Gardening Made Easy With These Top Low-Maintenance Plants
Low-maintenance gardens are becoming increasingly popular with all kinds of homeowners. These outdoor spaces have been uniquely designed to require little to no ongoing maintenance, helping to save time, money and effort in many people’s routines.
A key element of low-maintenance gardens is the plants you choose. Plants are not just a way to adorn your outdoor space, but can also determine how much work is needed to keep the landscape looking its best. While you may want a thriving, colourful landscape, you do not necessarily want to work for it – this is where low- maintenance plants come in.
With low-maintenance plants, you can create a garden that looks amazing throughout the year and offers a variety of colours, textures and scents without the need for gardening tasks such as watering, mowing or fertilising. As a leading landscape gardener, TM Landscapes knows what works best in low-maintenance gardens. In this post, we are recommending the best plants for hassle-free gardening throughout the year, so you have more time to enjoy the outdoors and do what you love.
Why Choose Low-Maintenance Plants?
Low-maintenance gardens continue to be a popular option for homeowners across the UK. As professional landscape gardeners, we have seen an increase in demand for this kind of outdoor space in recent years, and it makes a lot of sense. While we love gardening and spending time tending to outdoor spaces, this passion is not always shared with our clients.
When you have a busy home or work life, the last thing you want to do is add another task to your list, and for many people, gardening is one such task. With soft landscaping, it can take a lot of work and money to keep your garden looking good throughout the year, which is something not a lot of us can afford.
However, by designing a low-maintenance garden, you get to enjoy the benefits of a beautiful outdoor space without the additional hassle. It is possible to have a beautiful landscape that is ready to use for barbecues, al fresco dining, or family gatherings at a moment’s notice, simply by choosing low-maintenance plants.
To learn more about low-maintenance gardens and their benefits, see our post Designing A Hassle-Free Haven: Low Maintenance Garden Tips.
Best Low-Maintenance Plants For Easier Gardening
Creating a simple garden is easy with low-maintenance plants. Various kinds of hardy, drought-tolerant, evergreen or perennial plants can be added to your garden design to create an attractive yet effortless outdoor space.
No matter your garden design or intended theme, there are low-maintenance plants to suit all, such as:
Shrubs For Long-Lasting Structure
Shrubs are a great way to add colour and structure to your garden, but typically require seasonal pruning, watering and shaping. Low-maintenance plants are available to offer the benefits of long-lasting structure, visual appeal, and even privacy screening, such as:
- Lavender: A British garden classic, lavender is one of the best low-maintenance plants. This is a drought-tolerant and hardy shrub that returns to your garden year after year. It provides long-lasting structure, as well as beautifully fragrant flowers during spring and summer. Not only do these flowers provide colour and soothing aromas, but they are also pollinator-friendly to attract bees and butterflies into your landscape throughout the year.
- Hebe: Hebe is a low-maintenance plant that provides excellent structure and screening throughout the year, as it is evergreen. It produces lush, colourful foliage for visual impact and is compact enough for small outdoor spaces. As it is evergreen, hebe can grow freely without the need for fertilising and ongoing pruning, although the occasional shaping may be needed to keep it looking its best. To learn more about small garden design and what plants are best, see our post How To Make The Most Out Of A Small Garden.
- Box (Buxus): Shrub alternatives like Euonymus or Ilex can provide year-round structure to your garden and are some of the most popular for privacy screening. Whether you want to keep neighbours out or create a secluded ambience in seating areas, box hedges like this are a great option for low-maintenance landscapes.
Perennials For Returning Colour
Perennials will return to your garden year after year, making them a staple for low-maintenance landscapes. They are one of the most popular elements of soft landscaping, as we explore in our post Soft Landscaping Secrets For Lush, Inviting & Vibrant Gardens.
These plants organically repeat blooming cycles each year, so you can rely on them long-term to provide colour and visual appeal to your flower beds, borders and planters:
- Geranium (Cranesbill): This is a long-flowering, low-maintenance plant that produces stunning red, pink or white flowers during the peak seasons. Geraniums are incredibly easy to grow and offer lasting colour to flower beds or borders every year.
