America has become hectic. Most people work well over forty hours each week to make due. With all this time spent working, it’s only natural not to have the time to garden. Or maybe, you have the time, but just don’t want to spend your days digging in dirt in order to have a great looking garden.
There are easy ways to have a good looking garden without working hard or maintaining it. If done right, your garden will largely take care of itself. Instead of poring over it day in and day out, you’ll be able to leave it alone. The most you’ll have to do, once planted, is leave the sprinkler on every once in a while.
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Perennial plants and flowers are perfect for the busy person’s garden.
Perennial plants and flowers are perfect for the busy person’s garden.Perennials keep growing back every year. Once you plant them, you can just leave them alone. Annual flowers have to be replanted every year. This makes perennial flowers and plants ideal for those of us who don’t have the time to work in the garden, but who still want our yard to look nice.
Check Out: Guide to Planning Low Maintenance Landscaping
The first thing to do when making your no fuss perennial garden is to prepare the space. This can be a flower box, pots, or just a patch of land. Dig at the soil in your designated area to make it loose enough for planting flowers. This is just about the only preparation you need to do. Make sure that there aren’t any rocks or weeds in that area of land. If there are, they can hinder or halt the progress of your plants. This step shouldn’t take more than a half an hour depending on how big the plot of land is.
Can’t think of where to put your garden? There are some beautiful spots that look perfect on anyone’s lawn. For a nice accent to the front of your yard, surround the base of your mail box with plants and flowers. Just dig a little circle around the base and plant there. Another good planting area is around the border of a walkway. If you have a little walkway that leads from the driveway or sidewalk to the front door, this could be a good idea. Dig up an area about a half a foot wide on each side of the cement walkway and plant your flowers and shrubs there.
Check Out: Planting an Island Garden in Your Yard
Once you have your area ready and the soil aerated, now is the time to plant seeds. Go to a flower or hardware store and pick up some seed packets. Make sure that they say ‘perennial’ on them as opposed to ‘annual.’ Some good choices for low maintenance flowers and plants are poppies, shasta daisies, and lamb’s ear. Once these are planted, you won’t have to worry about them. Plus, they spread like crazy, filling up empty spaced in your garden.
Once you purchase the seeds or plant cutting, simply follow the directions that come with them in order to plant them. This usually comes down to digging a few inches deep, setting the seeds in the hole, and covering them back up. Easy! After the seeds and plant clippings are planted and covered in soil, set up the sprinkler to water them for about a half hour. Now your perennial flowers and shrubs are planted. Most of the work is already done.
Now you just need to worry about maintaining the flower garden.
Maintenance can be pretty easy if you picked the right plants. Most of the perennial flowers, especially the ones I listed above, will do well with just the annual rainfall. If your area is experiencing a bit of a drought, turn on the sprinkler for a while. Mostly, you should be able to leave the plants alone. If you notice a bunch of weeds in the garden, pull them. You may even get by without doing that.
Imagine pulling into your driveway, stopping the car, and stepping out into a beautifully flowered lawn. Daisies and poppies line your walkway, ushering you in to your home. Do you stop to water your flowers or pick some weeds? No, you have more important things to do.
Check Out: Lawn Maintenance: To Water
This can be the kind of garden you have if you follow the steps listed above. By choosing perennial plants, you’ll only have to do the planning and planting process once. The plants will stay in your garden year after year. Happy gardening! Or, more accurately, happy watching your garden grow without you.
