Low Maintenance Planting

There are several rather simple techniques that, while they may not completely eliminate weeding or other gardening needs, can certainly minimize maintenance. New plantings will most likely require an initial investment of mulching, watering, and weeding for the first year or two until they are fully established. 

Right Plant, Right Place

Apart from that, the most effective way to reduce the need for maintenance in the long term is to match your site conditions with plants that are well suited for those conditions. This will reduce, or even eliminate the need for watering once established. Allowing the plants to spread out and fill in garden beds will eliminate the need for mulching and greatly reduce the need for weeding in the long term. Sometimes it is actually best to establish a plant that is not ideal for a space where it will grow too fast. There are some plants that can become a bit too well suited for certain spaces where they will tend to dominate and crowd out other plants

Massed Planting

First, simply install any perennial flowers selected in single-species mass plantings of 5 or more plants, and install them close together to encourage them to physically grow together. This creates a tidy appearance in your landscape while increasing the foraging efficiency for native pollinators when the plant is in bloom. As these plants mature, they will crowd out unwanted plants as they fill the root zone and their foliage leaves little bare soil. Identifying unwanted plants is easier when you take this approach. 

Massed plantings of each species are also a very good strategy to help ensure you are providing a sufficient quantity of pollen, nectar, fruit, or leaf material for your visiting birds, bees, or other wildlife. As important as diversity is when landscaping with natives, we’re sure you do not want your wild critters to run out of food when foraging in your yard. Consider a single Monarch butterfly caterpillar on a single milkweed plant. If the plant is small and there are no others of the same species nearby, the caterpillar could literally run out of food. So, it is wise to consider quantity whenever you add a new plant species to your landscape.

Mulch

Bare soil is important for native ground-nesting bees, but it also creates an opening for weeds. We recommend maintaining a light layer of leaf mulch or compost over any bare soil, at least until the desired native plantings fill in enough to suppress the growth of weeds on their own. 

Groundcover Plants

You can eventually eliminate the need for mulch by establishing low-growing, dense native plants in between the masses of taller perennials and shrubs. These often green up early, bloom in spring, and spread horizontally with dense foliage that makes an effective weed barrier while delivering additional habitat.