Garden Design II

Maintenance Level: Where are you in the spectrum?
The notion of a “no maintenance” garden is one that is amusing to anyone who has put a plant in the ground. It reminds us of the front display cases of craft stores brimming with silk and plastic representations of our favorite flowers. If no maintenance is your goal, it’s probably best to shop for plants here!

There are choices, however, for lower maintenance gardens. These are gardens that once established require semi-annual attention. Typically, these are shrub gardens requiring annual pruning and occasional cleaning and weeding.

High maintenance gardens require daily or weekly attention and are best planned for the garden enthusiast. Deadheading spent flowers, weeding, trimming, and pruning are regular activities. Very formal gardens and perennial flower gardens fall into this category. This can be very deceiving, appearance-wise. One of our gardens appears “natural,” and somewhat rambles and tumbles in what looks like a loose and free-form manner. It takes hours each week to achieve that look.

If you find your preference lies somewhere in the middle of the maintenance spectrum, a mixture of trees and shrubs along with an assortment of perennial flowers may be in order. We urge you to consider sincerely what you truly intend to do (with no guilt if you do not really want to work daily or weekly in your garden).

Any garden, no matter the maintenance level planned, will need much attention until it is established; that is, until plant roots have expanded enough to reach necessary water and nutrients on their own. Even a small tree loses 90-95% of its roots when dug and prepared for sale. You will need to ensure that the remaining roots have adequate water until new roots have regenerated. Now is the best time to factor in the amount of time you wish to spend on garden maintenance.

It is also a good time to consider not just how much time you want to spend but how much time you can spend. Are your weekends (especially in the spring and summer) usually filled with additional work, Little League games, volunteer experiences, elder care, or weekly recreation activities? Do you have a few hours that you can dedicate every week to your garden? Are you physically able to wheelbarrow mulch and carry large bags of soil? What aspects of maintainance might you hire other people to perform, now or in the future? Now is the best time to take a sincere and candid look at how much time you can and are willing to invest in the future of your design.