The advantages of front gardens
Introduction
Ideas for low maintenance gardens: myths and truth. A good low maintenance garden will lift your heart every time you open the door of your house. He will also rejoice the neighborhood: his front garden is part of the road to everyone. And, of course, he is famous for the value of his property. Our front garden has had surprisingly low maintenance. And I think it has also been beautiful. I can say it because I did not participate in its design. It was created by our predecessors in this house.
Developing
The only element we planted here are the two apple trees Malus Hupehensis crabs on each side of the door. And during the sixteen years we have lived here, he has continued to flourish and flourish with a minimal contribution on my part. So I gathered all the tips I can find on low maintenance gardens. And, using my experience of truly have a low maintenance garden, I will evaluate each advice as a ‘myth’ or a ‘truth’. The full maintenance front garden, no more than five or six different types of plants.
Choose small trees, shrubs, roses and bulbs. Without perennial, annual or bed plants, choose plants with different flowering stations. Color the subject. Only one or two colors in addition to green. The false grass requires less maintenance, but it requires some care. It is not completely ecological. Investigate the maintenance of pebbles, tiles, stones and slate. The gravel is not low maintenance. Pay attention to drainage and planting if you have a parking area in the front garden.Without pots!
If you want a climber, choose one. You will need some maintenance, usually just cut two or three times a year. Small trees need very little maintenance. Plant them three quarters of your eventual height away from the house. Limit your plant options. Both House Beautiful publications and Low maintenance front gardens begin, they begin by saying that it should limit the choice of its plant. Choose only five or six varieties of different plants for an easy -looking front garden.
This is an excellent advice. A row or group of the same plants seems really effective and is easy to take care of, provided you choose the right plants. Looking at our front garden, I can see that part of its success is that it was designed with only six different types of plants. Bonica Rosa to draw a path. These ‘bonica’ rose bord our front road and also run along the railings. The locals sometimes refer to our house as ‘La Casa de las Rosas’. Our predecessors bordered the road and the fence with roses.
They added nerves along the front of the house. And they planted three pairs of shrubs on each side: Spirea, Viburnum and a larger rose. Some narcissos also planted, which since then I have replaced by tulips. We have added some plants. We planted the roses on the front with Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and along the way with a pink teucrium. Neither is all necessary, although the nepeta makes a beautiful contrast in full summer. And when someone gives me a pink cycle in a pot, I plant it in the front garden when it ends because the cyclamn never gets along the way.
But these do not add impact to the garden. And choose your plants for a long season of interest. If you only have five or six different types of plants in your front garden, make sure they all bloom at different times. We get the winter flower from Viburnum ‘Bodnantense’. In spring there were narcissos and now there are tulips. VIBURNUM BODNANTENSE ‘Dawn’ in a winter front garden. This viburnum x bodnantense ‘Dawn’ flourisses throughout the winter and looks so beautiful in the snow. At the end of spring, there are Espearea flowers.
And in June, the roses that border the road and the fence flourish effusively. We cut the dead heads with scissors in July and get some flowers to Christmas. Apart from this cut, the only other treatment they need is a well -rotten or compost manure application around autumn roots. Tip: Choose roses with repeated flowers for a long season. Ours are ‘bonica’ and have flourished regularly. They also seem to stay quite healthy;Check if the roses you choose are reasonably resistant to black spots, mold or oxide.
They also have good skames in winter. Repeat rose flowering ‘bonica’. These ‘bonica’ pink of repeated flowering have a first first flowering in June, followed by a second constant flowering between August and Christmas. The nerves are in the background. And in October, when rose flowers begin to slow down, pink nerves come out, receiving many compliments. Tip: Nerinas are a plant that does not like discomfort. It is much happier on a border alone.
If you have a low -maintenance front garden, most likely it is almost never excave, so it is a brilliant place for the nerves. They can be complicated on mixed borders. But they can also spend a couple of years before they really show themselves, so time. Resistant perennial plants are easy to take care of myth? I found several publications that advise you to plant resistant perennial plants because they are easier to care for. While it is true that perennial plants need less attention than annual and bed plants.
