Low Maintenance

I'm including this project because I regularly receive requests for low maintenance gardens. For me, a low maintenance garden requires minimum weeding, includes plants that are pest and disease resistant (not immune), is drought tolerant, and provides four seasons of interest. The key here is that we want to create a garden that more or less takes care of itself, and I consider those the hallmarks of a low maintenance garden. This is very important: If you want to minimize weeding (and who doesn't?), you need to plant densely and limit the opportunity for weeds to take hold. In this garden, which I designed and installed in 2025, I went with tried-and-true low maintenance plants, that I knew, more or less, would be blooming for a late August wedding: knockout roses, black-eye Susans, Rose-of-Sharon, various sedums, catmint, several hydrangea, junipers, Lady's mantle, and a mugo pine. As you can see, it filled in nicely and should be even denser in 2026, and if necessary, I'll add more drought tolerant perennials and ground covers - with a focus on natives. As far as weeding goes, I weed weekly starting in April and continue through mid August. If you are diligent, a little weeding every week, keeps things under control. Throw in some deadheading, a little pruning, and that's about as low maintenance as it gets.