How to Make Your Garden Low Maintenance and Highly Attractive
Beautiful gardens have always been considered, by many, as immensely time-consuming making a garden and, therefore, very much a luxury item. However, with modern technology and a mind to be more eco-friendly, this is now changing – especially when those items and products are far from unattractive.
More and more people are making the conscientious jump from the traditional options to the more modern, sustainable, and eco-friendly approaches to gardening and landscape design.
#1 Choosing the best low-maintenance products
Although plenty of different low-maintenance products are available on the market, you will need to assess the function they will perform before you make your choice and make a purchase.
Low-maintenance products that are on your list should include items that will not;
- Rust
- Decay
- Rot
As all of these issues undoubtedly require maintenance chores, which will need to be scheduled into your monthly or yearly routine. They will most certainly not be low maintenance. Some of these chores, such as staining to weatherproof and protecting wooden fence panels, can take an age to perform (especially if you have a large garden). And are arduous and boring tasks at the best of times. You may think, however, that this list of issues pretty much exhausts all of your options. But here, you would be wrong.
#2 Keeping your garden eco-friendly
It is important to realize that not all low maintenance products are eco-friendly. Some, for instance, are most certainly not due to having harsh chemicals used in their manufacture or being brutally unsustainable at source.
As you will want to keep your garden a safe haven for any creature that enters or chooses to live there. Choosing products that are kind to the environment is a must. Products that are made from 100% sustainable resources (which actually include 90% recycled plastic and wood in their composition. As well as an eco-friendly bonding unit that makes up for the other 10%) make total sense. You will be pleased to know that such products are available for various uses within a garden environment.
For instance, composite fence panels are proven to be very popular. And this is probably because this product is incredibly low maintenance. It does not rust, decay, rot, or require staining or painting. All that it will need to keep it looking good is a wipe with a damp cloth to remove dirt and debris from time to time.
You could, in order to add to your eco-friendly garden care ritual, install a compost bin for the majority of your kitchen scraps to decompose in. These can be amazingly good food sources for your garden plants and can be very low maintenance to care for. All you will need to do is turn the mixture occasionally to improve air flow and help the composting occur.
#3 Color match your main areas
As composite products are made from recycled goods, they have their color added to them before they leave the manufacturer. And being available in an array of different colors means that you can color-match different items throughout your garden.
Matching your garden gate driveway gates to your fencing panels will produce a pleasing and uniform look. Continue this through and to your decking and garden screens. And you will find that you have a complete look that is totally weather-hardy, attractive, and exceedingly low maintenance and hardwearing.
In order to complement this, you can also invest in eco-friendly garden furniture. To utilize while enjoying your low maintenance garden in a method that you and your guests will thoroughly approve of. By incorporating solar lighting around the perimeter (or on the top of your fence posts) as well as dotted throughout your planting scheme. This you will be making your garden fully usable and safe even in the twilight hours. And, therefore, ensuring that the enjoyment continues well into the night.
#4 Plant low maintenance plants
However, you need more in your garden than just fences, gates, decking, and screens. You will also require plants – whether they happen to be potted or planted in the ground. Although you could go down the route of installing artificial grass, this is far from environmentally friendly.
Birds, insects, and other visiting animals require access to the soil and the creatures that live beneath it to survive. They also need to have access to pollen from real flowers. Pollinators are in short supply worldwide and require all the help that they can get. Although a lot of people see flowers and immediately think hard work and hours of intensive weeding are on the horizon. You may be surprised to find that this may not be so.
Choosing the right sort of plants for your location, environment, and size of your garden could see you planting low maintenance flowering shrubs and perennials (plants that grow back every year after dying back). And, therefore, only having to worry about the odd bit of pruning instead. This will keep your garden full of color while also supporting your local wildlife.
Of course, you can take this one step further and install a bug house in the corner of your garden. This to encourage insects to take up residents. These, too, can be made from natural reclaimed wood. And filled with bark chippings, leaves, twigs, and hollowed-out logs or bricks with holes in them. If you have not got the time or inclination to build your own, you will find that there are various different shapes. And sized bug houses available on the marketplace. However, again, you should make sure that they are made with sustainability in mind.
So, a Few Final Thoughts
Making your garden low maintenance and yet highly attractive does not have to be some kind of far-off dream. However, in order to do it in an eco-friendly fashion, it will require forethought and planning. It is important that when you plan your garden, you keep in mind that it is not just an area where you can sit and enjoy your handy work. But it can also provide a valuable function to the environment. And wildlife that require the resources that it could offer.
If you are of an eco-friendly mindset already, you will be researching all possible sustainable and eco-friendly products available on the market. When you are doing this, be sure to include composite products. As when manufactured by the right company can be 100% sustainable and made from recycled products.
Using composite products such as fence panels, decking, gates, and screens will also reduce the amount of time. That you will be spending maintaining your garden. And, as a result, provide you with more time to sit and relax while enjoying your surroundings and admiring all of your handy work and planning.
