Gardening Smarter, Not Harder

Our gardening guru Conrad McCormick shares his top tips on how to make your garden work for you.

We’re bombarded with promises of low-maintenance gardens. Television makeover programmes transform entire spaces in a matter of days, then proudly announce that the owners can now simply sit back, relax, and enjoy their new outdoor room with very little effort. I hate to break it to you, but that’s not entirely true. Gardens are living, breathing spaces. Plants grow, weeds appear, and, now and then, a favourite specimen simply decides its time is up after succumbing to a particularly harsh winter, disease or old age. The no-maintenance garden is entirely a myth. However, a lower-maintenance garden is entirely achievable, just not in the way many people imagine. I think many of us have been sold the wrong idea of what low-maintenance gardening actually means. It often translates as vast expanses of gravel, a handful of clipped shrubs and perhaps a lonely ornamental grass standing in a sea of decorative stones. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that look if it’s your thing, but I don’t believe it is the only answer. The biggest myth that I want to challenge is that lower maintenance and interesting are somehow opposites. That if we want a garden full of personality, colour and excitement, we must resign ourselves to endless hours of work every weekend. Equally, if we want an easier life, we have to settle for something minimalist and, well, a little bit boring. I don’t believe that’s true. It isn’t about eliminating work. It’s about making clever decisions from the outset so that the jobs left to do are enjoyable rather than exhausting.

Read more in the August issue…