Low-maintenance gardening is commonsense gardening. You just put the right plans in the right place, and then relax while your garden grows and thrives on its own. Planning ahead is always the key. Before you put a shovel into the ground, create a design scheme to ensure an arrangement of plants that is harmonious. Analyze your proposed garden site, and choose fuss-free plants whose cultural needs match your growing conditions. With this strategy you will enjoy a beautiful, productive low-maintenance garden.
Designing a Low Maintenance Garden
Good design is a crucial element in producing a low-maintenance garden. Designing a garden doesn't means you have to place plants perfectly in elegant settings. Nor does garden design necessarily require a lot of work, just knowledge. By thoroughly understanding the kind of setting in which you are gardening, you will be able to choose plants that will thrive with little work on your part. You can just sit back and enjoy their beauty and bounty.
Light
All plants need a certain amount of light to grow, so you must be careful and evaluate how much light your site receives, with attention to variations in light with the time of day and season. Your should recognize light patterns throughout the growing season. To get an accurate reading, check your growing area in early morning, around noon, and toward evening in spring, summer and fall.
Moisture
The moisture content of the soil on your property greatly affects the design of your low-maintenance garden. Examine your proposed garden site as it naturally exists. Is is typically dry or wet? Once you've determined your soil moisture conditions, you can either change the soil or choose plants that flourish in the sort of wet or dry soil present in your garden. Once this is determined, pick plant groupings that can be placed as they naturally exist. Water-loving plants should be placed together in a moist setting. Similarly, try to place plants that prefer dry conditions in well-drained areas. When planning your design scheme, first group plants by their basic growth characteristics and needs rather than by their growth appearances. Consider their looks and appearance only at the end when other requirements have been met.
Vegetables
Poor soil and lack of sun need are not so much a problem in designing a low-maintenance ornamental garden, but they can be fatal for a vegetable garden. Most vegetables need rich, fertile,well drained soil and unless you plan to concentrate on leafy greens, your garden should have at least six full hours of direct sun every day. Although, a salad garden planted in neat rows or blocks can be ornamental in its own right, as well as edible.
Checking the fertility of your garden plot it important. Take a soil sample to your local extension office and have it analyzed. Follow the recommendations in the report for improving the soil. Working in plenty of compost is one of the best ways to enrich and maintain soil. Organic mulch will add organic material to the soil as they break down. Mulching greatly reduces maintenance and is a terrific way to reduce work in the garden. It helps reduce water evaporation, gives the garden a neat appearance, and discourages the growth of weeds.
Thanks to the existence of thousands of beautiful plants that grow and thrive with little or no pampering from us, gardening can be manageable for almost anyone.
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