Until we moved into this house, S and I had never had a garden before. Although we’d been looking forward to having an outdoor space, last summer it did get a little overwhelming, what with the lawn to mow, weeds to pull up, a whopping great grape vine taking over the entire end of the garden, strawberries running wild and – to top it off – a massive holly tree.
Last year I found it really hard to stay on top of the garden, and to be honest I just let it all go to pot. Now, with over a year worth of overgrowth out there, it’s hard to find a place to start! I’ve been researching what I can do that will give us a liveable space that’s low maintenance.
This year then, we’re all about the lazy approach to gardening. Here are some of the ideas we’ve come up with:
- Chopping down the holly tree and replacing it with nasturtiums. The tree serves a purpose in that it means others can’t see into the garden – but the leaves are spiky. I know from previous experience that nasturtiums will grow to a reasonable height and pretty much cover a trellis – and that they’re not easy to kill, which is a winner for a lazy gardener.
- Artificial grass. Bear with me on this – it sounds random, but it never needs to be mown, never gets overgrown and never gets mossy patches or dandelions growing through it. In fact, all you need to do is vacuum it every now and then. Talk about low maintenance. My plan is to get some free artificial grass samples from a leading supplier and see which works best for us… and then make a compelling case to the landlord/lettings agent as to why it’s a better idea than real grass.
- The “no dig” gardening method. I am not someone who enjoys digging up weeds – by which I mean, I really just cannot be bothered. I read about this “no dig” method – it’s a real thing, and it doesn’t just mean “letting the weeds take over.” Apparently you put a layer of cardboard or newspaper on the flower bed, and a layer of compost on top of it – and then poke a hole for the flowers to come through. And it just kills all the weeds. I think there are some bulbs in my garden so I guess I would need to dig them up and re-plant with their own little hole afterwards. But I still reckon this would be an easier option than digging up all the weeds that are currently there!
- Planters. I figure if I have plants in big pots I can put them wherever I like – and move them around if I want. And I can put them on top of the garden I can’t be bothered to dig, right?
- Enlist help. I have a small child who loves to learn fun new things; I’m wondering just how much she will enjoy gardening. Perhaps with a little supervision from me, she will weed the whole garden! Ok, so that’s not entirely likely but she might help a little bit before she goes back to playing!
If you have any other clever ideas for lazy gardeners, do please share them – we need all the help we can get!
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