Garden Care
The Low Maintenance Way
All gardens require care. Many people state that they are interested in low maintenance yards and gardens. One of the biggest mistakes made is thinking low maintenance means not doing a lot of work in the yard. Low maintenance sounds like a great idea because they think it really means no maintenance at all.
There is a difference between low maintenance and NO MAINTENANCE. It does not mean ignored, unkempt landscape. There are some gardens which need very little, but most need at least some attention.
The term, Low Maintenance, is actually a whole concept in maintenance. By choosing plants compatible to the site, allowing plants to grow in more naturalistic forms and making wise choices in pest control when needed (Using IPM methods), gardens and landscapes are likely to be healthy and less in need of excessive maintenance.
A major key to low maintenance gardening and landscaping is to begin with a good design and plants appropriate to the location. Plants should be chosen that will not overgrow their site, thrive best in the amount of sunlight it will grow in, is compatible with the soil conditions of the site and is able to thrive in your climate.
It takes a little research to discover the right choice of plants, and in most cases there are several plants that will meet the specifications.
Choose the Correct Plant
Questions to Ask
Analyze Location
- How much sun or shade does the site get?
- Is the soil wet or dry most of the time?
- Does the soil drain well after a rain or after being watered?
- Is there space or moisture competition from plants close by or from tree roots?
- How much space is there for a plant?
No matter how good the design and how wise the selection of plant material, once a landscape is in place, it will continue to be attractive if it is cared for. Good design choices just make it easier.
Landscaping Increases the Value of Homes
Numerous studies over the years indicate that a healthy landscape enhances the resale value of the property. An attractive and inviting landscape is considered to have value and appeal to would-be home buyers.
According to the many studies, a healthy and sustainable landscape has a recovery value of 100 to 200 percent. For every dollar spent, it will be recovered or doubled when the property is sold.
Garden Care Maintenance Schedule
Well cared for landscaping and gardens make a home a pleasant and satisfying place to live and be in. However, many people are not experienced with caring for plants or feel unsure of what needs to be done to care for landscape plants. Most maintenance tasks are nearly the same every year. Once you discover the needs of the plants in your particular garden, you will feel more comfortable.
The Garden Calendar is an attempt to briefly list many common garden-care tasks by month for gardens in the Midwest and Great Plains of the United States. In most cases jobs tend to be seasonal or within a general time frame, rather than having to be done on a certain day, although there are some people who swear that things have to be done by the moon cycles or on a certain day in order to be successful. For instance there is a myth that potatoes have to be planted on Good Friday. This is obviously quite silly since Good Friday is a movable holiday occurring one year in early march one year or late April the next depending upon when the first Sunday after the first full moon that is after the Spring Equinox falls. It would be better to go by the date of the Equinox which is nearly the same every year.
Over the centuries people have noticed that there really are some events that make it easy to know when to do various garden jobs. Natural events such as the time certain plants bloom or when a particular insect hatches is related to other events. Not all plants or insects or birds are triggered by the same things, but people have noticed some coincidences.
One would think that plants can take care of themselves. After all, they do fine in nature without humans helping them survive, and have done so for way longer than humans have been around. The difference is that plants we put in the unnatural conditions of our landscapes and gardens need more care than in nature. We humans also like to control everything and force plants into unnatural shapes which gives us more maintenance to do.
Choosing plants that are native or come from places in the world that have similar conditions to our climate is and excellent way to make a garden low maintenance. The plants we tend to put in our landscapes and gardens are not natives. Most of our landscape plants are exotics that evolved somewhere else, often in different climates and are under some stress, needing some extra care to survive the soil, moisture and temperature requirements.
No matter where you live there are some plants that are native. Often horticulturists have made selections of very common plants which exhibit nice form or colors that are attractive in the landscape.
For low maintenance pruning, choose plant forms that are compatible to the site. A plant growing in in its natural form needs little pruning. A tree or shrub that is selected because it is naturally smaller will need less attention. Plants well to grow in their natural shapes. It is when we people prefer that they grow in unnatural shapes and desire to keep them pruned that the plants fight to grow the way their genes have determined.
Climatic Nitches
Every plant is native to somepleace in the world and those conditons in its native place are what it needs to grow best. Try to find a place in your garden that most nearly matches conditions needed.
Conserve water by grouping plants with similar needs. Water is our most precious resource and if plants needing more water are grouped together and away from those needing less water, its easier to give more water to only those needing more water rather than wasting water where it is not needed.
Plants like to grow larger than the spaces we put them in and so some maintenance is needed to keep them from taking over.
