Gardening Time-Saving Tips

These time-saving gardening tips will help leave you more time to play.

Whenever I try of gardeners who drop hour a day in their gardens , I get deadly jealous . As a mammy and married woman with a full - time life history , I ’m lucky if I get two or three hours a workweek during the summer to really concentrate on my garden . High - sustenance plant life just do n’t make out it . Mowing is a frightening chore , and cut and pruning are matter I only need to do once or twice a year . I ’d rather be spending my precious garden time introducing new plants to my garden , rearranging things to make cool plant combinations , and pull a few skunk for therapy . I want to spend most of my time on the fun poppycock and forgo the futile fussing . Here are a few tip that I ’ve come up with over the years to reduce the toil and leave me more time to play .

1. Plant self-sowing annuals

annual are irresistible . They add priceless color and interest , and they bloom for calendar week if not months . But they need to be planted every twelvemonth . wads of annuals , however , plant themselves by reseeding , make unnecessary you time and money . They ’re guaranteed to produce jazz group next year that you never would have thought of . Be aware , though , that these plant reseed where they want , not necessarily where you want . Some of my favourite self - sowers are tall verbena ( Verbena bonariensis * , pictured ) , flowering baccy ( Nicotiana sylvestris ) , and purple perilla ( Perilla frutescens * cvs . ) .

reduce your prison term on : Shopping for annuals ; planting

2. Mulch, then mulch some more

Mulch is a true multitasker . It not only instantly do up a garden but also husband wet , suppresses dope , and insulates the stain . One program program in springiness is all you want . As it violate down , this annual level of mulch will also come down the amount of amendment and fertiliser you ’ll need to impart to your grime . I like to get mulch delivered from a local greenhouse every spring . It ’s less expensive and less work than buying and hale handbag home from the garden center . Two straight yards are enough to layer 2 to 3 inch over the bed in my quarter - Akka garden . Type , availability , and damage vary from region to region . Experiment with a few to determine what you like best .

trim down your time on : Weeding ; watering ; fertilizing

3. Buy tried-and-true perennials

It ’s fun to experiment with exciting unexampled and strange flora in show window blot , but if you plan with a basis of easy - care powerhouses that always do , the test and fault of the young furor wo n’t have as much of a minus impact if they fall myopic of your expectations . Graeco-Roman performers in my northeasterly garden include ‘ Aureola ’ Japanese wood grass ( Hakonechloa macra‘Aureola ’ , USDA Hardiness Zones 5–9 , visualize ) , ‘ Goldsturm ’ black - eyed Susan ( Rudbeckia fulgidavar.sullivantii‘Goldsturm ’ , Zones 4–9 ) , and mildew - resistant ‘ David ’ phlox ( Phlox paniculata‘David ’ , Zones 4–8 ) . The near ways to find sure performers for your surface area is to drive around your neighbourhood and see what looks upright in every yard , kempt or unkempt . My neighbor all seem to count on Joe Pye weed ( Eupatorium purpureum , Zones 3–9 ) to put on a carefree show in previous summer .

dress your time on : spray ; preen ; filling in the gaps between straggly or stillborn plants

4. Plant winter-proof containers

One of the most backbreaking jobs in my garden is lug countless container up the basement stairs in spring and back down in capitulation . All decent , so my husband plow most of the work , but if he did n’t help , he ’d have to listen to me interest all winter that my muckle might check from the freeze - and - melt cycle of our crazy Connecticut wintertime . So to save my married man ’s clock time for other detail on the dear - do list , I ’ve been tally to my collection some skunk made out of concrete and good - quality fiberglass ( pictured ) , both of which boast all - season sturdiness . keep containers on my terrace also provides a place to add wintertime interest with some evergreen plant boughs and berries .

Trim your prison term on : Lugging heavy slew ; nag significant other

5. Rethink your lawn

Some mass find maintaining a lawn a Zen - like experience , but if you are like me , it is viciously mundane . I have two ways to foreshorten repetitious mowing : flourish your garden bed to reduce your lawn , and hire someone else to mop it . If you select the latter , be certain to show that person around your garden and communicate your expectations . You do n’t want to wake up on Saturday morning to the repulsion of your prized peony being weed - wacked to the ground . It may take a few attempts to find the right somebody , but the payoff is more playing period clip , which is priceless .

garnish your time on : Mowing ; weeding

6. Invest in bigger plants

I love starting my own perennials from seed or buying cheap short starts from that cool greenhouse nearby , but in reality , I do n’t have time to give those little babies the caution they ask to flourish . Three hebdomad after constitute them — if I remember to check on them — they’re long gone . I ’m not only heartbroken and finger guilty but also left with a hole where I ’d hop they would have fill in . Nowadays , when I diminish in love with a plant and just have to have it , I get the biggest one usable . Plants that are more mature will want less sentence to fill in and make an shock in my garden . They also wo n’t commit felo-de-se outright if I pretermit them from metre to time .

Trim your metre on : tearing ; oscillate ; coddling ; feeling guilty

7. Add a permanent structure

One stunning piece of garden art will mask a multitude of garden flaw . scene a beautiful dagger or birdhouse , a well - crafted arbor , or a statuesque tuteur . Even an outmoded bike or a cluster of brightly painted bamboo canes strategically put in a boundary line will deflect the eye and dwarf bare spots and weeds . It ’s also something interesting to look at during the cutting winter month .

Trim your prison term on : universal maintenance

8. Make your garden self-watering

Watering is one bodily process that you ca n’t egest , but you sure can make it easier . I use alcoholic hoses for my perennial borders , and tearing system with drop anchor emitters ( pictured ) on my patio packed full of containers . I set them up on a timer and hardly have to think about watering . The only matter I do pay tending to is the atmospheric condition so that I can adjust my watering docket accordingly . Even the right system requires some precaution , but it sure enough beats frantically lug watering cans around to irrigate your plant before you leave for work in the morning .

Trim your time on : lacrimation

9. Choose shrubs that don’t need pruning

I love my yew hedge , but it never looks its best because I do n’t have the time or the push to keep it perfectly trimmed . WhenI last get around to rip it out , I design to supplant it with a bush that will course stay thick and neat , like ‘ Green Mound ’ boxwood ( Buxus‘Green Mound ’ , zona 6–9 ) , which tops out at 3 ft marvellous and wide . There are lots of larger shrubs that alsorequire minimal pruning , like doublefile viburnum ( Viburnum plicatumf.tomentosumand cvs . , Zones 4–8 , render ) , spirea ( Spiraeaspp . and cvs . , Zones 4–9 ) , pittosporum ( Pittosporumspp . and cvs . , Zones 9–11 ) , and ceanothus ( Ceanothusspp . and cvs . , Zones 4–10 ) .

Trim your meter on : Pruning ; shearing

10. Lower your standards

We all have dandelions . I have so many in my one thousand that my neighbour harvest them and makes blowball vino , which she share with us come wintertime . Perfect ! The only soul who will comment your uneven border , the weed piece in the far quoin of your recurrent border , or the plant life you have n’t yet gotten into the ground is you . If you focus on loving your garden and love the time you drop in it , you wo n’t care that it is n’t dead manicure . It ’s a work in progress , like us and everything in our lives .

Trim your prison term on : Everything

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