5 Low Maintenance Garden Plants

31st August 2019 * 5 Plants for * Daniel Carruthers

It's no secret that gardening requires effort and time but if you have have a busy schedule or a propensity perhaps to sit and relax then here's five low maintenance garden plants you should include in your garden. Most of these plants will give you good ground cover which will help keep any weeds at bay and save you time weeding.

Hebe rakaiensis - available in a broad range of colours and sizes so you should be able to find a variety that you will like. This small evergreen shrub is relatively slow growing and puts on a display of small delicate white flowers in the summer. It forms these attractive rounded mounds and the small silvery leaves go really well with most the plants in my garden, one of which is my next low maintenance plant :
Pittosporum Tom Thumb - has a more rounded habit and small undulate leaves. This slow growing shrub is naturally dense and so is often shaped into topiary but you can of course leave it to grow naturally. New leaves are tinted green, going very well with the Hebe just mentioned but as the season progresses these leaves turn a deep purple.
Buxus Sempervirens - that's box hedge to you and me and as the name suggests this can be used successfully to edge borders or can shaped as an individual specimen as I have here. Like both of the above this is an evergreen compact dense shrub. I find this easiest to plant as in Autumn from bare root stock. All that box requires is an annual trim to keep it in good order which is pretty low maintenance when compared to a lawn for example that at this time of year requires a weekly mow.
Lauris Noblis, aka Bay will contrast brilliantly with the any of the above mound forming shrubs. With larger glossier leaves it contrasts brilliantly with both Hebe and Pittosporum Tom Thumb. Like all the plants in this list Bay requires very little maintenance other than perhaps an annual trim. Shaped as an obelisk or pillar Bay makes a great focal point and is relatively fast growing.
Hydrangea - our final low maintenance plant will give your garden a bit more colour in late summer as the flowers pull your attention away from the interesting and often lush green foliage. If planted in acidic soil many of the hydrangeas develop blue flowers, if not the flowers will be pink. You can influence the colour of the flowers by controlling the soil acidity. This is most easily done by planting in pots where you may choose to use ericaceous soil to encourage blue flowers.