Turn Your Yard into a Low-Maintenance Paradise
Then kick back with one of those colorful umbrella drinks. Summer is coming!
You can bury a lot of your troubles digging in the dirt, or so the gardening enthusiasts in my life tell me. And for those of you who do love gardening, spring is the perfect time of year to get your hands dirty. Not only are we all keen to get outside to enjoy the warmer weather, but winter never fails to leave behind a season’s worth of gross spring guck. Thanks Mother Nature!
But if you’re like us – balancing a few careers and a couple of kids, managing a home and, oh yeah, trying to have some resemblance of a social life – sometimes gardening has to take a back seat to the more pressing things in life.
Say no more! If you’re the type of person to spend summer in the company of patios and pools instead of worms and dirt, these tips will help you plan out your yard so maintenance is kept to a minimum.
Even Outdoors, Less is More
I recently spoke with a gardening consultant who told me about her “less is more” philosophy. Similar to decorating your house, being more strategic about the number of plants and flowers you include in your garden will give it a much cleaner look. Even better, a more restrained approach to gardening means that maintenance can be greatly reduced, making your yard much easier to manage. It’s the opposite of eating popcorn, where more is more.
So, go for quality over quantity, and pick 10 - 15 plant varieties instead of a kajillion, and focus on keeping those in good shape instead. And with the extra money you save? Buy one of those drinks I mentioned earlier.
Choose Native Plants
Think about it - if a number of beautiful plant species can thrive in the woods of Ontario without anyone looking after them, then they should do great in your yard (even if you forgot to water them, because your kid just put that thing up his nose and now you’re in the emergency room again).
If that sounds good to you, head to the nearest nursery and pick up some purple coneflower, black eyes susans, stag horn sumac and erglebrick bobsies. Did I make up one of those names? Your damned right I did. See if you can figure out which one.
Throw in Some Potted Plants!
Adding a couple of potted plans into your landscape is a nice low-maintenance option that also gives you some great versatility. This is an excellent, easy way to add colour and charm to your yard, but they are also mobile, so you can move them around if things aren’t working out or the scenery changes. You can also match them to the seasons - whites and pinks in the spring and summer, yellows and reds in the fall.
Plus you can “accidentally” break them with your “leaf blower” if your wife buys something hideous. Just make sure you practice your sad face, gentlemen.
Light Things Up
People often don’t think about it, but one of the best times of the day to show off your beautiful garden is at night. Lighting the yard in the evening will improve the look of your house, and also improve safety, shedding some much needed visibility on your paths and driveway to save you from the inevitable hockey ball fall and injury.
Also be sure to buy time-sensitive solar lights. After the initial purchase, they don’t add any ongoing costs to your electricity bills, and the lights manage themselves.
Consider Some Paths
There’s nothing worse than constantly trying to bring grass back from the dead when you keep trampling it to death. If you have a well-worn path through your lawn, it’s probably trying to tell you something. Add some stone or mulch pathways to these established routes and you can stop worrying about keeping your grass alive, when it probably shouldn’t be there in the first place.
One Last Tip - Nematodes
Are animals ripping up your lawn every spring? If so, here’s a tip that can save you a ton of grief. Usually, those skunks and raccoons are digging up your lawn because they are after grubs – small, alien-like, disgusting creatures that will give you nightmares. Grubs can lead to brown spots on your lawn and, like I said, lure animals that are hungry enough to eat ANYTHING.
You can fight grubs with a naturally occurring microscopic worm called nematodes. These things hunt and feed on soil dwelling insects, like grubs, by feeding on their insides. I won’t get into detail here, because nobody wants to read about that, but you should buy them.
They are shipped in a powdery solution that you mix with water, and you simply spray them on your lawn, letting them do their thing. Instructions can be found online.
