How to Make a Court Yard Easy to Maintain
A low maintenance garden is ideal if you don't really like gardening, or if you truly never have the time to garden. Less is more when it comes to low maintenance gardens, and it's a style that works with all sizes, especially small gardens because you're already working with a compact space.
Want to know how to make your outside space work for you and not the other way around? Here are some simple steps to a sure-fire, easy garden.
Golden rules
1. To get a truly low maintenance garden, there's one simple, but radical thing to do – limit the number of different plants you have. The fewer you have the lower the maintenance will be. Try to stick to between 5 and 10 varieties – think swathes of rudbeckias or sedums or lines of bamboo or tall grasses. You'll get to know what care and attention they need very well, and you'll be able to spot weeds more easily and be better able to deal with them quickly.
2. Lawns need regular work and weekly cutting, so pave it, gravel it, deck it – any of these will be less work than grass. Paving takes just a sweep a week to look after, no slogging up and down with a mower. However, if you want to keep the lawn, make it a really simple shape. A rectangular lawn can be cut in minutes whilst an irregular shaped lawn can take 10 times longer.
3. The more hard landscaping you have in your garden, the lower the workload will be. When designing a low maintenance garden, aim to reduce the size of the planted areas in your outdoor space. For instance, take the beds back towards the boundaries and replace them with paving if possible – a path around the garden works well.
There's also a rule of thumb – the 'harder' the hard landscaping the easier it will be to look after. So slate and slabs are less work than decking and gravel. The decking will need regular cleaning and the gravel will need to be kept in place and raked, whereas slabs can be left.
4. For beds, try top-dressing them. A good thick layer of gravel, slate or chippings will help to suppress weeds and make everything look smarter.
5. Whether you're putting in fences or buying garden furniture, have a look at hardwood rather than softwood. Softwood will need more maintenance.
6. Always have plenty of accessible storage in the garden. The easier it is to put things away and access them, the lower the workload will be. Investing in a small, narrow garden shed is a good idea if you have the space.
7. Garden maintenance really comes down to outdoor housework, so try to make those jobs as easy as possible. Keep the brush and pan outside, with a handy place to put anything that needs to be discarded. Again, these essentials can be stored in a shed.
8. Make sure you have a lovely place to sit. If gardening is not your thing at least make sure you can enjoy your space by lounging in it. And that's the main aim of the low maintenance gardener – to just kick back and relax in the garden. There some amazing ways to do just that: check out day beds, garden sofas and hanging egg chairs for a completely luxurious lounge.
Perfect plants
There are lots of plants to avoid if you want a low maintenance garden. That means no annuals and tender plants, so no bedding plants, no vegetables and no sowing of seeds. Also, avoid plants which need staking; delphiniums are the most common offenders, and you should avoid plants which act as slug or rabbit food; hostas are the worst for this.
Don't put in climbers, they bring a surprising workload. Climbers are either self-clinging, like ivy, and will quickly run out of control, or they need support and will need endless tying in. So what's left? Shrubs, preferably evergreen like daphne, lavender, holly and euonymus.
A real treat is to find ready-planted pots, these are the sorts of things you can just bring home from the shop and place in the garden – job done.
And finally, perennial weeds are an enormous source of work in gardens – these are the ones with deep roots which seem to get into everything and always come back; things like bindweed, ground elder and knotweed. The mistake is to just keep attacking the tops; if you have any of these weeds it's much better to take everything out of the bed and get rid of every last bit before continuing.
Seasonal changes and what to avoid
In a low maintenance garden it is possible to have fake grass at a reasonable price, if you install it yourself. There's plenty of advice on suppliers' websites about how to do this. Changing your lawn to artificial grass will immediately make the garden look smart and seriously lower your maintenance hours – but do bear in mind this will not provide a habitat for wildlife.
You could also install a watering system; it doesn't have to be anything complicated. A leaky hose system is just a hose from the tap and then a connector to a hose which lets the water seep out across the beds. It's simple, inexpensive to install, works really well, and saves so much time.
Other low maintenance garden ideas includes arches, arbours and pergolas – theses are all easy to install and they don't have to be hugely expensive. The great thing about these structures is that they instantly transform an area and, most importantly, don't add to the garden maintenance.
And get hold of some stainless steel troughs and feeders to use as planters; this will create a modern and architectural look in your garden. Get ones large enough to avoid the need for continual watering of smaller containers.
Water features are lovely but you need to look after it pretty constantly with cleaning and clearing. Unless you want some extra work it's not something to have in a low maintenance garden.
And remember, gardens should be real sources of pleasure; they shouldn't have to be a burden. The biggest mistake of all is not doing anything about your outdoor space. A bit of thought and effort up front can mean that you'll really enjoy your garden.
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Source: https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/garden/designs/a912/low-maintenance-garden/
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