Not everyone is blessed with green thumbs. You may not have the time or inclination to spend out gardening all day, and that’s okay. You still deserve to have a garden that complements the home rather than providing a sharp contrast to all the care you put into the interior. Here, we’re going to look at the options for the lazy gardeners.
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These tips will help you save plenty of time and effort, ensuring you still end up with the curb appeal and dash of green that you can be proud of.
7 Smart Tips to Make Gardening Easier
Plant hardier stuff
Do you want to surround the lawn with majestic plants and bright, colorful flowers but you’re not too keen on all the care and attention that has to go into looking after them? The answer might be in rethinking what you’re planting. There are plenty of hardy, low-maintenance plants that can survive longer in tougher climates with a little less attention. Take a look at some of the examples named by garden expert David Domoney, like a buddleia, forsythia, or honeysuckle. They make great plants for beginners. And while they aren’t completely free of the need for a little care now and then, they are certain to not take up too much of your time.
Bring it a little closer
If you’re smarter with how you position your plants, you can also eliminate a lot of the time in the garden. By placing them together in closer zones, you can reduce the overall square foot coverage of your plants. This means you reduce a lot of the time moving to-and-fro when watering or feeding your plants. Planet Natural highlights some solutions like using raised beds. Create a raised bed in relative proximity to your home. Not only does this save you the journey of wandering through the garden, but they also tend to produce higher yields, have better water conservation, and are much easier to control pests. This makes them a more efficient option in just about every respect.
Divide and conquer gardening
Raised beds also serve as a way to create a space that is isolated from the lawn and the rest of the garden. Planting amongst or next to the lawn without any separation can create a more natural look to the garden. However, it can also mean that issues like lawn moisture, pests, and weeds are harder to stamp out. You won’t fix them simply by tending to your most valuable plants, you have to treat the entire lawn. That’s why options like vertical gardens can be a real life-saver. If any issues are affecting your soil or your lawn, the contained conditions of your vertical gardens, raised beds, or planters won’t be affected at all. Naturally, you still want to fix your lawn, but at least you won’t be losing any plants in the process.
Mulch ado about nothing
An aesthetic border for the garden as well as a timesaving tool, there are many benefits of adding mulch to your garden. There are different kinds of mulch, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Natural mulch includes hardwood chips and grass clippings, which can stimulate healthier plant growth, providing moisture and warmth. However, those conditions are also good for pests. Which is why inorganic mulch, such as pebbles and crushed rocks, might be the more convenient solution. Some of the key advantages of mulch are that it reduces winter damage to plants, makes it easier to control weeds, and protects from erosion. Some types of mulch, like cedar and cypress chips, can even repel some pests like gnats and fleas.
Enlist a little help
If you have plenty of space to cover and not enough time to do it all yourself, then there’s nothing wrong with enlisting some help. This is especially true if you’re dealing with an issue that’s a little out of your depth. For instance, many homeowners are rightfully concerned about the health of their lawn. From drainage to irrigation to aeration, there are a lot of issues that can affect it. As a result, your grass stops growing healthily. Lawn care from services like Allen Outdoor can be a great help. Rather than spending the time doing the trial and error finding out exactly what’s wrong, you can rely on an expert opinion. Someone who is more readily able to spot the problem than you can lead you to a solution all the sooner.
Give yourself less space to worry about
If you have a big garden that you don’t have the time to tend to, then perhaps you could live just as happily with a little less. Perhaps all that space could be the key to an entirely different kind of home improvement. A brick or stone patio can add a lot of aesthetic appeal to your exterior. What’s more, it can provide some clean, convenient livable space. Add a patio with help from sites like Family Handyman and you could have a place to dine in the sunshine or to entertain guests without having to crowd the house.
Consider making a replacement
This one might be considered a controversial option. But if you don’t like the day-to-day of caring for a lawn, you may simply want to consider replacing it. Artificial lawns have their advantages and disadvantages. The major disadvantages are that some think that the texture and look of an artificial lawn are both a little “off.”
However, the advantages are the fact that you never have to water, feed, mow or aerate the lawn again. If you are considering an artificial lawn, it’s important you get a look at how it sits when it’s laid out on the ground to know what you’re getting into. The decision is reversible, of course, it just takes a lot of work so don’t make it lightly.
Wrap-up on gardening
Naturally, the more time and effort you’re willing to put into your garden, the better the results you can expect out of it. However, the 7 smart tips above can act as shortcuts. That way, you can take the work out of the garden.
Thank you so much to our contributor for these practical gardening tips.
Please let us know which tips you’ve tried, and how they work! And, please pin the ideas you haven’t tried on Pinterest until you have time to try them out.
Have a happy DIY day!
Despite freelancing to make a living, her love is "all things home."
Deborah grew up in a family that grew a large vegetable garden and a fruit orchard, helping her parents pull weeds and can home-grown foods as part of her childhood. In fact, she had no idea that she could purchase veggies and fruits in pre-packed steel cans until she went to college and made a food run.
Today, she lives in Bertie County, North Carolina, an agricultural rural area with more chickens than people. She lives with her husband and a sweet toy fox terrier. Together, they enjoy DIY projects, furniture refinishing, gardening, and canning.
This blog celebrates all things home.
