landscapegloves
I want flowers and lots of color. I love blooming shrubs. And I would like my gardens to look interesting in all seasons. But…” and here it comes, “I want the garden to be low maintenance.”
Low maintenance. I hear these two words often from my clients. Is low maintenance really a possibility? Realistically speaking, what does this mean and what might a low maintenance landscape look like?
Let us unravel these questions and start at the beginning. Why do we bother to have landscape gardens at all, low maintenance or not?
Piet Oudolf, the influential Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author, is a leading figure in the “New Perennial” movement. Oudolf says that we all have an embedded longing for nature. We want plants around us to satisfy this longing. We feel best in gardens when they evoke the natural world – full of life, moving in the breeze, glowing in the evening light, dancing with butterflies and bees.
In landscape design, plants are often used in what have become expected ways. This might be some evergreens as foundation plantings, some groundcover and a few annuals for color. This can be pretty enough, even elegant in its own way, but it is unlikely to feel exciting, and certainly not full of life and movement. While there is nothing wrong with this landscaping style, it won’t involve us, and we won’t respond to it, not the way we would to plants that bring the feeling of nature to the garden.
Many may perceive this more expected style of planting as low maintenance. But is it? There is likely to be a lot of grass, so regular mowing and edging are needed to maintain the desired appearance. Oftentimes toxic chemicals are used to create that perfect lawn. Annuals are water hogs and, in our recent bout of high temperatures and drought, many annuals needed to be watered daily. The groundcovers used are often invasive plants like English ivy, vinca or wintercreeper. Once these vines are established it takes a great deal of effort to keep them under control. And many of those evergreen shrubs likely want to grow larger than the spot you’ve put them in, so pruning will be an ongoing issue. Sounds to me like someone will be working pretty hard.
The truth is that all gardens require effort, and at times lots of it, to look the way we want. Typically, the less we do, the worse our yards look.
However, there are landscapes that require less maintenance and, perhaps surprisingly, these are the types of gardens that also tend to connect us most with a feeling of the natural world. Studies show that established perennial gardens that have been well thought out and installed need about 15 minutes of maintenance every 10 days, which is much less time than it takes to keep the grass in the average lawn looking good.
This is how I approached the reworking of my own backyard a few years ago. I started by designing my garden beds around the established trees that include two Norway spruces and a lovely old dogwood. Then I removed most of the grass (a four by six foot patch is all that’s left), and added gravel pathways and a sitting area that connect my patio to a small pond. Where there was once a high maintenance lawn there are now perennial and shrub gardens that are mostly native. Weeding is minimal now that the beds are fully established. Weeks go by during which I do nothing more than deadheading flowering plants and removing yellowing leaves, which does not take very long.
But, yes, there is more to it than that. My garden design invites me to enjoy a close relationship with it. As the plants change, I tweak the design a bit. As plants spread, I may remove some to rein them in and maintain plant diversity. I add stepping stone pathways and benches and beautiful pieces of garden art. In short, I garden. Gardeners are in touch with what is growing around them; they know their plants and their soil.
All this means is that there are stretches of time when I do very little and then, suddenly, the design needs work and I spend time renewing my intimacy with the small patch of land that is my backyard.
So, what about this low maintenance idea? Good design work up front can certainly make things much easier, both immediately and in the longer term. The right shrub in the right place will reduce pruning needs. The right perennials in the right place will reduce watering needs. More garden and less grass will reduce your lawn care commitment.
So, let’s talk about reduced maintenance instead. But a low maintenance landscape, which many confuse with the hope for almost no maintenance? No, never!
But the issue is deeper than this. Perhaps Oudolf is right that we are hard wired to need nature around us – that it is good for us to maintain our gardens. In a recent article in the Atlantic, titled “How to Get High on Soil,” author Pagan Kennedy tells us: “I’m holding a bowl of dirt up to my nose, in hopes of getting high on the fumes of my backyard compost pile. The microbe that I’m after today is M. vaccae, a living creature that acts like a mind-altering drug once it enters the human body. It has been shown to boost the levels of serotonin and norepinephrine circulating in the systems of both humans and mice. In other words, it works in much the same manner as antidepressant pills. And yes, it is possible to dose yourself by simply breathing in the smell of good dirt.”
Could it be that, in looking for low or no maintenance gardens, we are cheating ourselves? Some amount of garden maintenance may be essential for our good health.