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SEE OUR TIME-SAVING AND LOW-MAINTENANCE GARDENING IDEAS TO SAVE YOURSELF TIME AND EFFORT IN THE GARDEN. SO YOU CAN SIT BACK AND ENJOY IT!

low maintenence gardening ideas

 

 

Save yourself time and effort in the garden with our low-maintenance gardening ideas!

 

As much as we love our gardens, we don’t all have as much spare time as we’d like to look after them!

So we’ve put together some top tips and ideas. To help you save time and hard work, and keep some parts of your garden low-maintenance.

Then you can sit back and relax in your garden instead!

 

🌲 Bark chippings are great to use in beds and borders, pathways and for topping containers.

They help with weed suppression, water retention and ground cover.

They’re also a brilliant solution if you have a steeper slope in your garden that is difficult to mow or look after.

Our Play Grade Bark and Play Grade Chip are also perfect for children’s play areas. So you don’t have to have the heartache of watching your lawn getting ruined OR repairing or replacing it!

bark chippings flower beds and borders
Bark chippings

 

💎 Decorative aggregates are ideal for all sorts of garden projects.

Use them on pathways, driveways, and beds and borders. Also for topping pots and containers, ornamental areas, fish ponds, or around rockeries.

They add colour, texture and interest all around the garden, as well as being very durable!

But they’re not just for show – they also provide weed suppression and water retention.

decorative aggregates garden
Decorative aggregates

 

🌷 Planting annuals each year can be time-consuming.

Include more low-maintenance plants such as perennials, ornamental grasses, ferns, hostas and evergreens. These don’t need regular deadheading or pruning and pretty much look after themselves.

TOP TIP:  Ferns and hostas are also great choices for shaded areas.

Low-maintenance planting

 

🧱 Edging borders and lawns is a really useful way to stop your lawn from spreading into borders or onto paths.

You don’t have to use plastic edging though – you could use bricks, stone, wood, or steel to add extra interest.

Border edging

 

💐 Create your very own wildflower meadow!

Well, ok, you may not have enough room for an actual meadow! But you could sow wildflower seeds in a corner or the edge of your garden, or just allow it to grow wild and do its own thing!

Wildflowers look amazing, add loads of colour, and are brilliant for pollinators such as bees and butterflies.

wildflowers in garden
Wildflowers

 

⛏️ Stop digging!

The ‘no-digging’ method means adding a layer of mulch to your flower beds. You can use a variety of mulches such as compost or well-rotted manure in spring and/or autumn.

Not digging means you’re not disturbing the worms etc. that help to keep soil and plants healthy.

This method of gardening improves soil drainage and stops many weeds. AND your borders won’t need watering as much.

What’s not to like about that?!

mulch borders in spring and autumn. No dig gardening
No-dig gardening

 

 

We hope this helps! If you’ve got any time-saving or low-maintenance gardening tips, do let us know!

Happy Gardening!

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HOW TO REDUCE WEEDS IN YOUR FLOWER BEDS. MAKE THE MOST OF MULCH AND SEE HOW IT CAN HELP!

HOW TO REDUCE WEEDS IN YOUR FLOWER BEDS. MAKE THE MOST OF MULCH AND SEE HOW IT CAN HELP!

How to reduce weeds in your flower beds – make the most of mulch and see how it can help!

When you’ve spent time and made the effort to create attractive beds and borders, the last thing you want is for them to end up overrun with weeds!

That’s plain annoying!

So what can you do? Make the most of mulch and see how it can help!

Adding a thick layer of mulch is a brilliant way to suppress weeds in beds and borders.

It stops the daylight from reaching the ground to allow the weeds to grow.

It might sound odd, but while mulch will suppress weeds, it will actually help your other plants to grow!

It does this by acting as a thermal layer in hot and cold weather and protecting the plant roots.

You can make your own mulch from your compost heap if you have one, or you can buy specially-produced bark chips.

When should you lay mulch?

The best time to lay mulch is when the ground is moist.

If your beds and borders are already established, add the mulch in late Winter or early Spring before the weeds start to grow.

If they’ve already started growing it will be harder to stop them!

Is there anything else you can do?

If you’re planting up a new border it’s a good idea to lay a permeable weed membrane before you add the mulch.

Lay the membrane, cut holes for your plants and pop them in and then spread the mulch on top of the membrane.

 

You will, unfortunately, still need to weed every now and then. But it won’t be anywhere near as often as if you don’t use a mulch layer!

Take a look at our selection of Bark Chippings and Fine Border Bark here:

https://www.oakleyturf.com/product-category/bark/

 

Happy Gardening!