Labour Saving Gardening (part 4)

In my experience planning for a less labour intensive garden needs a little forethought when in the design stage. In particular, my next top tip is choose your plants wisely.

Common sense will tell you that some plants will need so much more TLC than others. It will become an exercise in frustration if you do not have the time to tend to your chosen plants properly. This is a mistake I have learned the hard way. My first attempts at growing vegetables were always doomed to failure given that the hours I could spend in the garden were limited by the restrictions of work (and golf)! Watching the television experts makes the tending of a veg plot look so straight forward but the reality is to do it well demands the man hours! This is why I admire a well kept and productive plot.

Other plants which I have found to be particularly high maintenance are roses. The fight against disease, such as black spot requires a lot of vigilance, then when it inevitably shows up on the leaves they must be carefully removed and disposed of without contaminating other rose bushes. This entails disinfecting your secateurs and washing your hands every time before moving onto the next shrub. The next may then be a victim of aphid attack, so brushing them away with your fingers is a laborious and intricate process. Even the application of neem oil, which I do use regularly does not eradicate the problem. Roses will also be demanding when it comes to feeding, grooming and pruning. However, there are a lot of less demanding varieties of rose that can be incorporated into your designs, including the old garden roses.

The list of high maintenance plants is extensive and research will be required at the planning stage. However, two plants I would seriously advise to avoid, despite the attraction of their vigorous growth habit in a new garden are, leylandii and Russian vine both of which I have removed from our Pennine plot in the past.

By contrast what plant categories would I recommend for the Pennine garden that are not so demanding of time and effort? This basic list of my top 5 has been selected for their suitability to our soil, heavy and acid clay and our rather hostile climate (however, please feel free to disagree)
i. ornamental grasses and sedges
ii. heathers
iii. native trees, such as the rowan
iv. ferns
v. ericacious shrubs, such as rhododendron

high maintenance

lower maintenance

Our two very high maintenance features