5 Ways to Stop Slaving Over the Perfect Garden

It does not take constant raking and pruning and weed pulling and the merit of other things to create an aesthetically pleasing garden space in your yard. While it is perfectly OK if you love the hobby of gardening, you do not need to feel like you have to constantly be chasing garden perfection at your home if you do not particularly love gardening.

There is a way to obtain a beautiful landscape at your home without constantly feeling like you are a slave to your yard. Because some of us just don’t have the time or energy.

Here are five ways to maintain a beautiful yard without hours and hours of garden maintenance.

Don’t worry about even spacing

When you walk into a forest or meadow in a natural preserve area or even a state park you do not see plants that are all perfectly spaced and lined up just so. In your own yard, you may still need to space out some sedges or plants that create ground cover to create even coverage, you don’t have to follow spacing rules for many of the upper layers. Plants like flowers and some shrubs.

It is OK for plants to become friends and touch and bump into one another and not have to worry about perfectly spacing things out. You can mimic staggered spacing that you see in natural landscapes and bring a bit of the nature you love in these areas into your own yard while still cultivating an area that looks well put together.

Plants can move around

You can use a plant’s natural tendency to spread and multiply to your advantage rather than trying to continuously manage it and keep it within a static sculpture box. Use plants that re-create themselves by spreading their seeds, especially in a larger area. This can also help to combat weed invasions especially if you use plants that spread over an area quickly.

Welcome plant death

When a plant dies off, we get discouraged but it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Plant death is a part of life just like any other thing and its circle of life on this planet. It’s actually essential to a healthy garden. When plants die, they add nutrients and help to serve other things that are living in the landscape.

If you have a large item that sticks out like a sore thumb, like a dead tree, this will require professional help for the removal of large limbs and portions of the trunk. But you could opt to leave behind a portion of the trunk to serve as a stag that could become home to small wildlife in the area like birds and bees.

If you have a dead shrub that needs removal you can use this to start a pile of limbs and branches in the corner of a garden that could serve as a home for several creatures including frogs, insects, and butterflies. Even dead patches of sedges lining a pond can help to filter the water.

Embrace the nature of a drought

Several states have experienced dry spells during their warmest months in the last few years. When a dry spell comes some plants will either go dormant or won't flower for the year to conserve their energy. This is not a failure or a bad reflection on your ability to take care of your yard.

Let them plan to do what they have been created to do and allow them to be naturally silent and live out the life they were meant to live. Don’t worry or spend energy forcing your plants to bloom especially if you have native plants made to adapt to the region that you are living in. Most often these plants will just come back the following year when the weather is a little less harsh.

Allow natural predators to take care of the pests

One very concerning aspect of taking care of some plants is that they’re so enticing to little insects that could instantly munch too much on them and cause them harm. But before removing any pests from your yard truly assess if it could be beneficial to taking care of those insects that are doing your plants harm.

Ladybugs and lacewings love to eat aphids and other insects. They are beneficial predator bugs that can help keep the natural order of your garden and check. Wasps are also natural predators feeding on many insects in the garden. You may not want them building a nest in the eaves of your house or right next to your front door, but if they are taking up residence in a tree and staying out of your way it may be beneficial to let them stay around.

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