.

Lespedeza

Perennials, unlike annuals, will last for several or more years but contrary to their reputation for low maintenance, are constantly in a state of flux and need adjustment every season. (Removing the failures, containing the spreaders, dividing the too-large.) The good news is that most gardeners enjoy this. It’s creative, and not especially back-breaking, so I encourage readers to grow perennials, especially the easier ones. More tips about perennials: •  To avoid the need to deadhead, choose "self-cleaning" perennials that drop their dead flowers, or just get used to the spent look.

•           To avoid staking - a tedious task that produces an ugly result - choose short varieties, especially at the front of your borders, or plants that look good flopping over. If you have notorious floppers like aster and mums, just hack them back to half their size twice - in May and June - to produce shorter, more compact plants.

•           Dividing is actually a great way to fill up your garden with plants that perform well for you and cost nothing. And filling your garden with these divisions is easier than caring for bare ground (a weed magnet) or trying new plants that may fail and need to be replaced. Division also revitalizes overgrown and crowded plants. And just think - your large hosta can be turned into 10-20 new plants worth $8 each.

•           Groundcovers, are less work than lawn around trees or fence lines where it’s hard to mow. Plants that spread (most groundcovers) should we planted alone or with large plants like shrubs, not with annuals or perennials that can be smothered by aggressive groundcovers. It’s easiest to find one groundcover that works well in your garden and use it extensively.

•           Bulbs—there are bulbs for every site, sun or shade, and the lowest-maintenance bulbs are those that naturalize, which means they spread on their own and come back for years. So select daffodils that feature words like "perennialize" or "naturalize." Other good repeaters and spreaders are species crocus, chinodoxa, hyacinthoides, and certain daffodils. Darwin tulips are long-lasting when given good drainage. To make sure your bulbs have some impact in the garden, buy them in quantity and just tell the kids that planting bulbs is FUN.

Easy care plants

Ornamental grasses require no more care than cutting back to 6" in early March. A month later they’re back and will contribute to your garden all season long and even through winter. Just give them enough space; a half-day of sun is plenty.

Trees and Shrubs are the best plants for creating full, gorgeous and but low-maintenance gardens At most, some require yearly pruning; others, not even that. More tips:

•           Shrubs, even in hedges, MUST be allowed to grow naturally, not sheared into perfect but unnatural shapes. Shearing is not only a lot of work but bad for plant health.

•           Check those labels. Buying the correct size for the site will reduce your pruning requirements.

•           Buy from nurseries and garden centers, not big-box stores.

•           Consolidate plants in borders, rather than dotting them around the lawn like little donuts.

•           Trees and shrubs planted in borders benefit from a one-time removal of the lowest branches to prevent overcrowding and allow easier access for the gardener.

•           Remember - plant groundcover or mulch under trees, not lawn.

Resources

For examples of specific low-maintenance plants, see my November ‘06 column on Sustainable Plants. All columns are available on the web: www.takoma.com/features_GardeningCoach.html

Rodale’s Low-Maintenance Gardening Techniques is great and only $2.70 used on Amazon. Excellent overall how-to-garden book for lower maintenance and eco-friendliness.

The Well-Tended Perennial Garden by Tracy DiSabato-Aust explains how to get better appearance from perennials. They really do need tending to.

Master Gardener Susan Harris writes about horticulture for UDC's Cooperative Extension Service and online at Takomagardener.com and Gardenrant.com.   She also teaches privately — see Thegardeningcoach.com. Visit her new site DC-Urban-Gardeners.com for local resources, links, and more.

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