A garden can look good year-round, yet need very little care and attention. It sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But, with some careful planning, it’s perfectly achievable; you can, honestly, spend more time relaxing in it than working in it.

There is no such thing as “no maintenance”, of course- you’ll always need to do some tending. But by choosing plants that virtually grow themselves, rather than picking the horticultural prima donnas, and by minimizing boring chores like lawn mowing and weeding, you’ll end up saving an amazing amount of time and effort.

First of all, take a long, hard look at the design of your garden, because this can have a dramatic effect on the amount of time you spend on it. The more complicated the layout, the harder it is to maintain.

Awkwardly shaped flower beds, filled with fussy plants, are pointless if you don’t have the time or energy to take care of them. Could the beds be simplified? Could time-consuming small plants be replaced by a few bold, sturdy specimens? As a rule of thumb, a strong, simple design is much easier to take care of, and often looks much better.

Of course the easiest solution is to have lots of pavings. But a vast expanse of uniform hardscape can look depressing. So break it up by mixing materials, like gravel and brick, and adding in plants. Lumber decking is a low-cost alternative to paving, and it’s very popular with landscape designers. But it can become very slippery and dangerous in wet weather.
Image: by suchitra prints