We all want to save time, energy and water in the garden. Who wants a high-maintenance landscape that takes up all our resources? If you grow edibles, you already know they take a bit of care, so it’s even more important to have the rest of the yard be more sustainable.
As much as we would like it, there’s no such thing as a no-maintenance garden. Even perennials and grasses, for instance, need a haircut in the spring before they reward us with beautiful flowers and foliage that shimmers in the breeze.
Your garden can be truly low-maintenance, however, if you follow a few guidelines.
Shrubs, planted in exactly the right place, need little pruning or maintenance. There they can be allowed to happily grow to their full potential and beauty.
A garden needs foliage color, texture and form for interest year-round. An evergreen shrub that meets all of these requirements, and then some, is coprosma. Valued for ease of maintenance in difficult situations and able to get by on little water when necessary, its foliage is a show stopper.
During the growing season, the variegated foliage of Evening Glow is pink and gold, and in the winter it turns orange-red. The variety Rainbow Surprise is pink and cream for most of the year, but the leaves are washed with red in the fall and winter. These tidy shrubs stay low and compact and look beautiful as foundation plants or in borders, short hedges and containers.
Coprosma is not bothered by pests or diseases, so you can plant it and forget it.
If you already have a tree, shrub or perennial suffering from insufficient space or the wrong light conditions, now’s the time to move it.
Water the plant first, and allow the moisture to be taken up into the plant. Then prepare the new hole. Be sure to fill the hole with water if the soil is dry.
Dig up as much of the root ball as is practical to move, keeping it intact. Lift or lever the plant onto a tarp and pull or carry it to its new location. Replant it at the same depth and keep it watered, but not soggy. Next year, you won’t be troubled by extra pruning or diseases, as you’ll have the right plant in the right spot.
Another easy task to do while you’re out enjoying the garden is to comb out the off-color blades of evergreen grasses, such as blue oat or blue fescue. Striking in the winter garden, these grasses will look fresh if you don some of those rubber-coated gloves and run your fingers through the grass. The brown blades will come right out, while leaving the healthy, steel-blue leaves intact.
Try it. It’s worth a few minutes of your time.
• Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at
ja******@ao*.com
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