This is how I maintain a 6-acre garden with over 3,000 different plants, all by myself. My hacks will make gardening fun again. In this video, I am sharing my top 10 easy low maintenance gardening hacks to help you achieve a beautiful outdoor space without the hassle. From clever watering tips to space-saving tricks, we’ve got you covered. Whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned gardener, these simple yet effective hacks will transform your gardening experience. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started and turn your outdoor space into a stunning oasis!
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The holy grail of gardening is a beautiful garden that requires no maintenance. I can see a lot of books and blog posts with titles that include the word no maintenance gardening. Well, as real gardeners, we know that that’s bologoney, but there are things you can do in your garden to reduce the maintenance level, and you can have a dramatic effect on the amount of time you need to take care of your garden if you do things correctly. In this program, I’m going to show you 10 things that I think every gardener should do. And if you follow my advice, you’ll spend more time having a glass of wine or a beer rather than weeding. Now, I talk from experience. I have a 6 acre garden and there’s over an acre of flower beds around the house. Up until 2 years ago, I did all the work in the garden, including all the maintenance, all the pruning, the cleaning up, the mowing lawn. I did it all. and I installed new gardens at the same time. And it wasn’t a full-time job. When I have an open house, people come and they ask me, “Well, how many gardeners do you have taking care of this place?” I mean, we have over 3,000 different kinds of plants growing in our garden and several ponds and a waterfall. And I tell them, I do it all myself, and it’s not a full-time job. One of the main reasons is that I focus on doing things in such a way that I don’t have to spend a lot of time taking care of each plant. Here’s my suggestions for you. Hack number one, grow perennials. Perennials are plants that come back year after year all on their own. I use the wider definition here and include things such as bulbs, grasses, shrubs, and trees. Stay away from annuals or short-lived perennials. Use only plants that remain in your garden for at least 10 years. Pay attention to the hardiness zone of the plants you select and only pick ones for your zone. To be on the safe side, pick them for a zone colder and that will keep you away from marginally hearty plants. When I go out into the garden each spring, I know that there will be almost no dead plants that need replacing. All of my plants are perennials that reliably come back. Good thing too, since I have over an acre of flower beds, selecting the right perennial is also important. Many require too much work to keep them growing well and looking good. Hack number two, mulch, mulch, and more mulch. Mulch is the most important thing you can do for your garden. It slowly fertilizes the soil as it decomposes, and it reduces weeding and watering. Mulch also keeps the soil cool, which plant roots really like. I use wood chips in my ornamental garden, and I hardly ever need to weed. I never water established plants except in the shade garden that became too sunny when I lost a couple of large trees. To illustrate the importance of mulch, I made two new gardens within a couple of feet of each other. One was mulched and planted with dilly seedlings. The other was unmulched. A month later, the unmulched bed was covered with weeds. The mulched bed had only a couple of weeds and healthy dilly seedlings. Hack number three, eliminate staking. If you read some of the old perennial books, you will see great discussions about staking plants. That is all good advice, but why bother? reduce the time needed to take care of the plants and get rid of any plants that need to be staked. Many of the taller perennials need to be staked because of their height and large flower size. Today, you can find miniature versions of your favorite tall plants that do not need to be staked. For example, short delphiniums can be used instead of the traditional tall ones. Many peianies flop without staking, but some newer varieties like bowl of beauty don’t need to be staked. I have to be honest here. I love tall delinium so much that I do have a clump of them and I do need to stake them, but they are one of the few plants that I stake. Hack number four, dead head less. Deadheading is the term used to describe the removal of spent flowerheads. In some cases, these are removed to make the plant look better, and in other cases, they prevent the formation of unwanted seeds. Some newer cultivars are sterile and don’t produce seed. A side benefit of these is that they bloom much longer because the plant does not know it’s sterile and keeps making flowers in the hope that seeds will develop. Some perennials make very short flower stocks and small seed heads, so there is no point in removing them since you can barely see them. Geranium sanguinium, one of my favorite perennials, blooms all summer long and you never see the spent flowers. It also grows thick enough so that you never have to weed under it. If you do have a perennial that needs to be deadheaded and you just can’t bear to part with it, forget those tiny scissors. Bring out the hedge trimmers and do the job in seconds. Hack number five, eliminate dividing. Some perennials only do well if they are divided every couple of years. German bearded iris is a good example of this. Other perennials