You’re busy juggling work, kids and family life and the last thing you need is to be sweeping leaves, weeding the garden or watering the garden. If you’re lucky enough to have irrigation, then maybe you spend more time fixing the sprinklers where dogs dug than actually benefiting from seeing them work.

This is what life looks like in a high maintenance garden.

When you moved into your beautiful property you didn’t see all the hidden hours of maintenance keeping your landscaped garden beautiful.

But it doesn’t have to be like this…

Landscape gardeners know there are 5 simple things you can do to save hours in the garden.

• Plant types – natives/succulents
• Irrigation – water consumption/sustainability
• Mulching – weed prevention
• Design – layout, elements
• Lawn – types

Even if you’re on a budget you can make simple and quick changes, (or get our help with this) to create the best low maintenance garden that you can enjoy.

Plant types

Choosing the best plants for your landscape design that are low maintenance can save you time and stress later.  Incorrect plant choices can mean that the plants are working hard just to survive and you’re working hard just to keep them alive.  Your plant choices are your top time and cost savers, so if you want to take a deep dive, check out The Best Low Maintenance Plants for your Landscape Design.

Here’s a quick look at my top three tips to choosing low maintenance plants for your garden are;

Succulents

Succulents survive well in harsh conditions and can adapt to low watering requirements.  This is because their leaves tend to store large amounts of water, providing an internal reservoir of slow release irrigation.

Natives

Natives are easier to care for than ornamentals like roses, azaleas, and gardenia’s.  After thousands of years acclimatizing and adapting to local conditions, your native plants are much hardier and require less watering, less fertilisation and less weeding.  They actually have developed a natural defence to local weed species, which means they do the weeding for you!

Ground Covering Plants

A great low maintenance choice, once fully developed with a full coverage these hardy plants will naturally prevent weeds from growing. They cover the soil with such density that they block the sunlight from weeds attempting to grow beneath them. To really juice it up choose a native ground covering plant such as Creeping Boobialla (Myoporum Parvifolium).

Irrigation

An irrigation system is a vital component to any low maintenance garden.  Choosing the right kind of irrigation that’s both low maintenance and effective is where you need some expert tips (coming right up!). But before we jump into these, take a look at Landscaping Tips for Irrigating a Low Maintenance Garden Design. Irrigation systems are most commonly seen in dripline or sprinkler heads.

Sprinkler systems

Sprinkler systems replicate natural rainfall which plants prefer but this type of system tends to require more maintenance as the heads get blocked and need routine repairing.

Dripline irrigation

Dripline is extremely low maintenance as there are fewer parts required.  If you’re looking to save time and money in the garden then this is the choice for you.  Dripline is easy to install and a good DIY job.  However if you don’t have the time, we’d love to help you out with this.

Mulching

Are you sick of weeding and watering your garden all the time? Do you see weeds constantly popping up in your garden even after you’ve been spending hours in the garden.

Mulch is a material spread around a plant over the soil surface as a protective layer.  This magical thing called mulch has a huge amount of benefits for you and your garden, if you don’t already mulch every year, then  you need to read Landscaper’s Guide to Mulching; The Best Way to Create a Low Maintenance Garden.

Here are some quick tips on mulching

Do it! – this is the number 1 area to spend your $ and your time. Little effort creates  big rewards, so you can see a thriving garden without having green fingers.

Bark chip mulch

Bark chips are a great choice if you are selling your property and need a quick aesthetic fix.  Bark comes in different colours so that it can be used as a complement to the design of your property and landscape.

Poo mulch

Our recommendation for most other gardens is a mulch high in organic materials and manures.  This is the best of both worlds providing the multitude of benefits from a solid mulch coverage plus all the magical composting goodness which enriches the soil with healthy nutrients.

Lawn

Low maintenance lawn care begins with choice of turf at the time of landscape design and construction.  There are several main lawn types to choose from so it’s important to pick the one that’s right for you that will give you back your precious time.

Buffalo

The very popular Buffalo lawn is a great choice for a low maintenance garden.  Most of the time we will recommend this lawn for anyone who wants an easy lawn as it requires less mowing and nitrogen than Kikuyu and Couch grass.

Tif tuf

Tif Tuf is a fantastic new couch grass variety that has been created to provide a tough lawn that also has the ability to cope in less sunny positions. It is a fast growing grass that needs to be mowed once or twice per week, and has invasive runners that can sprawlout into garden beds.

Kikuyu

Kikuyu is a tough and fast growing lawn.  It is great for high traffic areas and is commonly found in large commercial spaces.  As it is fast growing it has greater mowing requirements than Buffalo turf.

If your wanting to save time on the mower then take a look at Low Maintenance Gardening for your Lawns 

If you want ideas for a low maintenance garden, book a free quote with 2 Men and a Shovel here or call us on 9013 6588.