I have been gardening in my Connecticut home for over 25 years now, and I have never strived for a “low maintenance” look. I like maintenance (a.k.a. gardening,) and over time I have learned that “low maintenance” is about as subjective as “healthy” (I’m looking at you, orange juice.) This year, the plague has given me a new perspective on maintenance because I am not living in Connecticut, so my garden is not getting a lot of attention. The lawn gets mowed and the edges cleaned up every week, but everything else has to survive on its own. Since the end of May I have gone home every other weekend and lavish some attention on it, but mostly the garden is on its own.
I am here this weekend, and my gardening time was spent trying to tame it all by pulling out weeds and cutting back spent plants, which gives me an opportunity to see what in my garden looks good despite my current neglect. Gorgeous plants really help, but it’s the design decisions I have made that are really keeping it looking good despite its almost total lack of maintenance.
Use Strong Shapes and Edges
The first weekend I was home, I was very relieved to see that my garden still looked like a garden. There were plenty of weeds, the narcissus were very sloppy, and my peonies needed help, but it was still pretty and had the exciting promise of early summer.
I credit the structure that I created over the years. The beds were a mess, but the well defined edges and the strong focal points made that less obvious.
Overgrown, weedy border with a patchy lawn on a steamy day, but the distinct curve retains the space’s “gardeniness”
2. Add Distinct Vertical Elements
Between weeds and faded, overgrown, and floppy plants, most of the mess is at ground level. Vertical elements bring the eye up away from the clutter. Tall, narrow plants, trees (especially trees with high canopies) tall conifers will take care of themselves for most of the season, and trellises, tuteurs, and obelisks always look good (that’s why they are so expensive.)
Vertical Plant with Foliage Contrast: Upright new growth of a coppiced purple smoke bush acts like a punctuation point.
3. Avoid thin borders and beds
You cannot rely on a deep border to hide every flaw, but if the planting area is too thin every weed will be on display. This is especially true if the bed consists of a straight row of a single plant: these can be beautiful in a formal or modern garden, but they are unforgiving of casual maintenance. If the border is too thin, the weeds can easily become the largest plant and your favorite plants will flop out of bounds.
4. Choose Plants with Contrasting Foliage
Ever notice how easy it is to lose something on a patterned rug? Foliage texture has the same effect. If everything in the garden has similar, green foliage, any problems will stand out like beet juice on a white marble counter. Different leaves snuggling together always looks intriguing, even if the flowers are disappointing. Also, you are less likely to notice green weeds if there is a caladium demanding attention.
5. Be Wary of Self Seeders
Most plants make seeds, and as gardeners become more accommodating to pollinators, we will get more seeds (after all, seeds are the entire point of pollinating.) This usually isn’t a big deal because young seedlings are very easy to eliminate, you just have to get around to it.
This year I had thousands of well established seedlings. Most were easy to eliminate (some I even learned to love,) but some are still threatening to take over. I am glad I haven’t planted many ornamental grasses because grass seedlings are the worst. So, unless you are willing to be a diligent weeder, grow few ornamental grases, grow sterile grasses, or accept that it may take over.
6. Machete Maintenance
This is as much a maintenance technique as a design technique, but I have found that the easiest way to keep the garden looking well groomed is to shave everything that isn’t pleasing. These are usually plants that bloom in early summer and are are lackluster freeloaders for the rest of the season. At first I was afraid that this would hurt the plant, but eventually I got tired of pretending that spending hours tying and trimming fading foliage and cutting off hundreds of uninteresting seed heads was fun.
I started several years ago with tradescantia (spiderwort) and daylilies - they looked like hell after flowering, so I took a pruning saw and cut them down to the ground. I instantly had lots of greens for the compost pile and a much better looking garden. Not only was the ugly stuff removed, but the remaining plants appreciated the space. By the end of August, the tradescantia was a tuft of tidy looking foliage and it was reblooming!
I was worried about the plants diminishing, but they were all fine. I wouldn’t do this to woody plants or peonies, but any perennial that is vigorous enough to become an ugly mess is a good candidate for this treatment. I use this treatment with daffodils, too. Yellowing, sloppy foliage is a sign that the plant has lost interest in it, so why try to preserve it?
The best thing about this technique is that these plants only require maintenance once each season, and it’s an easy, gratifying job. My garden is designed to bloom all season, and ruthlessly cutting out the uglies makes it a lot easier.
The flowering spikes of lambs ear look like candelabras at their peak. Now they look more like a pile of matchsticks.
15 seconds later, the matchsticks are gone and the hydrangea and coleus take center stage.
Distinctive foliage, strong edge, and stokesia l. and pink hydrangea showing off.
7. Use Flowering Succession for a Series of Showoffs
My big takeaway is that creating an exhuberant garden is a lot more fun and much easier than keeping it meticulously maintained. A well planned garden with well chosen plants will let you overlook the problems and focus on the beauty.
