Originally posted on https://www.lifeinabreakdown.com/creating-a-low-maintenance-garden-this-summer/

If you have a garden or some form of outside space (balcony or patio), then have you ever been put off doing much with it, because it can feel like you have to go to Herculean efforts to maintain it?

Maybe you have rented a property that comes with a large garden, and you have the task to look after it, but don’t know where to start, or are completely new to gardening?

You could have a disability that means that you can’t be too physical in your garden, and bending down to pull weeds would be nearly impossible.

If any of this sounds familiar, then looking for ways to create a low maintenance garden is just what you need!

Low maintenance gardens are all about hardscaping features, perennial and succulent plants, and other elements that are pretty laid-back and that don’t need constant attention; it can practically take care of itself.

So here are the things that you can be doing or putting in your garden, that will help to make a difference.

KEEP PLANTS TO A MINIMUM

It is simple maths; the fewer plants that you have in your garden, the less time that you will need to spend doing work in the garden.

Of course, you don’t want it to look like quite a sterile and blank space, but keep the number of plants that you have to a minimum.

You could plant some evergreen shrubs, such as lavender, or you could add in some colour by introducing some planters.

Just choose a couple of plants, instead of a lot, to keep the work down.

LAWN ALTERNATIVES

You could even go one step further to keep things low maintenance, and remove all plants and lay down a gravel garden instead. That is one of the most low maintenance gardens that you can have.

Then you could just have plants in some pots and planters dotted around the space to have some colour.

You could even go for the Instagram trend of having artificial grass for your lawn, instead of having regular lawn.

It is low maintenance as there are no weeds, no mowing the lawn, and just needing to hoover it. You could even look for free artificial grass samples online to see what the quality is like and if it is quite like real grass or not.

Just don’t think of a traditional lawn when you think of gardens, as there are alternatives.

BUG-FREE PLANTS

The plants that you have in your garden will serve as food for lots of bugs and insects in your garden. For example, snails are something that is really common in your garden. And as most snails are herbivores, then they will look for things like tender and succulent-leaf plants (think broccoli and lettuce) to munch on in your garden.

This can mean a lot of work trying to keep them away, as well as replanting and covering them up.

So choose alternatives like bellflowers and cyclamen that naturally repel things like snails.