like peies can be in the same spot for a hundred years. Select plants that do not need regular dividing. The other reason for dividing plants is to reduce their size in the garden. Since many gardens are on the small side, you don’t want the clumps getting too big. Select plants that spread slowly, so you have to divide them less often. Hack number six, ditch the weedy plants. Manarda, commonly called be balm, is a great plant with lovely colors, and it even attracts butterflies and hummingbirds. The problem is that this plant is very weedy and spreads fast. To keep it contained in a small area requires annual reduction of the clump that is just too much work, and I have removed all of it from the garden. Stay away from weedy plants. They are just too much work. Hack number seven, control pests by eliminating plants. I’m not talking about getting rid of all of your plants, but certain ones are pest magnets. I love liies, but in my neck of the woods, the lily beetle comes every year and decimates them. Some people spend their whole summer collecting and killing these beetles and their grubs just so they can keep their liies. My approach was different. I left the liies and beetles alone, figuring that when the liies were all dead, I would replace them with something the lily beetle would not eat, like daylies, which by the way are not liies. As it turns out, I have not had the lily beetle here for the last 3 years. And the liies are starting to return, at least the ones that were still alive. If a plant gets the same pest every year, consider replacing the plant. Don’t fight mother nature. Hack number eight, stop fall cleanup. If you clean up your garden in the fall, almost every plant needs to be cut back to ground level. That is a lot of work. If instead you do the cleanup in spring, you gain a number of benefits. Firstly, it is better for the beneficial insects and birds who find shelter and food in your messy fall garden. Secondly, it is a lot less work. By spring, most perennials are lying on the ground, and you don’t need to cut them back. Any leaves or stems that are lying on the ground in spring can be left there to compost right in the garden. Hack number nine, don’t be so neat. We have these images in our heads of perfectly manicured gardens, and some public gardens are like that, but remember, they have full-time staff taking care of the gardens. Most of us don’t have that luxury. The natural look is in, so embrace it. There is nothing wrong with a few leaves or stems lying on the ground. The oddweed is okay, too, except that plants will grow better without weeds. Real thick layers of leaves in spring should be partially removed, so plants can easily grow through them, but thin layers can just be left where the leaves fall. Hack number 10, change your attitude about pests. New gardeners keep a very close eye on their leaves. As soon as they see a small nick or bite, they get online and ask what they can spray. Many times they have not even seen the pest, but something needs to be done about this serious problem. Learn to chill. Take a walk in the woods and have a close look at the leaves. By midsummer, they all have nicks and chew marks on them. It is part of nature. When was the last time a pest killed a plant? One of the best things you can do about pests in your garden is to let nature help you. There are lots of predators out there that come and eat the pests on your plant. If you keep getting rid of your pests, the predators don’t have anything to eat. If they don’t have anything to eat, they don’t come to your garden. You have to leave some of the pests for the predator. Once you have predators in your garden, they do all the work for you. And that’s my philosophy. I let nature take care of things. Stop trying to kill every pest. It’s very rare that a pest destroys a plant. They just want a little nibble here and there, and you have to share with nature. If you want to know about some more design secrets, have a look at this video right here. And if you want to hear me talk about some of the mistakes I’ve made in the garden, have a look here. Happy gardening.
42 Comments
I also maintain over 3,000 different plants in my garden and almost all of them are weeds!
Picking nits, not weeds, using only hi-res images to match the information would be appreciated.
I overdid it this spring put together a cosco greenhouse and built raised beds my plants i started early got neglected
Some very useful tips there. Thank you.
On the subject of mulching, some people say that wood chip adds too much nitrogen to the soil. Is that true?
Love the expertise.
I grow a lot of plants that attract predatory insects yarrow, bee balm, cilantro, milkweed and calendula. Once these plants became established in my garden I have had very little insect pest pressure. Gotta love perennial flowers and flowers that reseed themselves.
Started leaving my fall garden pretty much as is until spring a couple years ago. May not look neat and orderly, the snow eventually covers everything anyhow, lol.
Stay Well !!!
Nice
All monardas are not the same in terms of spreading!
Don’t forget cover crops, both summer and winter. They will temporarily fill an area until you can get to it later.
More time smoking what you grew, not boring old wine or beer. Boomer. LOL
Make sure the bugs are out before you do spring cleanup! Pollinators may still be sleeping in the stems.
I have always done “fall cleanup” in spring. I used to think it was because I was feeling lazy by that time of year.
Lately, I find it’s beneficial 😂
“Learn to chill” and “Don’t be so tidy” also come naturally to some of us!