The bushes are the only plants that really require little maintenance. I introduced a resistant perennial plant (Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’) to our front garden. Like many perennial plants, it is necessary to lift and divide every few years or start extending. If you forget it (we did it), then it is very difficult to dig up a huge group. And it also requires pruning and delaying, although the bushes will also need pruning once a year. Low maintenance front garden tips. The blue flowers show.
They have reasonably low maintenance, but adding them has increased the maintenance work of the front garden. Therefore, it is a matter of balance when planning a low maintenance garden. Other perennial plants may need stakes (dolphin), protect them from slugs (hosts) or lift them to protect them from frost (Dalias). If you really want a low -maintenance front garden, gather small trees, shrubs, roses and bulbs. Do not raise perennial, annual or bed plants.
Choose a color theme. Limit to one or two colors in the front garden looks very good. Our predecessors chose pink. We add blue with the nepeta, which is beautiful, but it requires a little more work. It’s all a matter of balance. All our flowers in flower, with the exception of Spirea, are pink. That may seem an exaggeration, but the different plants flourish at different times. Low maintenance pink thematic garden. Color themed is an effective way to create a low maintenance garden.
Replace your grass with false grass. Everything needs maintenance. There is no maintenance surface. The Blogger and Vlogger Lee de Garden Ninja has analyzed the artificial grass in depth . He points out that everything that falls on him will have to be eliminated by you. That includes leaves in autumn and excrement of foxes or cats of the neighborhood. The false grass is permeable, but the water can be trapped and cause mold sprouts. Lee also says that most artificial grass suppliers recommend a light rake and a little additional sand from time to time.
The artificial grass saves water because it is not necessary to water the grass. It is often made of recycled products. But do not biodegrada and will go to the landfill in 25 years. In the manufacture of artificial grass plastic products or oil derivatives are used. Live Céspedes are also part of the ecosystem, which supports wildlife. False Céspedes do not do it. We have two small grass squares on each side of our entrance path. And these need prune in the summer. We often think about if there is a lower maintenance option.
But they are small, so it doesn’t take long. And we can do it with a floating cutter. We let the fallen leaves break because there are not many. Middlesize also carries a lion tooth. It is worth saying that you can do a lot to take care of your lawn. You can scarify, air, feed, desire and sow again. Everything will look wonderfully green and intelligent. Or can we do what we do. We cut it. Sometimes we remove it. In sixteen years, he has deteriorated as a grass. But it’s still green and pleasant, and it’s not much work.
And yes, the artificial grass, if prepared to support disadvantages, will have less maintenance than the real lawn. Low maintenance garden ‘hard climb’. Many front gardens of the area have covered their frontal plantation areas with pebbles, blackboard, gravel or pebbles. These will need less maintenance than a small grass patch, but they will need some care. The gravel, for example, becomes very fleshy after a few years, even if it is placed on a weed suppressor membrane.
To a lesser extent, the same goes for the pebbles and the board. Nature is very determined! And how are you going to take away the fallen leaves or pet peanut? It is also worth thinking about its climate, the weather and in which direction your home faces. Our house is oriented to the east and is very hot in the summer mornings. If we had gravel, stone, pebbles or other hard surface throughout our front garden, it would retain and reflect the heat. Pizarra and Guijarro front garden materials. Guijarros and board are often used in the front gardens to reduce maintenance.
They look elegant, but do not forget that each surface will need some care. Similarly, a completely hard surface front garden could cause a west oriented house to be hotter in the afternoon or during the night. A grass or edge is cooler in summer than a hard surface. And many of these front gardens of tiles, slate and pebbles are being installed. Without a doubt, they will have less maintenance in the first years. Within a few years, we will discover if they have significant long -term disadvantages. Low maintenance vehicle roads and tickets.
Once again, all surfaces will need some maintenance. Always find out what that implies. You may have to investigate a little. It is possible that companies that sell stones, pebbles or tiles are not completely simple about it. I made a publication on how to choose the materials from the garden paths, which can help. Our garden road is made of stone, probably built in the 18th century. So the stone is expensive but lasting. We riot about the cobblestones two or three times a year.
