Many people either don’t have the time to garden or simply wish to create a low maintenance garden for themselves. This article will look at the issues you need to consider when planning a garden.
The first thing to look at is the depth and quality of the soil in your existing garden. Horticulturalists generally recommend a depth of soil of at least 300 millimetres. Without good quality soil you cannot generate a good quality garden. A reasonable depth of soil is necessary for the purpose of holding water in the soil after irrigation of the garden.
In order to have a good balance of soil quality, you need to minimise clay, shale and sand content and replace it with better quality soil. Excavating up to 150 millimetres of these poor quality soils and replacing them with loam should be adequate to greatly improve the standard of the soil.
Next, if you want your garden to be low maintenance – design has to play a role. You need to minimise the amount of lawn and high growth trees you have while not needing to concrete over everything at the same time. It is important to remember that large areas of concreted patio or paved brick patio are very expensive to build.
Now you need to plan the planting of the garden and choose trees and other shrubs carefully. It is wise to select as many evergreen or non-deciduous plants as possible to remove the need for cleaning up large amounts of leaves. If you live in a dry climate, avoid planting European shrubs and trees because they are high water consumption as well as generally deciduous.
Preferably omit planting garden borders with flowering plants as they require a good degree of care to look their best. Use the most effective methods of controlling garden problems such as weeds. While people have traditionally used chemical sprays to kill and control weeds, it’s better not to go down that path. There are safer (for you and the environment) alternative means of weed control like various types of mulches and plants that are effective in ground covering.
Finally, the size of garden and style of garden you have built, or build yourself, needs to be determined on how much time you have to maintain it. If you are a busy person with an exhausting schedule, obviously you ideally want a relatively small block and accompanying garden.