Gardening : Design Your Yard for Low Maintenance
Are you sick of yard work? Then take a break, stop the mower, put aside the shears and consider this thought:
You are in charge of the administration of your yard, as well as the labor. You not only rake, sweep and clean up, but you also have the authority to make decisions.
As yard administrator, you can make some changes that will allow you to spend less time in your bushes and more time on your golf course, beach or hammock.
Here are a few suggestions:
Allow for growing space. Most plants have reasonable maintenance requirements, but they are often placed in positions in which their maintenance needs become unreasonable.
Like large feet in small shoes, trees and shrubs are frequently found in places where they do not fit. As a result, they must be constantly cut back in height or in width. This occurs everywhere. It happens next to walls, windows, doorways, walks and driveways. It also happens below overhangs and utility lines. It even occurs in front of beautiful views of oceans, mountains and city lights.
Someone made the wrong planting decision in these areas. Maybe it was years ago, or maybe it was recently, but now you have to decide what to do about it.
Those little plants that looked so cute at the nursery have now become monsters. Controlling their size will require a great deal of your effort. In the process, they will appear to be awkward, cramped and unnatural. Unless they are of extreme value, you are going to have to remove these misplaced plants. Look for new plants that will be appropriate for the space available.
Avoid an overweight landscape. Do you have too many plants in too little space? In this case, your plants are appropriate in size and shape for their locations, but there are too many of them.
Overcrowding leads to unnecessary shearing, over-pruning, excess litter and disruption of irrigation coverage. Overcrowded plants compete for essentials such as water, light, nutrients and growing space. They also compete for your attention.
If you are experiencing these symptoms of an overweight landscape, it is time for a diet. Decide which plants will have to go. Gas up the chain saw, sharpen the shovel and make some overdue changes. The resulting gaps in the garden will fill in nicely as the remaining plants receive their full share of nature’s attention and less of yours.
Your yard need not compensate for the loss of the world’s forests. You are just trying to lessen your long term responsibility by lessening the quantity of the plants you have to maintain.
But don’t overdo it. Don’t sacrifice a good landscape design concept for ease of maintenance. Keep continuity among your plants. It is possible to have an underweight landscape well as an overweight one.
At the same time, consider removing some of the plants on your property that have no particular function. These might include that lone Italian cypress, that tree with all the termite-like things, and those spindly whatchamacallits that never looked too good anyway.
Open up. Reduce the load of some of these odd and overcrowded plants. Others will fill in and the world will still survive.
Break the hatrack pruning syndrome. Instead of doing regular pruning according to the simple methods available in libraries and nurseries, it is easy to fall into the dreaded “hatrack syndrome.”
This happens when you have delayed pruning for so long that you decide to “whack ‘em back real good” to catch up with a proper pruning schedule. The results are plants that look like pieces of furniture designed to hold hats and overcoats. Let your plants have their own shape, structure and natural beauty.
Do not rationalize by claiming that this is an efficient way to do the job, or that they will grow back anyway. Would you allow the same treatment from your barber or hair stylist?
Few plants grow back into their natural form after a severe pruning. Instead they rapidly develop too many long vertical shoots having weak unsymmetrical growth. This occurs because the growing power of the plant is now concentrated on a limited number of stubby branches. This will make extra pruning necessary. So you will return to the “hatrack syndrome” and the cycle will continue.
The reasons for routine pruning are to improve a plant’s shape, to improve it’s strength, to remove dead wood, to lessen wind resistance, and to avoid damage or utility lines. When a plant has been properly pruned a few times it will require less care.
You are the administrator of your yard. Look for sensible ways to lessen your work starting with these three suggestions. Allow space for plants to grow. Reduce the quantity of any overcrowded plants. Do not over-prune. Remember, you should own your property, it should not own you.
