Let’s face it, most people would love to have a garden that has the wow factor. Being the proud owner of a backyard that exudes charm and looks so impressive, it’s the envy of all your neighbours, may be your dream. The problem is, most people simply don’t have the time to spend meticulously looking after their garden, as it can become like a full time job. When your life is super busy, it’s easy to think that you will never be able to dedicate the time that’s needed to make your garden look good. The great news is that even if your life is full on with work and responsibilities, it is possible to create a good-looking garden. Keep reading for some help tips on how to create a garden that is low maintenance, but still looks great.
How to Create a Garden That’s Low Maintenance and Looks Great
Choose the Right Tools
When you’re short on time, you don’t have hours to spend on every single gardening task. So, it’s helpful to look for time-saving hacks that will help you achieve your desired result with minimal effort. One really helpful way to do this is by choosing the right tools to assist you.
Selecting the best hedge trimmer can help you to make fast work of keeping your garden looking neatly trimmed and immaculate. Rather than spending your precious time using shears and secateurs cutting away stray branches and trying to create a uniform shape for your hedges, a hedge trimmer will help you achieve this in no time.
Aside from power tools, it’s also helpful to go back to basics. Even something as simple as a wheelbarrow can make it easier to work quickly around the garden. Tasks such as clearing away weeds and adding compost to your flower beds are so much easier when you can load up a wheelbarrow and take it with you, without the need to keep carrying everything back and forth across the garden.
Paint to Protect
Creating a low maintenance garden means that after some initial hardwork, your garden should be easy to look after for many years to come. One task that is always wise to complete is to protect the woodwork in your garden.
The condition of your garden fences, shed, and furniture has a significant influence on the overall appearance of your garden. If these parts of your garden are looking in poor condition and unloved, this will impact the entire space.
Showing your garden woodwork some TLC now means that it will last for many years without you needing to think about it. Painting your fences, shed, and wooden furniture with exterior wood paint can help to preserve it and protect it from becoming rotten. Many exterior wood paints also guard against woodworm and provide a waterproof finish to protect it against the elements. If painted carefully and with a good-quality paint, your wood should be protected for around five years.
Sort Out Your Storage
To create a garden that’s easy to maintain, you need to make it as simple as possible for you to keep it tidy and looking its best. One way to do this is by ensuring that you have somewhere to store all of your garden items and equipment.
Freeing up space in your garage or shed to provide enough room to safely store your garden tools inside is a must to keep them in good working order. However, it’s also crucial to create enough space to store seasonal items, such as your garden furniture.
After taking the time to paint your garden furniture to preserve the wood, you want to keep it looking great for as long as possible. Creating enough space in your shed or garage to safely store your garden furniture will mean that it’s protected from the worst of the winter weather when not in use. As a result, you will be able to simply bring it out of storage and use it right away when the warmer weather arrives without needing to clean it up all over again.
Minimise Weeding
Weeding your garden can feel like a neverending task. You may spend hours pulling out weeds from your flowerbeds only to notice that more have popped up again the next day. This can make weeding feel like one of the most frustrating and time-consuming tasks involved in keeping your garden looking great.
Taking steps to minimise the amount of weeding that you need to do in your garden is a great way to save yourself significant amounts of time and to ensure that your backyard is truly low-maintenance.
When it comes to minimising weeding you have a couple of options to consider. The first is to focus your planting on containers and pots. Adding colour and interest to your garden with plants and flowers in pots and containers, rather than flowerbeds, means that you will have far less surface area to weed.
Secondly, you could add a weed membrane to your flowerbeds. This will enable you to continue using your flowerbeds but without the constant backbreaking work of weeding them. The weed membrane acts as a physical barrier to weeds, preventing them from breaking through the surface and invading your flowerbeds.
Take a Little and Often Approach
Gardens often become high maintenance when they are left for long periods without care and attention. Stepping outside and noticing that your garden has turned into a jungle in the months since you last spent time in it is a surprise that no one wants to experience. An overgrown garden involves days or even weeks of work to cut everything back and essentially start again with transforming it into a usable space. To avoid this, spending an hour or so in your garden when you find the time will help to keep it looking attractive throughout the year with minimal effort from you.
Creating a garden that’s low maintenance but still looks great doesn’t need to be complicated. In a few simple steps, you can create your outdoor haven with minimal effort.