Low maintenance gardens - part 2

Introduction

Here we continue with tips for the low maintenance garden - this time covering layering, and choosing the correct number of plants.

Layering

A full garden is made up of plants with different heights, shapes and sizes, and this leads us to the star of the low-maintenance gardening: ground cover plants.

Ground cover plants are often overlooked since they’re never as exciting as the larger plants, being relegated to (literally) existing in everyone else’s shadow. However, I find these among the most exciting things to plant in my garden - not only do they give a bed of green, turning the garden into a tiny oasis - they actively supress weeds from poking through, and help with water retention in the soil (also protecting your larger plants!).

The following photo shows how festive these plants can look as they smother the ground: The larger plants are Aster and Echinacea, which poke up through a multi-coloured bed of Sweet Alyssum, with Sedum in the front. Multiple types of ground cover give this informal effect. For a more formal look, one type of ground cover plant can be used over larger areas.

Establishing this closely packed effect can take as little as a few months, with adequate watering while the plants are young, and careful attention to how close to each other you plant your new friends.

Plant number

An important factor in your planting is to buy enough plants! Gardens can look bare for years (and therefore give more space for weeds) when there aren’t enough plants in the space.

Every plant has a different eventual size, and growth rate, so how do you know how many to plant?

In general, it’s easier to plant more than is needed in the beginning, and to remove these as time goes on. These extra plants can then be reused by your friends, neighbours, yourself (in other areas of your garden), or, can be donated to charities that work in regreening. Nothing needs to be wasted!

In general, for smaller plants such as ground cover, I recommend planting 7 per square meter. This can be combined with 1-3 smaller shrubs, or a mix of small and large shrubs/trees.

This can add up to around 10 plants per square meter - in a following blog I’ll discuss sources of free plants, to get started without breaking the bank!