Low maintenance gardens need not mean pouring concrete everywhere, although substituting some sort of hard landscape (with a geotextile liner under it to suppress weeds) for grass will cut down on maintenance work. However, most people can manage to keep grass cut, particularly if there is a mowing strip around its edge, so that the mower can simply be run right over it.

The secret is in covering the ground to suppress weeds, either by using a mulch or ground cover plants, and also choosing plants which are not too fussy. Shrubs which require little or no pruning, but often give flowers and fruit or autumn colour, together with hardy herbaceous plants which don’t need staking or support, lead to less aftercare.

Say it Slowly!

Remember to space apart the shrubs/trees and groundcover plants that you wish to keep at the distance apart that they will grow to in 10 years and fill in between with groundcover plants at their correct 10 year widths spacings, but they will be sacrificed by the trees/shrubs that you do want to keep growing over them!

This type of garden may cost more to establish, because it is desirable to attain a high degree of plant cover fairly quickly, but will give year round interest and colour. It can be incorporated into the most classical or informal structures. The choice of hard landscaping materials is very influential, either providing principally a backdrop for the plants, or a form in which they are contained.