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Easy Maintenance Tips for Busy Homeowners
by Pam Roy, CPH
Planscapes
You want it all, right? A full schedule of work, family, home life, vacations AND a yard that offers peaceful beauty, a place to entertain end enjoy outdoor living, year round color and interest. Maybe you’d even love to have a few edibles growing.
The good news is Yes! There are many ways to simplify garden chores and design your outdoor space to maximize enjoyment and minimize hours spent maintaining the garden.
The first and most important tip is to start off with a good design of your outdoor space. Planting the right plant in the right place eliminates alot of future maintenance hours.
Proper plant spacing reduces the need for routine pruning. All too often that cute plant in the nursery outgrows the area it’s planted in. Put plants in the location that matches the sun/shade requirements of the plant.
Cut down on maintenance by choosing plants that are low maintenance plants. Focus on plants that do well in our environment, and are not prone to insect or disease damage that will require alot of spraying. There are many varieties of popularly used plants that have been bred to be disease resistant.
Use plants that are hardy for our climate to minimize winter damage. Observe the average low temperatures in your area and pick plants that are hardy to several degrees above that low temperature. With the changing weather patterns of the last several years a conservative approach to bringing home marginally hardy plant material can reduce having to replace winter damaged plants.
Cut down on watering chores by using drought tolerant plants. These plants will require watering during their first two growing seasons, but will need minimal watering after that. Many native plants work well in ornamental gardens and are drought tolerant and low maintenance.
A drip irrigation system can be installed for temporary use and then disconnected as the plants become established. You can use a timer to turn the system on and off to free you up from monitoring this. By grouping plants according to their water use needs, it’s possible to lessen the amount of irrigation needed.
What about weeding? Get ahead of the weeds with a thorough weeding in early spring and again in the fall. Try to remove the weeds before they go to flower and spread seed all over the yard. Once the weeds are pulled, mulch all beds with a layer of aged bark or wood chips. Wood chips, applied at a depth of 4-6 inches go along way in preventing weed growth. Keep the chips 4 inches away from the stems of plants. In beds with mostly perennials, use a composted mulch 2 inches deep.
To keep life easy, grow vegetables and herbs in containers, close to the kitchen. A drip irrigation system can take care of their water needs,
Now, pick up your favorite book or magazine, and go out and relax in the comfort of a well tended, user friendly garden.
Pam Roy, owner of Planscapes is an award winning landscape designer with over 30 years of experience. Contact her via email: pnw135@verizon.net . View her web gallery at gallery.mac.com/pnw54 | 