- Sedum (Stonecrop): A great option for small or shady gardens, sedum is extremely hardy as it can thrive in poor soil and sun conditions. It has waxy green leaves and will produce lush pink flowers in peak seasons for border colour and lasting structure.
- Hellebores: These are some of the best low-maintenance plants for early spring interest in your garden, producing beautiful white or purple flowers at the beginning of the season. They are great for repeated colour and interest in low-maintenance gardens as they require minimal care, even in the spring and summer. This is the peak blooming season for many plants, as we explore in this post Top Summer Planting Ideas For A Blooming Garden This Season.
Ornamental Grasses For Texture and Movement
A staple in contemporary outdoor spaces, ornamental grasses are a great way to add movement, texture and overall visual appeal to your garden without the effort. These kinds of gardens are an incredibly popular trend and will continue to be so for many years, as we explore in this post.
Ornamental grasses continue to thrive throughout the year, producing lush foliage and grass blades in various shades to make your planting displays more interesting. Some of the best low-maintenance grasses include:
- Festuca glauca: These low-maintenance plants are compact, making them a great option for container planting or raised planters. It is incredibly striking with its blue foliage that can add something unique to even the simplest of planting displays, and will thrive throughout the seasons.
- Mexican Feather Grass (Stipa tenuissima): This is an incredibly versatile grass that produces soft, flowing leaves in a beautiful pale yellow shade. Unlike many other low-maintenance plants within this category, Mexican Feather Grass has a softer appeal that can complement both traditional and contemporary garden designs, whether planted in flower beds, containers or borders.
- Silvergrass (Miscanthus): A classic ornamental grass, this is a tall statement plant that requires minimal care throughout the year. As it is clump-forming, Silvergrass requires no pruning or shaping without compromising the appeal and structure of your planting displays.
Ground Covers For Weed Suppression
Ground cover plants are a great way to make use of your planting spaces without the need for ongoing watering, pruning or weeding. Many ground cover plants can provide weed suppression, to make garden maintenance even easier, such as:
- Bugleherb (Ajuga): A hardy perennial that produces tall, purple flowers, Bugleherb is a great low-maintenance option for planting displays and large flower beds as it suppresses weeds, while also adding colour and visual interest.
- Pachysandra: Ideal for shaded areas, this low-maintenance plant creates an evergreen carpet with its lush green foliage and unique shape.
- Thyme: A classic herb that can add flavour to more than your dishes, Thyme is also a popular low-maintenance plant. This is a low-growing, fragrant species that is incredibly tough to withstand the changing seasons and varying weather conditions of the region.
Conclusion
Creating a low-maintenance garden does not have to be complicated or boring, as there are plenty of options out there. Low-maintenance plants come in many forms, from colourful perennials to textured grasses and bold ground covers, ensuring there is something for all garden designs.
A low-maintenance garden can be just as attractive as any other outdoor space, but it offers the additional benefits of freeing up time and money. If you want to spend more time in the garden without having to work for it, low-maintenance plants are a must, and TM Landscapes is here to help. We are a leading landscaping company, offering a range of services to bring your dream garden to life.
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FAQs
What are the easiest plants to grow in a Hampshire garden?
Hardy perennials such as geraniums, lavender and sedum are some of the easiest plants to grow in Hampshire and across the UK. These plants thrive in a range of soil conditions and require little watering.
How do I keep my garden low-maintenance throughout the year?
Choose drought-tolerant and evergreen plants to reduce garden maintenance throughout the year. Mulch is also a great tool to reduce watering, as it retains moisture and suppresses weeds. A layer of organic mulch is added to all planting areas.
Can I have an attractive, low-maintenance garden?
Absolutely! Low maintenance does not mean boring, and there are plenty of plants out there to add colour, interest and texture without having to work hard. Using a variation of flowers, shrubs and grasses, you can create a diverse low-maintenance garden that withstands the test of time