Choose Plants That Are Easy To Care For

Let's face it. Some plants, like some people, are just plain high maintenance. Others need just a little help getting established and then do quite well on their own.  Trees and shrubs generally require less maintenance, with exceptions such as roses and camellias that may need a little extra spraying and/or pruning. Slow growing and dwarf types require less pruning and aren't likely to need to be attacked on a regular basis to keep them in bounds. If you plant ever-green shrubs keep in mind that shearing them into box or other shapes means regular trimming and much more work than maintaining them in a more natural shape or form.

Choose plants that are adapted to your area and not prone to disease or insect attack. Most types of Euonymus for example while widely planted are magnets for powdery mildew and/or scale, and should be avoided. Annual flowers can keep you busy, planting, fertilizing, deadheading (in some cases), and then pulling them out to replant. To keep an area colorful you may be making 3 or more color changes a year. Perennials are a bit less trouble, but still need some grooming and feeding. Every so often they may also need dividing to keep them in top shape.  This is certainly not to say that we should avoid flowers…may it never be! just that to minimize maintenance, choose where you want them to go carefully to get maximum effect from minimum effort.

 
Clumping ornamental grasses are underutilized in our landscapes. They are very low care and add an attractive feature with the long lines and graceful movement in the wind. Cut them back in late winter and pro-vide a little fertilizer and you're pretty much done with their maintenance for the year.

Don't crowd plants into a small space. Crowding makes it more difficult to work around plants and costs more initially as you are purchasing more plants than you need. Tightly spaced plants prevent good air circulation which can sometimes increase the incidence of diseases. Roses are an example of a plant that is more prone to foliar diseases when crowded.