Many parking areas and tickets for vehicles are paved as a continuous surface, with concrete or cement pointing between the cobblestones. You will get less weeds that way. They will need to rinse or wash at the same time from time to time. They can become slippery if let the leaves or algae loom themselves on them. However, a solid and continuous path or path also means that water does not have to go when it rains. The spaces between the pavement improve water runoff.
That is good for the environment and it also means that there is less water on its path or entrance. Your installers will add a drain bar at the bottom of their path or entrance. Water will spill on the entrance path and the drainage system, increasing the probability of sudden floods located. But it will still have more water running on its hard surface, promoting algae and perhaps making it slippery. There are also legal restrictions on the waterproof pavement, which must be verified in its area.
Ecological low maintenance garden. People used to think that wildlife or ecological gardens had to look messy. But now we know that it is not necessary. Our front garden is full of different types of bees, including bees living on the ground on the grass. There is always a family of girlfles and sparrows argue about space in Spirea and Viburnum. Drop and butterflies Red Admiral flutter through our input path in summer. But the design is quite formal and controlled.
He is friendly with wildlife because he was designed to bloom during most of the possible year. This alone creates a valuable resource for bees or pollinating insects. It is worth checking if the plants are ‘good for pollinators’ when I buy them. Shrubs and trees also create a habitat for birds. The completely paved frontal gardens are harmful to the environment, particularly in towns and cities where air and water quality is a problem.
The biggest problem in towns and cities is the paving of front gardens to turn them into parking spaces. This has created more sudden floods and has significantly reduced wildlife habitat. But you can still have a parking space in the environment -friendly front garden: RHS has many tips on how to combine parking and plantation areas. For example, getting rid of your wall and having a hedge.
But a paved front garden will require less maintenance. Just keep in mind that it will not be without maintenance. You will still have to take care of it. And he may think that an extra effort of a few hours a year is worth it for environmental reasons. Low maintenance front garden climbers? You can increase vegetation in your front garden with a climber. That will help improve air quality and benefit wildlife. Makes buildings look more beautiful. And if spreading the walls, you can provide valuable isolation.
The rear wall of our house is covered in summer with parthenocissus henryiana or virginia virginia China. During a heat wave, the rooms protected by the vine is remarkably colder than those without climbers on the outer walls. But climbers are not ‘low maintenance’. Some spread too fast and others require training. We have to cut our vineyard of Virginia two or three times a year. Ivy grows more slowly and needs very little attention, but can tear down the gutters if you leave control.
Many houses had climbers and vines growing, but in the 1990s, most people had knocked them down. Constructors and decorators do not like to work with them. And people often believe they will damage the house somehow. But now there is more and more evidence that the right climbers, properly grown, can help protect the house from heat, cold and wind. And do not damage masonry in good condition. And they look beautiful. If you grow climbers on the front wall, you will have to cut them, pruning or training them in some way.
So they require some maintenance. And do not buy several different types, especially if they need different pruning times. You will end with a tangle of climbers that will need to be pruned at different times. Low maintenance pots in the front garden? All pots require maintenance. I saw a publication that suggests that you buy plants in flower and let them fall into their ornamental pots without replacing them. But these will still need irrigation and dead head. And must be replaced every 5-6 weeks.
I have never had pots in this front garden. Okay without them, I think. Here is a publication on low maintenance pots . If you want pots in your front garden, you have some good suggestions. But if you have little time, no pots. Low maintenance trees and gardens. Trees require very little maintenance. Everything, of course, needs some care. Therefore, trees will need to prune some rebel or dying branches. But you will only have to do it once a year or even less frequently. Trees make the street more elegant. They offer wildlife habitat. They improve air quality in urban streets.
conclusion
They can help protect your wind from the wind, cold or heat, depending on the trees you choose and how to place them. There are some garden trees with good autumnal color in this publication. The only truly successful plants that we have added to our front garden are two Malus hupehensis (crab apple) on each side of the main door. A friend planted them from a nugget in 2010 and gave them to me in small pots. They really have a presence, and I have seen Instagram posts by framing the main door. They have a spring flower, autumnal color and tiny red fruits. Each winter I remove one or two branches if they do not grow in the right direction.
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