While I agree with a lot of your insights I don’t think wood mulch would s the way to go. It requires replacing and is costly. Use living mulches like densely planted carex, lippia, shrubs etc to eliminate weeds. I also would put in more shrubs , trees, and again ground covers. Daylilies are way too much work with constant disbudding , cleaning up dead leaves, etc. lilies bloom a short time . If you’ve got deer 🦌 then this eliminates a lot of plants as well. Water shortages and fire requirements are strict in California .
I had no idea I would enjoy being in the garden SO much! ❤
Thank you! Save time by working with Nature!
I’m getting older and don’t have as much energy to keep my garden maintained. I have been letting plants that require too much care die out and replace with ones that don’t need care. I have to do fall cleanup otherwise the leaves would be up to my waist and in the Spring ticks hide in the wet leaves and to clean them up then wouldn’t be wise. Every gardener knows what must be done to make their garden work well for them.
love this. Great advice! thanks
Having different varieties help with pests, it’s less of a buffet for pest when it’s not a monoculture 🤗
I'm so grateful you have a channel here… I started gardening with all of the latest trends… Compost tea, swamp water, JADAM which are great ideas if you have the time and energy to do everything. Lately I'm trying to lower my maintenance. Great ideas on this channel
I try to live and let live in the gardens. Usually one creature takes care of the others. The deer though, drive me a little bit crazy.
You have to share with nature and nature will share with you!
🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🏆
I also find native plants (for the most part) to be easier to keep in my garden. I enjoy a mix of native (most) and non-native (that aren’t too much work).
These are such great tips, and suggestions for attitude adjustment, if you will. One thing I will never be without: tall plants. I adore lilies, white Culver's Root, hollyhocks, thalictrum, plume poppy. Staking can be a pain, but to me, it is a chore that is so worth it. BUT.. let me note that my CT suburban property is just 50 ' x 150'!.
So, when leaves are covered in the white squiggly lines, I am supposed to just leave them alone and they won’t kill my plants—I have tried removing them and using Neem, but seems to be useless and my plants are definitely dying.
Good advice. Thanks! I'm a huge fan of native perennials. They are tough and well habituated to our climate. My garden this spring and summer was a treat, with Mother Nature doing 90% of the work.
Mulching is the hard work as moving it around to cover acres much
It's wild watching something like this as someone who grows like 90% native plants. The vast majority of this just doesn't apply. Great advice about chilling with the pest though. : D
Very nice video.. I learned a lot from it… Thank you so much 💐🙏💐👍💓
Sadly, the price of plants has tripled if not, quad tripled certainly in the state I live so that makes it very impossible for most of us to make our yard as beautiful as yours
11. Chelsea chop, and for some plants ( esp.asters) 2-3 chelsea chops— and staking is not necessary…. and
12. chop and drop.
I love Wild Bergamot. At this time of year it’s blooming beautifully and pollinators flock to it. I’m not a neat-and-tidy gardener and can tolerate this “weedy” gem. I placed a trellis on the south side of our mass of Bergamot to allow Cardinal Climber to climb. It gave the Bergamot a great support and the Cardinal Climber gives interest in that spot after the Bergamot is finished blooming.
Low maintenance , good idea
This year I have a major rally Polly problem and they are killing my plants. What plants are rolly Polly proof!
Sadly, I can't even find the old fashioned tall delphiniums anymore.
Excellent advice. Thank you.
WAS THAT GARDEN VIEW WITH THE 🤔Cement Orbs & Ocean? Or Lake view in distance & All those colors-
YOUR!!!??? GARDEN?!
Because that was a whole lot of WOW!!‼️as well as that row of Blue Hydranga ( even if that wasn’t yours
Pedo 666 symbol in the thumbnail
Yes!
Living in Australia, we are blessed with some of the best garden predators in large numbers: spiders, many of them, many types of them. Every morning our whole garden shines and sparkles in the sunlight because of all of the silk they leave behind when jumping between branches, fences, posts, awnings and everything you can imagine. Getting caught in random spider silk and wiping it off our faces is our way of life. There are big ones with architectural webs (my favorite is the leaf-curling spider) and there are small tank-like spiders who roam around and leave silk without a permanent home. And of course, there is an occasional "huntsman" appearing inside the house (which we sadly have to kill, usually by sucking it into vacuum cleaner).
It’s been a while since I visited your channel for factual information on gardening, I’m so happy I found you! This is I wrote your name down🤦🏽♀️ Thank you for sharing zone 6 Michigan
I love your philosophy about pests."Learn to share with nature".