Let's be honest. Most of us enjoy looking at gardens a lot more than maintaining them. And why not? The fact is that summers in the South are long, hot, sticky, and buggy. So when faced with the choice of weeding, watering, and being stung by fire ants or relaxing on the sofa in air-conditioned bliss, most of us choose the latter.
But reducing garden maintenance isn't just a question of comfort. For many of us, it's also an issue of time. Free time is precious in households where both spouses work outside the home. Devoting hours to hand-watering and dead-heading isn't always time well spent.
Fortunately, you can create the garden you want without burying yourself in upkeep. Just consider the following suggestions:
- Don't plant more garden than you can easily care for. This is a common mistake that beginning gardeners make. If you find yourself getting up an hour before dawn to water the hydrangeas or neglecting family duties to keep the roses sprayed, your garden is probably too big.
- Choose plants that are well adapted to your climate, especially native plants. You'll have less watering, fertilizing, and spraying to do. If time is limited, limit your palette. Also, group plants that require similar growing conditions.
- Plant in masses. This simplifies maintenance by reducing variety and allowing you to treat large areas the same. Mass planting also discourages weeds.
- Avoid invasive plants that spread by seed, bulblets, or roots.
- Install an irrigation system if you can afford it.
- Reduce the size of your lawn. People spend more time on lawn care than on any other gardening activity. Devote more space to ground covers, mulch, and natural and paved areas.
- Forget about large beds of roses or vegetables and long, clipped hedges.
- Mulch planting beds. Mulch conserves soil moisture so you won't have to water so often. It also discourages weeds.
After following all the above suggestions, there will be time for a tall glass of lemonade and chance to read that new gardening book you have been neglecting. (Source: Southern Living Landscape Book)
Shirley Watson, Smith County Master Gardener
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