9 Steps To A Low-Maintenance Garden

Easy ways to create lasting beauty without constant upkeep

- Lynne Yates And Loren Shirley-Carr

If you don’t have time for gardening, or do have the time but lack green fingers, don’t despair. There are ways to create a beautiful garden with minimum effort. Just make a few design changes and you can radically reduce the maintenance your garden needs, giving you more time to sit back, relax and enjoy it.

1 Edge your beds

Keeping lawn grass from spreading into beds is a time-consuming task. Prevent this by edging beds with cobbles, pavers or timber slats. This gives a neat, modern look and, as the beds are clearly demarcated, prevents them from getting bigger every time you trim the edge of the lawn.

2 Install irrigation

To make watering one less thing to think about, install an automated irrigation system. Include a rain sensor that automatically switches it off when it rains so that you don’t waste water.

3 Hard landscaping to the rescue

Who says a garden has to consist of plants and grass? Reduce the size of beds and lawn that require care and replace them with attractive hard landscaping such as gravel, pebbles, paving or decking that needs no upkeep. For more interest, you can include arbours, arches and pergolas, which also add height. But don’t include water features, as they are high maintenance and need regular cleaning.

4 Think straight