Song of the Lazy Gardener

Many people avoid having plants in their daily lives because of the regular care that must be given to help them thrive. But while the planning and planting of any garden can consume a lot of time and energy, you can develop plantings which may be maintained with only 1 or 2 hours of care a week.

The decision to have a minimum care garden starts with planning the garden area, deciding the kind of vista that you wish to create, and-most important-selecting the plants to be grown.

A minimum-care garden immediately eliminates many favorites which are grown by avid gardeners. To survive, some plants require frequent watering, pruning, staking, and spraying for disease and pest control. They may also be very sensitive to drought, freezing, or inadequate drainage. The gardener must apply protective mulches, set up screens, and hope for mild weather. Some plants grow so vigorously that they cannot be retained within the desired space.

A minimum-care garden starts with deciding on the functions of the plants -a foundation planting, screening, traffic control, controlling water movement, color and fragrance, or shade. Other chapters in this book give specific information on how to plan and select plants to perform all of these functions. This chapter will offer specific approaches just for a low-maintenance garden.

Mature plantings around old homes are examples of low-maintenance gardens. The yard is filled with large plants, all meshed together. Plants susceptible to disease and insects died many years ago, All of the plants which needed staking have been broken and developed into quaint forms. Because of their age and the neglect through the year, the plants which are left in the garden are the resistant types and thus low-maintenance plants.

You can seek clues from the plants growing in a mature garden as to what you should be doing. Become aware of the size of mature trees and shrubs. Realize that the number of plants needed for a landscape effect are minimal. A garden effect throughout the growing season can be created with a few hardy herbaceous perennials, bulbs, and shrubs. And finally, keep in mind that some plants will not survive under minimum care.

Certain kinds of plants are adapted to minimum care because of their growth characteristics. Within almost every type of plant are species or cultivated forms which are slow growers.

It is often difficult to pick out a slow growing form of a plant, unless the plant is labelled as such. A simple way is to move your hand along the main stem of the plant. The stem should be smooth for the entire length of the current season of growth. Your fingers will feel and then your eyes will see a ridge circling around the stem. This is the scar from the previous growth season. Observe the length of growth made during the previous season and the distances between the leaves on the stems.

The shorter the length of the previous season's growth and the closer the spacing of leaves on the stem, the more likely the plant is slow growing. Select the slow-growing over the rapid growing plant, for a minimum care garden.

There are also true dwarf forms of many kinds of plants. They are called dwarfs because of the restricted growth which is produced each year. True dwarf plants are often difficult to propagate. They develop into useful sizes for landscape purposes only after many years of culture in the nursery. True dwarf plants are thus much more expensive to buy than their normal counterparts in the garden.

The dwarf characteristic of growth may be an indication of poorly formed or functioning root systems or restricted movement of water and nutrients within the plant. Dwarf plants must be given more protection to survive than normal plants.

Another approach open to the gardener on a limited budget is to plant more vigorous types of plants and plan to prune them at frequent intervals.

As a rule, spring flowering shrubs should be pruned immediately following flowering. They can be severely cut back at this time and still permit the development of new shoots prior to winter. Most spring flowering shrubs will flower every year with an annual pruning.

Summer flowering shrubs blossom on current season growth. They should be pruned either before growth resumes in the spring or after the flowers fade in late summer. Pruning of these plants after growth starts will delay or inhibit their flowering for the current season of growth.

Conifers and broad- and narrow-leaf evergreens should be sheared while they are dormant. This means trimming during the winter. Pruning at the correct time for the individual plant will help retain any plant within desired bounds and need be done only once a year.

Deciduous flowering shrubs are often the forgotten plants in the new garden. Unfortunately, they do not retain their foliage over the winter. However, they do give maximum areas of color in the garden for a limited period of time. By careful selection of species of plants, the gardener can have a procession of flowers throughout the growing season.

By J. K. Ross

copyright50connect

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