5 low maintenance garden tips

Bare soil = more weeds: Reducing exposed soil in your garden will reduce the amount of unwanted weeds. You can achieve this by either using a thick biodegradable mulch layer, such as bark, or alternatively removing excess soil and replacing it with a non-biodegradable material, like rocks. The main difference between these two approaches importantly is the word bio-degradable. Any bio-degradable material will ultimately breakdown and therefore is a temporary solution to the problem. The goal is for your plants to eventually fill the garden and outcompete any would be weeds. Rocks are a more permanent feature and therefore you can have plants further spaced out with the intention of them never covering the entire space.

Dense planting: Following on from the first point, the quicker your garden becomes established then the time and space for weeds to grow will be reduced. So, when designing a new garden it is important to space your plants with this in mind. Denser planting will speed up the succession of your garden, however, be mindful to select the right plants.

Choosing the right plants: Not only is this important for dense planting but it is key for any successful garden. Using plants that are suited to the local soil, environment and space available will always result in quicker growing and longer living plants. When planting close together it is important to choose plants that will grow well into each other, like mass herbaceous plants for example. It is also worth considering the eventual size of plants as planting large trees where you shouldn't will always result in further maintenance down the track. Knowing the seasonal change of the environmental conditions of your garden will help you select appropriate plants that will thrive in each position.

Water: Especially in sunny Nelson, water is life. Having access to water all year round extends the growing season for your garden and can result in a fully established garden much sooner. The best situation is to have an automated, subtle and reliable system that requires as little input as possible. To achieve this doesn't have to cost the earth, even an automated tap timer and some dripline will do the trick. One thing to bare in mind is that the water requirements of your garden will change throughout the year and it is important to adjust your system accordingly.

To weed-matt or not to weed-matt: Probably one of the first tactics that comes to mind in order to create the ultimate low maintenance garden for many people is to use weed-matt. So the question is, does weed-matt work? The short and simple answer nearly always is NO.

Placing bark on top of weed-matting in a garden will always result in your plants eventually being starved of nutrients and weeds growing in the broken down bark above. The only application it can be used for is a rock garden or a garden which has a non-biodegradable filling. For any other type of garden, weed-matt causes a plethora of issues which tends to result in a total renovation years down the line, something we deal with often.

Do you have an overgrown weed jungle or want to avoid one with your new garden?

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