My Garden Site

We all like to enjoy the looks of a lush green garden, but many of us do not want to put in the work to get a great looking garden.  My advice is to opt for plants that will require little maintnance but still look good.  This way you can still travel away from home and when you return your garden still looks great.

To acheive a low maintnance garden you will need to find the right plants.  Your first step will to be go down to the local nursery and ask what type of plants they have that are low maintance plants and would look good in your low maintance garden.  You will want to avoid plants like rose bushes that require lots of attention.  You will want to choose less picky plants such as the belladona lilly, nerine, or crinum.  They will require much less pruneing and deadheading.

Areas that have stone or cement over them will require no maintance and work great for paths through the garden and decoration.  Choosing a frost-proof pots for your garden can allow the placement of plants on the cememt or stone in your garden and you have the choice not to move them all year long.

When planting containers, leave 2-4 inches between the top of the compost and the rim. This will allow sensible amounts of water to be applied, along with a yearly top-up of fresh compost. Whenever possible  add extra coarse sand or grit to soil-based compost to encourage good drainage.

Use a light dusting of fertilizer in the spring for your garden.  This should last the garden for the entire growing season. Wherever possible, plaster the outside walls with fruit trees such as figs, peaches, nectarines and pears. Alternatively, use Bougainvillea spectabilis to give some colour to your garden for most of the year. It is fast-growing and drought-resistant.  Additions of Cacti to your low maintnance garden are also ideal.  They may flower outside as well as provide delicious fruit.  Just beware of the spikes.

It seems like most gardeners live where they can grow just about anything without too much effort. Unfortunately, I am not like most gardeners. My soil is full of heavy red clay that must be worked and amended before I can start with my gardens and gardening.

Though it may feel as though Mother Nature is against you, facilitating growth in less than perfect climates has been a problem for gardens and gardening for many years, in many locations far more difficult to work with than yours. Those years of experimentation and experience have yielded a great deal of useful information that will help you to grow what you want without the use of gallons of fertilizers and other harmful chemicals.

What is a Microclimate?

In the simplest terms, a microclimate is created when you manually alter the variables such as light and shade, moisture and wind for each type of plant in your garden. While it sounds like quite an undertaking, it really doesn’t need to be nearly so difficult as you might believe.

In my own garden I have found great success by using time-honored methods such as companion planting. Selecting a taller, sun-loving plant and allowing it to protect smaller, more fragile shade dwellers can be an excellent way to build your own microclimate. In addition you can use sun and wind shades in the form of other plants or even landscaping items (such as large stones).

For plants that need more water, amending the soil surrounding those plants, and using plenty of mulch can make the most of the water they receive and is usually more than enough to help the most thirsty plants put their best feet forward - so to speak.

Using What You Have

Sometimes it takes a third party to make you realize the options available to you in your own garden. Do you have a fenced area in your yard? Many forms of fencing provide a great deal of shade and wind protection, so why not consider creating a microclimate for your gardens and gardening along the fence line?

If you happen to have an area that is visually dead or unappealing, think about adding a nice trellis and a flowering vine (or even a seasonal vegetable like beans or cucumbers).

I hope that the information in this short article has been enough to give you a few new ideas about how to use microclimates in your own garden. Be creative and try to see your own gardening area as a new environment - a blank palette to work with. This is the first step to making your garden a true showplace that will be the envy of the neighborhood.

Above all else, make sure that you are having fun. Gardens and gardening can be back breaking work, but the end results should make you smile. If it doesn’t bring you some enjoyment, what is the point?

Gardening is one of the most relaxing and rewarding outdoor hobbies there is, but millions of people live in areas where they are not afforded the luxury of having a nice garden patch to work with. Many of these apartment and condo dwellers seem to think that this means that they cannot indulge in gardens and gardening at all, but that’s simply not the case.

Container gardens and gardening are quite popular, so much so in fact that many seed companies have created hybrid plants that actually are tailor made for container-based growing. Whether you have a front porch, a small balcony or even just a sunny window, you can get started with container gardening with very little effort. Then, just sit back and enjoy the beauty and pleasure that will come from your container plants.

This season, my area has been hard hit by tornado watches, high winds and heavy rains. For this reason I put the majority of my season vegetable growing efforts into containers this year.

The most obvious benefit for me in this situation is that when the weather is going to be exceptionally poor, I can move my outdoor containers into the basement or simply protect them with a piece of plywood or a large tarp. Mobility in your case may be a much less severe situation. Perhaps you want to rearrange your furniture or just ensure that your plants are getting enough of the afternoon sunlight. It can be a breeze if your plants are in containers!

One of the most common misconceptions for first-time gardeners is that they think all they need is some dirt and a few plants. While technically this could be loosely considered a garden, it is more than that and you do have a choice to make. Gardens and gardening can be as simple or elaborate as you choose to make them, so it is a good idea to start a garden that fits your lifestyle and your needs.